As you navigate the unyielding darkness that surrounds your boat, you make one last effort to grip your sanity and hold off the unstoppable madness breaking through. For you have ventured too far from the safe haven of port, and the night has ensconced you. The lights on your ship have gone dark, you see things that aren’t there, and more terrifying yet, there are things there you cannot see. You race for the safety of Greater Marrow, guided only by the lighthouse, a beacon of sanity, illuminating the sky. You race forward, hoping to arrive with a grain of your sanity remaining, for the light will save you. As you dock your small vessel, you feel the release of the eldritch horrors pulling on the final thread of your mind, you are safe—for now.
DREDGE, by Black Salt Games, may seem like a cozy fishing game on the surface, but very quickly you will learn there is much more to the game. Upon your arrival at Greater Marrow, you are loaned a boat and you must fish to pay off your debt. Once your debt is paid, you continue to fish. When you reel in your first aberrant fish, you begin to feel like something is not right here. The combination of the unsettling tone upon retrieving the fish and the grotesque visuals of the fish itself begin to give you an unsettling feeling. There is more going on here than a simple fishing game.
The game’s mechanics are simple yet engaging. Fishing itself is a series of mini-games that are relatively easy and do not have a failure state. Ultimately, if you continue to miss on the mini-game, the fish just take longer to catch, but are not impossible to complete. You will unlock new fishing rods for your boat, enabling you to catch new and different types of fish, as you journey through a well-built world.
The story is ever-present but not in your face. You find small pieces of the story as you go; an astute observer may put the pieces together early, but there is no shame in letting the reveals happen organically. Through the campaign, you will explore five different areas of the map, catching different fish and inching closer to the game’s climactic conclusion.
I highly recommend DREDGE; it is the perfect 10-hour experience for someone looking for a generally chill game with dark undertones.
Share this article