I never knew I needed a cosmic horror-filled fishing game in my life, at least not until I played Dredge. It’s not a full management simulation ala ala fishing planet, but this 12-hour exploration of haunted waters is mysterious and fascinating enough to tickle my brain and tug on all the right heartstrings. I, like one of its many creepy characters, felt obsessed with jumping overboard with an unhinged grin on my lips. … figuratively speaking. It’s hard to start small and slow, but by upgrading your fishing boat, the dredge will increase my fishing speed, inventory capacity, and ability to monitor and avoid the many hazards that might lift their ugly heads. It brought meaningful improvements one after another… night.
Managing this fishing boat is no plank walk. The five unique zones fit snugly into a relatively compact open world, hiding enough secrets, quests, and unique types of cartilaginous fish to fill its time period without overly maintaining its welcome. can.
All I know is that I am a contract fisherman rescued by the townspeople of a remote island settlement called Greater Mallow. I was given a new boat and that’s it. But thanks to the Dredge’s simple fishing and movement mechanics, it’s pretty much everything you need to know before embarking on your quest to find fish in the open sea. From there, you can witness a gorgeous sunrise over the horizon. It’s a treat to leave Greater Marrow’s Bay for the first time and drink among the sights and sounds.
It’s easy to pick up, both because the fascinating low-poly art style is central to the story, and because you don’t need to understand much to enjoy it. No combat to speak of. Sailing, catching fish, solving the occasional puzzle, and trying to get home safely. In fact, most of Dredge’s story revolves around a simple fishing mini-game where he simply presses square buttons on his DualSense controller in a certain rhythm following the instructions on the screen. It’s forgiving in that no matter how many times you mess up the prompt, you won’t lose any fish, just in-game time.I asked a friend to play my controller via his SharePlay feature on his PS5 and had fun seeing how quickly they could pick up the mechanics.
Controlling your boat in tight spaces or navigating rough waters is a breeze as it’s as easy as moving forward and backward (and braking) by simply moving the left thumbstick back and forth. Although it’s a fun added touch that progressing through each step of the main quest unlocks additional movement abilities, such as the Haste skill, which grants a speed boost that’s especially useful when trying to stay out of the way of hungry sea monsters. , which entails the risk of destruction damage to the engine and hull if not given intermittent rest.
Dredge’s story is deliberately enigmatic at first glance, with the bow providing minimal context for the chain of events unfolding before your eyes. However, what begins as a relaxing fishing trip quickly takes a darker turn through menacing encounters with the natural and supernatural inhabitants of the sea, which become hostile after dark. The hidden undercurrents of the broader story are artfully spliced together in bottled notebooks found in the waves. By deftly splitting up the fishing mini-game on these elements, Dredge gradually revealed its hidden intentions and caught on to my brain as a series of parasites slipped onto the deck of my boat. This is what actually happens in some cases.
As the fog rolls in at night, things heat up and the Panic Meter starts to build up in the dark. The higher it is, the more likely it is that monsters and other obstacles will appear, so you’ll have to balance it with turning on the light to temporarily reduce panic. It’s a little more difficult to manage than a simple fishing game, because otherwise you’ll quickly destroy your boat’s hull. It brings balance and danger to every expedition.
Even more difficult, the world changes at night. This meant that sometimes we would run headlong into rocks that never existed during the day. For this reason, it’s never a good idea to make a beeline to the nearest port of call when panic sets in. With bigger, brighter lights. This interplay between systems gives Dredge a layer of strategy that keeps things interesting even when he hasn’t made any substantial progress in his main quest.
The Greater Marrow Lighthouse remains a central landmark wherever you are on the map, but even if you get lost at sea, you’ll still need to get there safely of your own accord. There is only one , which makes it even more dangerous if you are drifting after dark. Time only moves when I’m moving my ship or playing a fishing mini-game, so the constant creeping fear of being stalked by a rogue sunset keeps my watchful eye on the clock above my head at all times. is poured into
Thanks to that, I found myself carefully building ships and keeping the currency flowing, while solving puzzles and collecting hidden relics along the Dredge flow. By the fact that each contains interesting writing that fleshes out the lore of the world, or is somehow tied to a wider story, most of them aim to be bite-sized, though. They become more valuable, and the cast of characters is interesting and likable until the very end.
Similarly, to roughly flesh out the encyclopedia with up to 128 fish, you’ll need to complete a quest, but it’s nice that you didn’t have to catch them all if you didn’t want to. However, if you want to, you’ll need to smash them. Appears only in This made it important to maximize the use of the ship’s hull to make it durable for long treks to other zones. This inevitably meant traveling at night.
Hull upgrades are primarily focused on cleaning coastal wrecks. This is more tedious than it needs to be, considering how scarce resources are and how difficult it is to find certain key items such as wooden planks early on. It’s the main upgrade path I’ve spent most of my time working on in terms of improving the . Unfortunately, the upgrade path is linear. many It is involved in maximizing that of grinding. Plus if you play to the end and make the most of everything their boat is exactly the same as mine with the exception of a few deviations in some equipment choices so you dropped it halfway through The decision makes no sense.
Tugboats are as fragile as they look, so even the slightest bump can get you back to the dock where you last sailed. Full Disclosure: Dredge autosaves frequently, conveniently every time you bring your ship into port. Plus, docks are scattered all over the world map, so you never feel like a safe haven is too far away to give you a good chance of avoiding danger. It’s great that when you sleep, the panic gauge dissipates and you get a fresh start at the beginning of the next day. Because its difficulty always feels balanced enough to offer a challenge and a handful of scares without feeling over the line or unjustified.
I enjoyed specializing my research tree with scarce resources that unlock specialized and increasingly powerful nets, rods and engines. This gave me at least some leeway to create my own build. These choices allow you to move faster in the direction of certain quests, depending on which zone you want to explore first. Quests in the Devil’s Spine Zone can now be freely resolved.
It’s really smooth too. In his 12 hours playing Dredge, I can’t recall a moment where I ran into a bug or crash. This might be the first game in recent memory that I can say about this. On the PS5, the DualSense controller reacts to the movement of the sea with a satisfying feedback pulse, making even a basic soundbar a strong ambience.
