Review - Dredge - A Game That Deserves The Spotlight

 

©Black Salt Games
All rights reserved

Hello dear readers!

When a indie shows up and isn't a metroidvania or a roguelike, I take a look at them if the idea seems good (nothing personal with the previous mentioned genres)

This was the case on "Dredge", a game available on all the consoles from new to old gen.

When I saw that is a fishing game that also had terror, it got my attention but when I saw that it has some softly Lovecraft vibes, I had to play this.

We are on a Fishing/Terror/Open World game, we have free will to explore and make money to upgrade our boat and travel farther, faster and get more diverse fish.

The Terror part is more accurate described as anxiety or stressful situations.

There's parts with a sinister aura and they respective population but I feel more stressed to get to a port safe and sound than scared of the monsters.

Maybe some people afraid of the unknown of the Oceans will find Terror more accurate.

The "Stress" forms a important part for the gameplay

The story: 

You start the game after a crash, with a new boat and a debt that needs to be paid but the game almost imperceptible implies that the rocks what caused the crash materialized from nothing.

You have to start again with a very basic boat fishing on the near sites to pay your boat and some upgrades on the way.

On the nights when you return from your fishing duties, it's up to you but the game tells you to not be in the dark on the open ocean.

The villagers tells you to not fish on the nights, they blame the fatigue and the absence of light to play tricks on your mind, it's up to you to believe it.

We fear of the unknown

The problem with the story is that uses missions just like a normal game to advance but in the background uses a system were you have to collect bottles on the sea.

This to begin to understand your protagonist and some of the things in the world so if you don't find all the bottles or at least a good quantity of them you will probably be as lost as me the first time I finished the game.

The Gameplay:

The cycle of the game have a fun minigame to fish, it's a rhythm one when you have to press the button on the green areas.

Ocasionally there will be smaller harder areas but if you get them you will fish some "trophy" fish.

The time passes when you're traveling or fishing, your reward for doing the minigames correctly are wasting less hours fishing.

This can be the difference between getting surrounded by the night or getting to a dock safe and sound.

Characters from this game are as shady as they can be, this one will collect the "artifacts" that you find.

The danger of the night are represented by the "Sanity" of the protagonist.

Just as the style of Bloodborne, when you're on constant stress he will start seeing things and these things can kill you in a few moments or at least make you lose the cargo that you're carrying.

It's an interesting day and night cycle on the story and gameplay changes because some fishes are only available on the nights and you have to play it safe to come back.

The minigame variety is a lot bigger than I expected

Now with that said, the parts that makes this game unique is a couple of factors, first of all, occasionally you will find "Abysmal fish".

These fish are monstrous versions of other fish around and are proof of something evil in these waters.

This will be probably the first "evil" thing that you meet in the game , there's a couple of other ones that happens at nights or on certain parts of the map.

 First of all when you are fishing on the nights, you will occasionally almost crash on rocks in the middle of the sea that appears suddenly on your way so you have to be alert at all times.

When you're entering certain zones, you will confront monsters coming from the abyss, things like giant lantern monsters that come at you to attack you.

Some strange "vacuum" monsters that wanna eat you, etc I don't want to spoil to much surprises but the game does a good job on keeping these monsters on the loop but never dissipate the mysterious aura than they have.

Also take note that you boat has limited space and take only three hits to be destroyed on the beginnings so you must be careful and plan accordingly to your situation.

After a while playing you will unlock a crane to get shipwreck treasures, these have specific location and it's own variation of the fishing minigame.

The materials that you can get here are the "Skill points" of the game , you can go to the store and make choices in a well done upgrade schematic.

In Conclusion:

It's a well crafted game, I enjoyed a lot playing the game, it has that feeling of playing one more day and end playing two more hours like the farming/calm simulators.

These Lovecraft vibes makes the mix a very successful one, to some persons the game can be boring after a while because of the open world nature but the game does a great job making different parts of the map very unique, with their respective tone, fishes and dangers.

If this doesn't make you feel scared or at least very anxious, well you're one of a kind

Thanks for reading to the end, I think this is one of those games that will reach a status of original indie game with a quality that deserves praise and more exposure so here is my grain of salt. 

Have a good day!

Additional note : If you like the content please consider following us on:

Twitter: @TheChroniclesOG 

Facebook: The Chronicles Of A Gamer

Support the project: Buy Me A Coffee

Quora as The Chronicles Of A Gamer for more relaxed content like memes and other things relationed with the world of videogames.

We have a community on Reddit too, see us as r/TheChroniclesOfAGamer to be the first one to see our new content.

Also you can consult the Contact Us page for a direct way of contact for business or feedback, feel free to get in touch.