Fishing minigames are a common inclusion in many games nowadays, but games with fishing as their main mechanic aren’t seen that often. Unless we’re talking about one of those dad fishing sims, which… no thank you. On its own, it’s just not that interesting of an activity. So what do you do to make it more compelling? You throw in elements of Lovecraftian horror, of course. At least that’s what you do when you’re developer Black Salt Games, the team behind DREDGE, the new fishing adventure game with a sinister undercurrent, published by Team17.
So let’s get the obvious out of the way. DREDGE is not a horror game. But it does undeniably have horror influences, particularly of the Lovecraftian kind. In fact, the narrative may as well be an H.P. Lovecraft short story. A lonely fisherman, who seems to be running from a dark past, moves to a small island in the middle of nowhere, and spends most of his time out on the sea, isolating himself from everyone around him. He then comes across a mysterious artifact and sets in motion a chain of events that may or may not awaken an ancient evil.
Additionally, there’s an underlying sense of madness that casts its shadow over every interaction you might have with your environment and the characters inside of it. Each and every one of them is a broken soul with barely, if any, attachments left to the real world, looking for something to keep them going. With some, you’ll get the chance to help them take that first step towards better times, while with others you’ll only push them closer to the mania that’s awaiting them.
And while, as previously mentioned, I wouldn’t call DREDGE a horror game, it isn’t lacking in tense moments. In fact, while playing DREDGE, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Subnautica (2018). What at first may seem like a relaxing experience exploring the open ocean ahead of you, quickly turns into a stressful fight for survival. As you come to realize that the endless water hides all kinds of monsters beneath it, every exploration outside of the safe haven that is your little island becomes a calculated risk.
This isn’t to say that DREDGE is all doom and gloom though. It’s a fishing game after all, and as such it has the chill vibes you’d expect as well. DREDGE works on a day and night cycle, and every morning when the sun comes up over the ocean it’s impossible to not be filled with an adventurous spirit to go out there and explore the sea. Just make sure to avoid the giant beasts that lurk beneath and you will have a great time. Oh, and definitely avoid staying out too long after it gets dark. You will regret it.
The actual fishing mechanics are rather simple, they’re essentially a series of honestly very easy rhythm games. What becomes a bigger challenge is dealing with the limited space you have to store all the fish you caught. If you’re a fan of the Resident Evil puzzle that calls itself an inventory system, then you’ll love this part of DREDGE. You shouldn’t underestimate how quickly all the space is used up and you have to head back to town to sell your catch for the day. In turn, you will be able to upgrade your ship in a variety of ways, one of which is, of course, increasing the available slots in your inventory.
Honestly, what you’ll be spending a majority of your time on is getting from one point to the other. What the campaign in DREDGE comes down to is not that different from a series of fetch quests that get slightly more convoluted as the game progresses. This could easily be very annoying, and I will admit sometimes it absolutely is, but there’s enough to look at to make the journey pleasant enough.
The art direction is DREDGE is pretty great. The vistas you encounter as you traverse the ocean are stunning, and there’s a decent amount of diversity between the different biomes, which prevents the environment from getting stale. The artwork for the characters is also beautifully rendered and I was enamored every time I got to see them.
DREDGE is a simple game. Some games would try to do much more, and fail. DREDGE understands that what it’s doing is enough to create a fulfilling experience, and most importantly, it doesn’t drag it out to make the game any longer than it needs to be.
Nairon played DREDGE on PC with a review key. DREDGE is also available on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X.
