hAs the sun rises on a dilapidated old fishing boat, all seems calm. The ship cannot go very far, but there are mackerel and cod within a short distance of the port and its lighthouse; They warn me not to stay out after dark, as the rocks can be treacherous, springing suddenly out of the darkness and crashing into the hull. However, after a couple of days, I catch a glimpse of something that’s…wrong, a bunch of scales coiled around a single repulsively huge eye. The fishmonger’s face reveals an unsettling glee as I hand it over, then breaks down as he brings the oceanic aberration close to his ear to hear his whispers. He pushes me out of his shop before closing the door.
Dredge plumbs the depths of our instinctive fear of the ocean and the unseen things that float in the dark. It is a clever and captivating fishing adventure game with a supernatural twist; You upgrade your boat, nets and rods, venture further afield to catch different fish, and encounter creatures in the night that make you want to drop your controller in disgust. Sometimes the overall horror story is barely felt there, as you go about your business selling your catch and saving up for a hull expansion; other times, when you’re stuck in the dark miles from a dock and you start seeing things, it feels oppressively present.
The writing is terrific, with earth-shaking descriptions of twisted fish—”a cracked shell of scaly plates sliding over pulsing, discolored flesh”—and subdued dialogue that says enough to make your blood run cold as you let your imagination run wild. in the rest. The characters are illustrated with broad expressionist strokes, barely animated but still communicating restlessness, mystery, or despair; in the open sea, the style is more minimalist. Your boat puffs over calm waves, distant cliffs, and islands just visible in the distance.
This game sucked me in for hours at a time. The next uncharted island, update, or little story trailer always felt enticingly close at hand and the business of fishing and boating is so pleasurable that it easily takes the rest. Finding a promising spot, press the buttons in time to reel in your catch, then fiddle with it to fit in your cargo hold, playing Tetris with fish, planks, sunken treasure, and whatever else you find on your day’s adventure. Danger, in the form of underwater leviathans or encroaching darkness, is always present, but usually at a distance; there is a sense of threat without the frustration of impending failure. A few times I limped back to port at 5am with a damaged engine and holes in the hull, trapped by the setting sun and attacked by some night horror, but I rarely sank.
Dredge never says too much, which is why it works so well as a chiller. He is creepy, but never explicitly grotesque, and he can also be beautiful and soothing. He mainly depends on you whether you tempt fate in the dark or stick to the daylight hours and stick to the shores. The way his mood can change so quickly and the intrigue of his story told sparingly kept me hooked.
