Nothing good happens after 2 a.m. is something most of us have likely heard once or twice. On the open seas of DREDGE the same concept holds water. This isn’t breaking new ground regarding life advice or commentary on games stand. We’ve seen this many times before with various zombie titles, Stardew Valley, Minecraft – you name it. As soon as the sun goes down, things get weird.
A cyclical cadence of life and death, safety and danger, rational thought and insanity are all wrapped up in a single 24-hour day and night cycle. This concept has continually proven a fun and engaging gameplay loop, and here is no different. The thing about DREDGE, though; the day can be just as strange as the night, nothing good happens after 6 p.m., and I never knew I needed a Lovecraftian horror fishing game in my life.
DREDGE places you in the salty shoes of a sea captain who helms a fishing boat that shipwrecks amongst a set of islands. Members of a nearby town pull you to shore and set you up with a rent-to-own fishing boat as a replacement. As you get to grips with your new surroundings, you’ll quickly notice that things are a bit… off. The townsfolks are quite eccentric and make a particular point to warn you about the fog in the area. As a seasoned captain of the seas who just survived your vessel capsizing, what’s a little fog to you?
Gone Fishing
Fishing is one of many things that I thoroughly enjoy in video games and couldn’t care less about in real life, ah- what a beautiful medium we enjoy. You’ll have a handful of options as far as angling goes; rod fishing, trawling, and crabbing. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Rod fishing allows instantaneous fishing, where you’ll snag fish and toss them on the boat when completing a simple minigame. Trawling and crabbing allow a more passive way to catch fish as you drive your boat around or throw out crab pots.
If you go with a fishing rod, you must consider returning to the harbor to sell the fish off before they spoil. Trawling and crabbing allow for extended shelf-life for your fish due to staying in the water; however, they generally offer a slower and less profitable way of making money. Fishing in DREDGE is straightforward and not incredibly engaging to be fair, but there’s a reason for this.
Time management is the driving factor while playing DREDGE. Any time you drive your boat around, time goes by. When you succeed or fail at reeling in a fish, the clock ticks. There’s a huge school of valuable fish underneath your boat, and you’re just hauling them in left and right, and… the sun starts to set. You’re miles away from any of the islands. The fog comes rolling in. This is what they warned you about.
Dredging Through the Fog
As night falls for your first time, you’ll realize what time management means and what dreadful decision-making looks like out on the open sea. A thick and suffocating fog will settle after nightfall that will cripple your vision and pick away at the captain’s sanity. The longer you stay out in the fog and wander through the open waters the more the curtain gets pulled back, revealing the unexplainable in which is usually followed by madness. Large rocks will appear in the boat’s headlights that were never there before, cat-like eyes watch your every move, and pitch-black ships sail around the neighboring islands.
Turning off the boat’s headlights can save you from a close encounter with what is lurking nearby, but in return, it increases the captain’s insanity. Pulling the boat’s fog horn to attract attention to a specific area while slipping away from trouble is also a method of escape, assuming it doesn’t backfire on you. There’s a constant give and take with each decision you make that allows DREDGE to be so consistently enjoyable. Making an escape plan that only becomes a self-made trap for yourself, fishing for too long, and pushing the envelope of sanity make up the risk-reward scenarios that will leave your heart racing back to shore.
Of course, while getting your toes wet at night is terrifying, it can be equally rewarding. Night fishing can be quite lucrative if you keep your head on a swivel. Each fish caught in DREDGE has an alternate variant that looks very Lovecraftian and can be worth a boatload, literally. Unusual glowing light that emits from the usual fishing spots can be found, indicating a chance to find one of these aberrations of the typical species. There are over 100 different kinds of fish in DREDGE and it’s always exciting to find and log an entry for the most recent amalgamation that flopped into your boat.
Finally, after selling off your haul, you can sleep at various docks throughout the islands that will reset your sanity until you decide to do it all over again. It’s an incredibly satisfying gameplay loop that improves as you start dredging for materials to upgrade your fishing boat. Upgrades can range from expanded inventory, better fishing gear, faster engines, and stronger hulls that will be needed as you venture further and further out to explore the five major islands.
My only complaint is the lack of visual feedback you get as you upgrade your boat. It’d have been nice to see small changes to your craft as it gets bigger and more badass. However, from a game design perspective, I understand why Black Salt Games shied away from this as boat collision damage and navigation through tight areas would quickly become problematic.
DREDGE is a Bona Fide Indie Darling
DREDGE is more than just a survival horror fishing game; I can’t talk about a lot to explore in fear of spoiling too much. It’s undoubtedly one of those games that you need to jump into blind. DREDGE is also very self-aware in that it doesn’t overstay its welcome. I clocked in around 12 hours during my playthrough and caught over 75% of what the Seas had to offer. Black Salt Games could have easily created a bloated experience but crafted a tight and creative journey that always gives you something new as you get closer to its finale.
The eerie and goosebump-inducing music accompanying you as you push through the waves at night, followed by the gloriously hopeful but still-tempered melodies of the rising morning sun nail the feelings of surviving the night before. Every time you putt along the shoreline leaving the harbor, you remember the jagged and worn faces of its inhabitants who are very much alive but are left broken by the sea surrounding them. The sea gives and takes away, profusely, leaving those who play the game with nothing but a reflection upon what they’ve just experienced.
Excluding this year’s remakes of cult classic games, DREDGE is not only the best indie game that I’ve played this year, but the best game that I’ve played this year period.
