DREDGE is a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten.
~ Dredge description on Steam
Stepping on the boat
After a mysterious start, all you know is that you’re a fisherman. Or are you?
In Dredge, you control the little boat that you go fishing with. As you unravel the mysteries of the depths you must catch some fish to sell in order to upgrade your vessel.
The gameplay is something fresh and gets you hooked very quickly. It’s simple yet you keep unlocking new fishing mechanics and types of fish as you adventure further out from the center of the map. You’ll find some interesting characters that will give you quests as well as some clues as to what happened.
As for the story, it has a great pace and was very enjoyable. All the clues gathered, from interactions with NPCs to the bottled messages floating in the sea, hint at some answers but either of the two endings still leaves a lot on the table.
Dredging the Depths
Dredge features a lot of interesting mechanics when it comes to fishing. You have 8 types of fish that be caught either with a rod, by trawling, or with crab pots. Most fishes have some aberrations that you have a smaller chance of finding.
Dredging for relics and upgrade components is also a big part of your progression. You sell the relics for some good money, and you’ll use these components to upgrade your boat in order to install more/better fishing equipment, motors, and lights. And in order to get better equipment you have to research it, using Research Parts, items that you find dredging, and as rewards.
You unlock some abilities as well that will be very useful, such as a Spyglass that lets you see what fish type you’re looking at from afar, as well as the Haste ability that briefly accelerates your boat.
Overall the progression is very fun and entertaining, you’re always getting something new. This makes you want to keep playing, at least that’s what happened to me…
Exploring the Islands
While the game lets you sail as you please, it clearly has a progression built in, there are 5 areas. You start in the center, and then you move around the map exploring the remaining four, one on each corner. Each area has its own theme, mechanics, and set of characters with their own stories.
The main story guides you through these islands and the Xs on the map make it very easy to find your objectives. There are some smaller islands that I recommend you explore to find the side quests and gather more hints as to the plot of the game.
Beware of the fog! As nighttime comes you start to panic, either embrace the dangers that lurk in the waters, and in your head, or hurtle through the waves in the direction of bright lights. While you’ll enjoy sailing during the day, some fish only show themselves when the sun sets, and you’ll have to take some risks.
Would like to see even more small islands and shipwrecks to explore, as well as treasure hunts.
Visuals and Sound
Dredge has a very interesting design, especially the fish aberrations. Really enjoyed how weird they were. The graphics fit the atmosphere of the game perfectly.
In terms of UI/UX, it was also really good, things were intuitive and looked great. However, the ability menu (E on PC) was driving me crazy, radial menus MUST place the cursor in the middle of the screen when they open.
The nice music and the motor sounds were kinda relaxing, but as nighttime comes, the silence is deafening. The sound effects tied everything together, from hitting the right timing while fishing to the nasty sound of grabbing the fish. Yuck.
A great journey
My playthrough was really enjoyable and would love to see a little bit more content. There was definitely room for some! For 25$ it feels a bit short, but pricing is always subjective…
I usually find lots of little bugs with games, but Dredge was the first game in a long time where I didn’t find any, not even small ones. I have to congratulate Black Salt Games on the quality of the game!
In the end, Dredge is a solid recommendation. Unique and addicting gameplay, awesome visuals, and sound design with a very interesting story.
Definitely a 9/10!
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