Dredge [Review]
Dredge is an eerie fishing puzzle game with some horror elements. It was developed by Black Salt Games and Published by Team 17. In Dredge, you crash on a small isle called Greater Marrow. The mayor explained to you that the previous fisherman had left and that you could buy the trawler to become the new fisherman. You do so and start to spend your days sailing the sea and collecting fish. Though it isn’t just collecting fish, you must also configure them in your ship’s inventory. It’s a bit of a puzzle game as all the fish and items you can catch must be put in the limited inventory and even have to be shaped around the supplies you bring out. It makes it more interesting than just catching whatever you can.
Dredge has multiple types of fishing spots including, shallow, coastal, oceanic, or even abyssal. Of course, you can’t just use the same fishing rod for all of these, you need different fishing rods specialized for each type. I managed to find some sort of altar for cod, once filling it up with all cod fish I was given a fishing rod for both shallow and coastal fishing spots. It was certainly a good investment as inventory space is precious and I had to use my other fishing rod slots to hold my ocean fish rod.
That might be a bit confusing, but basically, only certain spots in your inventory can hold equipment items. Don’t worry though, you can upgrade. For example; you start with one slot for a light but you can upgrade it to two slots and therefore can upgrade your boat’s light fixture to a large one. This goes for every equipment slot, you can upgrade how many slots you can use for nets, fishing rods, etc. I adore the way the equipment and inventory are handled in this game as it forces you to think of the game as a puzzle.
Now, I mentioned earlier that this game has some horror elements. They aren’t trying to hide the horror aspects, the game’s art style even gives it away. The whole vibe of the game is dark and eerie and you notice right away that there’s some underlying mystery going on. As you fish you will start to uncover creepy mutated fish that would most definitely kill someone if they ate it. The man you sell these fish to WANTS these mutant fish and I think conducts human experimentation with them… Regardless, these fish help you uncover a mystery as you end up finding a man on an isolated island explaining how an old shipwreck once held valuable items. This upgrades you from a regular ole fisherman to a treasure hunter.
For a fishing game, Dredge is a bit difficult. You see the ocean surrounding these islands isn’t a calm one. Sailing out in the dark without rest you start to panic, and as the panic meter rises so do the number of things you need to avoid. You’ll begin to see sailing ships in the dark, rocks will pop up out of nowhere due to the lack of light, tornadoes will rush by, and even a giant ghost-like angler fish will come out and damage your boat. That’s not the only thing that will try to eat your inventory though, even during the day you have to be careful not to lose your fish to birds, rotting, or creepy crawlies that will get onto your boat and infect the fish. There’s a lot to look out for in this game, best to just rest up every time you dock to avoid the ghost fish of death.
Dredge is a surprisingly packed game with plenty to do. It’s not all about catching fish as there are a lot of other things to “catch” as well! From treasure to supplies you have to dredge up, not to mention the puzzles that are easily incorporated into the game. Dredge easily surpassed my expectations and like others, I will be giving Dredge a 10/10. Dredge is now available for Switch, Playstation 4/5, and Xbox One.