Dredge is a game that I'm late to the table for; it's a Lovecraftian Horror game disguised as a fishing game and it's caught my attention with a hook that won't let go. Your character is a faceless, nameless fisherperson, recently arrived in a region plagued by dismal attitudes and bizarre activities.
THE CAST
Everybody seems to have something creepy or cryptic going on; the lighthouse keeper stares off into the distance and won't talk to you. The mayor mutters uncertainly about your predecessor, the previous fisherman. Dockworkers shift cautiously under your gaze, pocketing leaky packages and stalking off to places unknown. Folks are kind enough in an Innsmouth sort of way, but there's a palpable sense of wrongness that the game does little to disguise. In fact, it seems odd as you get your bearings within the game that you seem to be the only fisherman in a world that spans several small island villages. Why isn't anyone else out on the water?
Because (as you quickly learn) it isn't safe. It isn't sane. It isn't a smart place to be. The oceans of Dredge are scary places where your ship can easily fall prey to a variety of aquatic terrors that lurk in the darkness. Dredge does little to hold your hand as you seek out fish for the isolated villages of the game.
THE REEL
The fishing mechanics themselves are pretty straightforward - different fish are caught differently, but they're all variations of a rhythm game. If you ignore the rhythm game, you'll catch the fish eventually, it will just take longer. The longer you're out fishing, the weirder things get. Regular fish each have rare, mutated variations - often with suppurating wounds, tumorous growths, disconcerting extra appendages, tentacles, or teeth - the sort of thing that might drive a fisherman mad. In fact, the longer you stay out at sea (you can only rest while docked somewhere safe) the more madness will creep into your mind and cause hallucinations. Those hallucinations will damage your boat, will try to eat you, will steal or infect your catch, and will generally make the game feel more like a survival-horror game and less like a cozy fishing game.
Of course, Dredge is both. On the cozy side, you'll see scenic (unthreatening) wildlife during the day, meet interesting and varied people (women are well represented among the game's NPCs, and your protagonist is ripe for self-insert and mostly represented by a boat), and you'll gradually upgrade your ship (faster engines, more fishing tackle, more cargo space, etc) using materials you (you were waiting for it) dredge from the bottom of the seas.
THE BAIT
You'll also find a series of mysteries - creepy cultish characters that seem to subsist on fish hearts, odd stone tablets that hold treasures if you can find their piscine keys, as well as a handful of particularly rare fish, only found in a single location on each of the game's major islands. You can even customize your ship by grinding up rare crabs to make various paints and by collecting various flags from the deep.
My favorite thing about Dredge is the game's hyper-focus on exactly what it wants to be. It picks a handful of mechanics that work well together, and limits itself to that core gameplay loop. In a time when so many games try to be everything at once, Dredge stays fresh by staying true to itself.
My biggest and really only gripe with the game is in balance. The game is most scary and most dangerous at the start, and everything you do from there, be it upgrading your boat or learning new cosmic powers, makes the game a bit easier. Eventually you're quick and rich enough to move through the game without too much fear, which is a hair disappointing. Even so, it's a fun road to get there, and makes completionist playthroughs more appealing.
The game oozes theme, so that whether you're visiting the tropical southern region, the tangled bayou of the northwest, or either of the other two major regions (I won't spoil everything here) it feels unified and connected. Each region has its own ecology as well, with a set of fish to catch and a unique predatory horror to avoid. Through it all, the slightly-off-putting animation style of the game carries it forward in a way that stands out and looks sharp, particularly as your grip on sanity starts to loosen in the late hours of the night.
If you're looking for a somewhat relaxed, digestible fishing game that will still make you worry and hurry every once in a while, I'd recommend casting your net toward Dredge.
I give it 9 creepily mutated fish out of 10.
