Dredge is a fishing recreation with eldritch nastiness lurking beneath the floor. It is an ideal combo, and though the spooky aspect by no means descends into true horror, there’s an ever-present sense of unease as you discover the small open ocean and its island outposts.
Enjoying as a freshly employed fisherman, you start the sport catching fish within the comparatively shallow waters close to Larger Marrow, steadily incomes some money. You are warned to not keep out after darkish, as unusual issues begin to occur on the water. With some (normally extra invaluable) fish solely catchable throughout the evening, the sport baits you onto the darkish depths, the place issues do certainly begin to go awry. The narrative has you trying to find particular relics throughout the sport’s map, hauling them up from the H2O for a mysterious collector.
Sadly, the story did not actually seize us, however the recreation makes up for it in different methods. Between discovering these artefacts, you spend most of your time fishing, exploring, and upgrading your boat. Fishing is not more than a easy minigame, however an encyclopedia tracks recognized species, and you must scout particular spots on the water to search out them. A variety of the map is open ocean, however there’s all the time an island within the distance that is hiding some secret, or invaluable treasure. Upgrading your ship is important; stock area, improved hulls, and higher gear are all essential to catch larger fish and survive all of the spooky shenanigans.
Whereas the execution is moderately easy, Dredge’s core loop is basically compelling. It is all the time satisfying to improve the boat, as is gaining new talents and discovering new fish (and their creepy altered kinds). On high of that, you are by no means in need of issues to do, be they easy aspect missions, dredging shipwrecks for assets, or avoiding these nightly threats.
We’ll say the gameplay can turn out to be repetitive when you want to grind for money or sure objects. Moreover, managing the sport’s grid-based menus could be fairly fiddly. The treatment for each issues is these all-important upgrades, which easy out frustrations with cramped inventories or restricted fishing capabilities. Regardless of any rocky waters, although, Dredge’s rewarding development and fulfilling premise hold it afloat.
