Dredge Is a Relaxing Fisherman Simulator Hiding a Very Sinister Heart
Dredge begins with a shipwreck, your unseen fisherman player-character forced to alight on the shores of the island town of Greater Marrow, unable to get home. They’re made to loan a boat from the shady mayor, and work the local shallows to pay off the debt. And yet this is Dredge’s least unsettling section.
The bones of Dredge are those of a gentle fishing sim - you pilot a pretty, almost cel-shaded boat around calm waters, playing an almost rhythm-action minigame to reel in catches, found in burbling schools around the initial island. Trade in enough fish to the local fishmonger, and you can use your payments to buy upgrades from the shipwright - extra outboard engines, stronger rods for larger species (there are 128 entries in the game’s catalog), crab pots to drop off and come back to later.
There are less expected mechanics too, like selecting a book to read, which sets off a timer whenever you’re on the water, eventually offering you permanent stat buffs. Your boat’s stock is organised like Resident Evil’s inventory Tetris. There’s a day-night cycle, too, with different species emerging at night - but going out after dark comes with the risk of hitting rocks you can’t see, and damaging parts of your inventory, sending engines offline, or catches slipping overboard. It’s a satisfying pace of progress from the off, and even in an hour of play I’d made several meaningful changes to my vessel.
But soon after you start, you hit day 5, and things begin to get... odd. The people of Greater Marrow - and the other little settlements you find on surrounding islands - already seem a little off. But when you pull your first Aberration from the waves, everything gets much more sinister. Something is wrong with the fish in these
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