Dredge - Starting a Mysterious Fishing Adventure

I saw a great deal of praise for this indie adventure fishing game and decided to have a go at it. From the shots and gameplay clips I had seen, it looked like an interesting game with soothing graphics and a mysterious story. I had to check it out, I have played a few relaxing fishing games in the past but this one has its horror twist.

DREDGE is a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten.

The story starts when our vessel crashes into the rocks at Greater Marrow during a foggy night. The mayor of the town helped us by giving us an old fishing boat so we could fish, repay our debts, and explore this place.

We are advised to be careful of the night as strange things happen during the night here. There is a short day-night cycle which keeps us on our foot to get back to dock in time.

The fishing mechanisms are unique too. The cargo managed reminds me of the classic storage management of the classic Resident Evil 4 where you are trying to fit all your catch perfectly into the given boxes.

---

You install the necessary equipment right in these slots too like fishing rods, lights or propellers. There are different Rods for different types of water. You will get some advanced rods later which can catch multiple types of fish too but to unlock those you need to research those items. You get these research parts by doing missions or some other rewards.

Once you have your cargo full of fish or other items you dredge from the sea. You can sell your catch to the Fishmonger. But these sellers give the maximum rewards to the freshest fish and as the fish gets older their value starts decreasing. If you keep your fish for too long they will rot and you won't get anything for them.

---

You will have a lot of other things to do apart from catching and selling fish. There is something mysterious in these waters and monsters appear at night and can attack you. You will be tasked with shipping some cargo from one place to another.

Another important gameplay aspect is to research better equipment for your vessel and improve it slowly. I am constantly trying to increase the speed of my boat, buying more fishing rods, finding sunken artefacts and exploring the far-off places on the map.

---

There are books you can read which will improve your overall experience. These are given by NPCs and you can finish reading a book in a few days.

---

I love the stylistic graphics and it goes well with the awesome music. The music is so relaxing at times that it can put you to sleep. But it is not as calm as some other fishing games. The whole day-night cycle and how the night is quite scary make you get up and focus again.

Hundreds of fish are caught in the game. You can see their details in the Encylopedia. Some of them have weird mutations and are just slight variations of the regular ones. These are rarer than the rest of them and a bit harder to catch.

---

I am assuming the story is about finding the source of this horror. As soon as the night falls you will feel creepy things staring at you and sometimes they are following you. Once in a while rock appears out of nowhere or sometimes your lights will go out. Not to mention the thick fog and tense music. They did well by blending all these elements and making the night no-sail time. You can still make a few short trips but it gets riskier as you can bump into something or get chased by monsters which can damage your ship, and maybe kill you too. (I am not sure, I was once chased by a strange creature but I was close to the harbour and got back just in time).

---

There are a lot of mysterious NPCs which give us missions. I found a collector on the Little Marrow and told me to investigate an old sunken ship.

---

This game doesn't feel like doing a lot but you still want to get that one more trip, get a few more fish and upgrade that equipment, make your vessel faster and go out to explore. This loop of constant improvement and progression keeps you busy and does not let you get bored easily. There are always plenty of things to do in this game and I am interested to find out about the underlying story along with catching rare fish and finding some hidden secrets.