Dredge review

Go fish

The simple life of a fisherman is not for everyone, but you wouldn't trade it for the world. You set out at the crack of dawn, set out crab pots by the first hints of sunlight, and go about your day reeling in catch after catch. In between the bouts of rigorous manual labor, there is a calm stillness as the ocean breeze caresses your body and restores your soul.

In your reverie, you forgot to keep track of the time. Now the sun is swiftly setting, and you're miles from home in a boat that could be outrun by a child. Ominous fog begins to roll in, and the presence that haunts these waters sets its sights on you. There are things that can and have broken fragile human psyches just below the surface, and the isles surrounding The Marrows only have ghost stories and relics of the past to prove their existence.

This cycle of peace and fear is the very core of Dredge. Developed by the brand-new indie game studio Black Salt Games and published by Team17, Dredge is being marketed as a fishing game with… let's say an edge. But is that enough to warrant a visit to the terrifying tide it contains? Let's find out in this review.

A Second Chance

As a fisherman who has lost everything after a shipwreck, you've been shown kindness by the mayor of Greater Marrow and provided with a boat and some starter equipment to begin your career in the surrounding isles. All the mayor asks is a small percentage of your income to pay off the loaned boat and improve his town, which in turn opens up more facilities for you to use.

At first, it's a pretty sweet gig. You motor out into open waters and catch fish using a variety of engaging mini-games or equipment like crab pots and nets. Then you store your catch in a limited inventory space that has to be manually organized like Resident Evil 4's attaché case. This process can be slightly tedious at first since your already limited inventory space has areas occupied by crucial equipment for your boat such as the engines, lights, and reels, but this issue is alleviated over time as you gain access to upgrades.

Speaking of upgrades, Dredge has two different methods for this depending on what you're aiming to improve. If you want to focus on increasing your inventory size and the functionality of your boat, you're going to need to keep selling fish until the town improves and unlocks access to the Dry Dock. This is where the Shipwright you purchase equipment from can upgrade your ship as long as you bring in crafting materials like wood, cloth, and metal scraps.

To unlock upgraded equipment for purchase, you need to find research parts in your travels. These can be spent on research for new and improved engines, fishing equipment, nets, and more. Research parts are pretty rare, so choosing how to spend them is always difficult. Once a part has been fully researched, it can then be purchased and installed by the shipwright at Greater Marrow.

Having two separate upgrade systems sounds like it would be a pain on paper, but like every other system in Dredge, they are masterfully balanced, and the pace at which you can improve your vessel and equipment is pretty brisk as long as you're working towards making progress and not just going out to fish every day. Which you definitely could, because the act of fishing in this game is fun and relaxing enough to qualify as a cozy game.

But things don't stay cozy for very long. Time only passes when your ship is moving or when you're fishing, but it does so at an accelerated rate. What feels like just a few real-world minutes is enough for an entire day to pass by in-game, and you want to be safely docked by the time the sun goes down.

The ominous fog that caused the shipwreck at the beginning of the game sets in and your only hope of seeing through it is based on whatever light source you happen to have equipped. A terrifyingly weak candle is all you have at the beginning, but bigger and brighter light sources can be equipped before long.

Being out on the water and surrounded by that fog causes the protagonist to slowly lose their grip on reality and slip into madness, as is denoted by the animated eye at the top of the game screen at night time. The longer you spend in the dark and the more dangerous areas you attempt to traverse by moonlight, the more frantic and red this eye becomes.

I never saw a "Game Over" screen as a result of being overloaded by madness, but that state does make things considerably more difficult for you. Possessed birds will circle your boat and steal your catch by day, and I also had a Kraken tentacle rise up out of the water and smack my boat at night.

Artful Simplicity

Aside from that, there is an assortment of Lovecraftian monsters that can assault you and damage your boat. The first time I got caught out far away from a dock at night and chased by a massive angler fish was enough for me, though you will need to venture out at night to complete several quests throughout the game. Once you've faced the horrors of Dredge a few times they kind of lose their impact, but the game does such a good job of creating an atmosphere of dread that most will probably avoid seeing them in the first place.

I think the game's art style and presentation play a big part in that foreboding atmosphere. Dredge is made in Unity and its graphics seem simple at first. It's a 3D game with flat but colorful textures, but that doesn't really tell the whole story. Rain patters on the water's surface as strong winds whip up undulating waves, the rising sun's reflection is visible on still morning water, and the powerful beam from Greater Marrow's lighthouse cuts through the fog and the darkness no matter where you find yourself after night falls. The game is flat-out beautiful in action and runs exceedingly well in my experience with it on PS5.

Greater Marrow is only the start of the Dredge experience. Over 30+ hours of gameplay, you'll venture from island to island and meet all kinds of characters, take on dangerous side quests, and interact with relics and objects that contain pieces of the evil that lurks in the depths. Dredge could have skated by with its fantastic gameplay and thoughtfully intertwined systems, but it also has a killer story with excellent writing for just about every one of those interactions. If you're a fan of Lovecraftian horror, you'll find a lot to love in Dredge.