In Dredge, horrors lie mere feet below my fisherman’s dinky boat. The bright days are filled with calm fishing accompanied by gentle piano music, and a quaint loop where I hunt for fish and then sell them for tools and upgrades. Suddenly, as dusk sets in, I feel paranoid and Dredge’s monstrous, mutated teeth emerge. Dredge has a Lovecraftian atmosphere that is ominous and delicious at the same time. My poor unnamed fisherman has KO’d his vessel near the small island town of Greater Marrow. After being offered a replacement and a small debt for the pleasure, I’m quickly set on my fishing adventure.
Across Dredge’s various minigames, fishing is relatively simple. When the moving target hits a green zone, hit the button to fish. In Dredge, fish come in all shapes and sizes, which I must slot efficiently into the tiled inventory of my vessel. They vary in complexity, like a ball simply spinning around or swinging between two bars. It’s tough to figure out what to do once I have landed my catch. There’s no problem with a two-tiled bass, but an L-shaped cod or erratically pronged hammerhead shark requires more thought. In Dredge, I loved the puzzle element, forcing me to plan how much I wanted to deplete each fishing spot. The boat can also be upgraded with materials, which have their own odd shapes.
In addition, tiles are shared with designated slots for my equipment and engine—do I want to get my vessel as lean as possible, or save some tiles to make more money, fish, and fish? During my playthrough, I kept busy maximizing my efficiency. Fish also have a freshness meter that determines how much they can be sold for. The fresher the fish, the more coins. Besides one side quest, the freshness rating seemed rather pointless. Since I ferry back and forth to sell my catches so often, I rarely slipped into ‘stale’ or ‘rotten’ ratings, only having problems when traveling to different regions.
Visiting each island gives new fish to catch, new quests to complete and new dangers to compete with. For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges each one had to offer. My biggest frustration came from Gale Cliffs, the first area outside of Greater Marrow that you journey to. In addition, there is no clear method for dealing with the monster snaking between the narrow waters between the cliffs, which is much faster than you. Dredge’s other islands were much better, so Gale Cliffs may become a roadblock for frustrated players.
As some fish only appear at night, I must take risks and push myself to venture outside even if it isn’t easy. I admire this about Dredge, but it could be even better. I venture out as the sun rises, and within mere minutes I am already fighting the nighttime horrors. The day-night cycles are too short and push me in the other direction. Through ship upgrades, I am able to speed up my ship by using money, materials, and research parts dredged from the sea. The quests aren’t on the map, so I have to rely on my fisherman’s instincts. Since I’m directionally challenged at the best of times, I had to keep a closer eye on my surroundings and look for landmarks to get my bearings.
Considering how easily Dredge can be completed in about 10 to 15 hours, I would definitely recommend playing it. If you love horror as well as fishing mini games, this is the game you’ll want to play. Although its mostly excellent bite-sized experience isn’t perfect, it’s frustrating moments are glaringly apparent through its mostly excellent bite-sized experience. In spite of that, I will return to the game at some point to fill out its twisted encyclopedia and to avenge some of the wrongs I committed in certain side quests.
