DREDGE – Review
Dredge can feel like a standard fishing game at times. On a sunny day, you can drift lazily from harbour to harbor, casting a line into the water or dragging a net over the water in the hopes of reeling in a prize catch to sell and pocketing the profit. A telescope can be used to spy on potential prey or to scour sunken ships for treasure. Fixing your crab pots, replacing your outboard motor, or repairing a hole in your hull can all be done with the little cash you manage to scrounge together. When night falls, you turn in, and when morning comes, you’re ready to set sail again. Once the sun goes down, you need to be safely docked because there are things you never want to encounter.
Dredge puts a Lovecraftian spin on the formula, where conventional measurements of success like “money” are far too innocent, such as when compared to the size of your catch or the state of your boat. Instead, the time you have between sunrise and dusk is the most precious commodity at your disposal. The first few days at sea are a delicate balancing act: can I drop another line and still make it home before the sun goes down? The clock only moves ahead when you conduct particular tasks, such as moving your boat, fishing, or maintenance.
Getting back to your house in time is essential, as Dredge also forces you to play with Panic. Your cabin’s single flimsy lightbulb probably won’t be able to keep the beasts lurking just beyond your sanity at bay for too long once night falls. When fear sets in, every minute spent at sea is a minute less to make a living. Horrid gulls try to steal your catch; vile infections wriggle among your haul; and in the night, rocks appear out of the mist that you were sure weren’t there the last time you rounded this headland.
Time and Panic are two intriguing characters that make Dredge’s opening few hours stand out. You’ve been summoned to Greater Marrow to fill in for the island’s absent fisherman, and the natural harbour there will keep you confined for at least a few days. You can ignore the other islands that are farther away in this sea because of your small motor and concentrate on catching the minnows that live in the shallows. In order to make a few extra bucks, though, Dredge steadily drives you further and further from the harbor, whether it’s a new motor or a request for a rare catch. One day, you’ll take the plunge and venture out in search of uncharted territory, racing over the waves before dawn in an attempt to reach a safe harbour before the sun rises.
Jettisoning back and forth between the first and second islands starts to seem a bit less terrifying as you earn the money and dredge up the materials required to modify your boat, fitting additional rods, more powerful motors, or better headlamps to keep the darkness at bay. However, Dredge skillfully interweaves subtle horrors that prevent you from ever unwinding. People’s weathered appearances on these islands are a reflection of the constant anxiety and weariness they feel. Every once in a while, you’ll haul something vile up from the depths—a deformed “aberration” with its own awful artwork—like a fish bloated with additional eyes, a skeleton that’s been shattered and jagged, or a body that’s been ripped open by an impossible, whirling emptiness. Even the game’s most idyllic-looking days may send shivers down your spine, thanks to the sound design, namely the minor piano trill that cuts through as you pull in one of these nightmares.
The cumulative effect of these enhancements, however, makes it increasingly difficult to take Dredge’s cosmic menace seriously. You’ll never lose a race against the sinking sun if your engine is powerful enough, and you’ll never lose your catch to spoilage if your bank account is fat enough. Later islands do more to weave in obstacles, such as complex, maze-like reefs and ruins to prevent you from jetting back and forth; ancient monsters, unrelenting in their pursuit or unflinching in their strength; however, often these threats can be subdued or avoided, becoming more of an annoyance than the Lovecraftian menace they’re intended to be. It doesn’t ruin the mood of Dredge by any means, but it is a sad side effect of development that dulls the impact of the first few hours.
Hidden depths abound in Dredge, from research branches that allow for several paths through the game to intricate secrets and side quests that I barely scratched the surface of to a bestiary full of gorgeous, mind-bending artwork. Everything works together to make what could have been a standard fishing game into something fascinating and subtly terrifying. Even though Dredge’s progression algorithms lessen the effect of its final act, the concept of “wholesome fishing game meets Lovecraftian horror” is skillfully realized, and that’s not something you see very often in video games.
