DREDGE UPGRADE
DREDGE SERIES

There's also very little incentive for being anything but safe in Dredge. You simply move from Point A to Point B in Dredge, although you usually don't mind because you're caught up in the mystique of the game.

DREDGE UPGRADE

Even the upgrade trees of the game are relatively set – players occasionally have a choice on which upgrade they want first, but there's no room for specialization or developing a unique style of.fishing. Almost all of the quests follow a rather linear pattern – players are given a quest by an NPC, they complete that task by either collecting fish or dredging ruins, and then they are rewarded with new items or abilities. The biggest flaw of Dredge is that the game's core gameplay loop provides heavy limitations to how players solve the various mysteries of the game. Players are rewarded for having a purpose when setting out to sea at first dawn, although sometimes that purpose is limited to traveling to a town to sell trinkets or gathering crabs from crab pots. Fishing is time-sensitive, as players have a limited amount of time before their haul rots and becomes unsellable.

Many islands are spaced out so that players will have just enough time to reach the island, do a brief foray of exploration or collect one or two resources and then retreat to a dock at night. While exploring and fishing, players will also have to balance limited cargo space on their ship and the need to upgrade their boat to better collect more exotic breeds of fish and confront the strange dangers that lurk in the depths.ĭredge is at its strongest when players are confronted with a limited amount of time to complete a task before night sets in. Getting caught out at port at night can quickly bring ruin, although there's no penalty at all for docking at abandoned exploration stations or campsites that would usually be the site of a good haunting encounter.

Exploration of the various islands is balanced by the fact that the seas become exponentially more dangerous at night. Over time, players are encouraged to travel to five separate locales in Dredge, each of which has their own mysteries to unlock and dangers to confront or avoid.

DREDGE SERIES

After a few loops of catching and selling fish, a series of strange occurrences make clear that's something isn't right – occasionally, the player will find aberrant fish with strange mutations and dangerous behemoths chase after the player when they venture out into the sea at night.

Initially, players are encouraged to stick close to the town of Greater Marrow as they pay off their debt (for the privilege of using the town's boat) by selling fish and trinkets dredged up from the depths. The result is an intriguing game that unfolds at the player's pace, providing a fun and unique experience that's not quite like anything you've played before.ĭredge opens with the player marooned in a small seaside town, where they are quickly recruited as the town's new fisherman. Dredge proudly wears its Lovecraft influences on its sleeves in more ways than one by providing players with a comforting daily ritual while constantly reminding players of deeper threats lurking just under the surface of the ocean. The new game by indie developer Black Salt Game cleverly combines exploration mechanics and a familiar gameplay loop of collecting fish and flotsam with a sinister and haunting undercurrent pulled straight out of the cosmic horror genre. The daily relaxing monotony of simulators like Animal Crossing is subverted in Dredge, a new game that pulls Deep Ones from deep sea fishing.