Dredge [Xbox]
Black Salt Games’ debut title Dredge is a fishing game where a Lovecraftian mystery lurks under the surface. After wrecking your boat, you wake up on the shores of Greater Marrow, where you’ve been hired as the island’s new fisherman. With your vessel being about as hole-y as the Pope’s Crocs, the Mayor sets you up with a brand new boat! Well… brand new might be pushing it a little, but it works. You’ll then set off to catch fish - which will be recorded in your encyclopaedia - to then sell at the Fishmongers in order to feed the inhabitants of the island, and pay off your debt to the mayor. To begin with, this will be primarily done at the main island in order to pay off your debt as quickly as possible, but you’ll soon be able to sail - and sell - elsewhere, too.
Within your cabin, you can look through your encyclopaedia to see what fish you’ve found so far - and where to find them, in case you need to track any of them down again - as well as look over any quests (known as Pursuits). Pursuits can be picked up from the people you meet across each of the islands, with some looking for help to deliver items from one island to another; collectors asking for items that are lost at sea to be recovered; and even requests for strange, mutated fish for unknown - but somewhat fishy - reasons.
As rewards from many of the characters you meet, you’ll be given books that you can ‘read’ when out on the water, and these will improve certain stats, such as improving the price that you’ll get from Fishmongers and decreasing the odds of completely emptying out a fishing spot on any given catch. Time advances when moving, fishing or completing other actions, and things get spooky - and dangerous - after sundown, so you must make sure to head back to a dock before it gets too dark - otherwise your panic will grow and strange, terrifying things may occur. You can switch your lights on to help with visibility and reduce your panic, though this will attract more attention, too.
You’ve got a limited inventory with slots that you’ll have to rotate and squeeze items into, so you’ll have to manage it wisely, being careful of how much you pick up - especially as any fish you catch will only stay fresh for so long - and making frequent trips back to land in order to sell your wares. Once you’ve paid off your debt to the mayor - not a difficult task by any means - any money you earn can be used to buy upgrades for your boat. These do take a little bit of time to install, advancing the clock further, so you’ll need to choose your timing carefully so as not to waste precious hours (or spoil any cargo you’ve not yet sold), but many of these upgrades are well worth the time spent, given that they can add improvements such as increasing space in your cargo hold, installing more powerful engines for better speed, or even better equipment to allow you to catch fish much further under the sea.
Fishing in different areas - or rather, at different depths - plays out with some slight changes to the mini-game mechanic, with all being some form of tapping when you are within the green zone to reel your catch in faster. Dredging up resources and treasures is done in a similar way, with a two-laned spinning wheel that you must time your switching of lanes in order to avoid obstacles, and successfully pull up cargo. You’ll uncover more and more of the mysterious story as you progress, with floating bottles containing messages piquing my interest about the history of this archipelago. Speaking to islanders about the strange things they’ve witnessed, as well as various dramas that have occurred over the years, all adds to a thoroughly intriguing tale filled with unease.
The visuals of Dredge are absolutely stunning, with wide open seas that evolve from peaceful to terrifying in a very short space of time. Character designs are visually interesting too, with lots of personality that is obvious just in their designs alone, with some characters being friendlier and more open than others. Fog rolls in and your panic rises, with jagged rocks that seemingly appear from nowhere, accompanied by speedy little tugboats that chase you down before transforming into hellish creatures looking for a snack. Those aren’t the only things hidden in the depths, however. On occasion, something will slither into your cargo, infecting whatever you’ve got in there; and you might also lose items to the monstrous birds that swarm you at times, or have items knocked overboard when large predators bump into you. Even during the daylight hours, where you feel relatively safe in comparison to night-time, there’s still a massive sense of foreboding that lingers, keeping you on edge. The soundtrack does a fantastic job of emphasising this: switching between relaxing, sea-faring tunes, and anxiety-inducing, unsettling tones as it turns to dark, leaving you in a growing state of hysteria.
The strange juxtaposition between Dredge’s cosy, comforting moments, and its more unsettling encounters make it all the more alluring, and near impossible to put down. Priced at £21.99 for the Standard Edition, or you can pick up the Digital Deluxe Edition for £2 more (and net yourself a Custom Rod and the Blackstone Key in the process), it’s well worth the price. We’ve had an absolute whale of a time, and would highly recommend everyone to try it out - even if it does give you a touch of thalassophobia in the process.
In the end, we decided to give Dredge the Collecting Asylum rating of 10/10.
Are you interested in Dredge? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Team 17 for the Dredge Xbox review code!
