Who doesn’t love a good fishing mini-game? There’s something therapeutic about jumping between different bodies of water to catch fish in press-A style games, all to fill out your aquatic encyclopedia. Maybe it's a little too therapeutic. Maybe it needs to be a little more unsettling. That’s the idea behind Dredge by Black Salt Games.
In this “fishing adventure” game, you arrive at a small collection of islands, looking for work as their new fisherman. But after some rocks that you mysteriously did not spot, your ship is ruined, and you’re forced to take up residence in a new boat provided for you by the locals. They seem like fine folk, if a bit superstitious. After proving your worth as a fisherman, a local eccentric summons you and asks you to dredge up four strange artifacts from the neighboring islands.
As one might expect from a game entirely about fishing, your fishing boat is the most impressive aspect. There are multiple upgrade trees and unlockable components for your ship, with a very fair sense of progression. Want more storage space or a better engine? The way to make that happen is clear and achievable. The item required to unlock better technology is primarily given as a reward for optional side quests, further encouraging you to experience the full scope of what Dredge has to offer.
Fishing’s most unique component is the Tetris-like inventory management. Your ship’s space is not entirely unlike the Resident Evil 4 storage system; when you collect fish, items, or equipment, you need to move and rotate them to best fit the limited grid space available. The more expensive fish will take up more squares of space, often in bizarre shapes. You also share this space with your equipment, forcing you to choose between better gear and more storage space. This, combined with the ship’s upgrade system, was the real motivation to continue on the open seas.
But it’s not just about fishing. Horrors lurk beneath the surface of the waves. Ocean life is floating there just out of view, holding wretched potentials and incomprehensible possibilities. Unfortunately, that’s all they do. They lurk, staying precisely where they are for almost the entirety of the game. As you progress, you learn more tidbits of lore and discover more strange variations of mutated fish. But none of it builds to anything compelling, and it soon becomes repetitive. This remains true with each new island you visit. Each one follows the same pattern and offers the same stakes: there are more fish varieties, and there’s one extra big fish monster you should avoid.
The overall story plot helps, but in another way, it hurts just as much. The story revolves around something dredged up from the seafloor and opened, which seems related to the eccentric’s artifact hunt. Overall, it’s generally easy to follow, has clear motivations, and ties itself together pretty well. The downside is that it doesn’t connect to enough of the gameplay. The main plot is clearly cited as the reason for the strange ocean life and the dangers in the water at night, but it doesn’t provide any solid line as to why - it’s a barnacle on a boat. It’s stuck to it, but it’s not really part of it.
This is a common problem with a lot of ‘Lovecraftian’ inspired media (and horror in general). There is fear in the unknown. But the key to unlocking that fear is to have the right unknowns. Provide enough consistency so that when you follow the patterns, the expected result instills an imagination-fueled dread. Dredge misses this mark by having inconsistent theming. The abjurations of each fish vary wildly in their concepts, jumping from cosmic light to visceral mutation to zombie-esque rot. Each land’s ‘big fish’ is different from the last in size, style, and purpose. And while that may aid in-game variety, it creates an inconsistency that prevents the fear from ever building beyond how strange each fish looks. There’s no pattern to follow that does anything more than leave you jaded about weird fish.
Overall, Dredge is a nice, enjoyable fishing game with a low-fat horror coating. The mechanics, upgradability, and weird fish variety are enough to make for a lightweight and engaging time. But if your primary interest is in the narrative or atmosphere, you may find yourselves disappointed.
Dredge
Captain your own fishing boat in Dredge, out on the water during the day so you can sell your haul once that day is done. There's more than just finish waiting for you beneath the waves, though.
