As I and at least two colleagues have written before, Dredger is a lot of fun. Its latest DLC, Iron Drill, is just as fun, but I can’t help but feel that, at least from a narrative perspective, it could have been better.
As you might have figured out from the name, the core premise of Iron Rig is that an oil rig has suddenly appeared just north of the game’s existing island. So, just as you did in the ice-filled Pale Reach, your job is to travel to this new landmark and see if it takes on the finest aquatic creatures and abominations the land has to offer.
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When you arrive, the rig’s foreman tells you that, as is customary, something mysterious is going on. The ship sent by the Ironhaven Corporation that owns the rig and is responsible for delivering the supplies the workers need in order to properly rig and drill has sunk, but no one knows why. One of the two core gameplay loops of the DLC begins here – you set out, dig up some crates belonging to the corporation, and bring them back to the rig, this time, unlocking it as a base.
Over the course of your time with Iron Rig, picking up and assembling crates will become more than just a hobby, but a full-time job, especially if you’re a bit of a completionist. You see, crates are necessary both for upgrading your rig – which is built incrementally by constructing new modules like Factories, Foundries, and Tech Labs – and for engineering the vast array of ship and equipment upgrades that most of these modules can be used for crafting.
Meanwhile, once the drill is up and running, you’ll find that every time a worker plunges it into the deep sea, it triggers a giant rift that opens toward one of the four locations that make up the base game’s archipelago, giving you an excuse to once again appreciate the excellent design and atmosphere of these established areas. At the end of these large rifts, three or four patches of oily, dark liquid will appear in different areas around the islands. The drill’s scientists will ask you to travel to these locations to catch the plethora of new fish species that the DLC adds to Dredge’s already impressive roster of weird and dank catches.
The new species that inhabit the deep sea are pretty interesting, with the developers clearly taking inspiration from some fossil books to create a group of creatures that look like they could survive a nuclear apocalypse, or eat you, or both. Of course, they all have nightmare-fueled aberration evil twins. As you fish them up, you’ll have to dodge bursting bubbles of goo and the extra creatures that are a hazard in the dark patches of liquid.
Catching these black liquid fish does require some new fishing rods, but these are a bit disappointing as they are just the same fishing rods you use for different depths in the base game, just with some Ironhaven tech strapped on. Also, the black sludge itself is a valuable crafting resource that you’ll want to collect via the new Siphon Net and bring back to your rig.
As the expansion progresses, collecting chests/upgrading the drill and fishing in the blackwater complement each other at each stage, with the plot taking on new twists as more drilling and a typical corporate executive arrive. The Iron Drill also provides a proper backstory for a character that was not yet fully developed in the base game, which is a nice touch.
I’m not going to go into too much detail to avoid spoilers, but I did feel like the ending to Iron Rig’s storyline was a bit anticlimactic. What happens next is certainly not dissimilar to the rest of the game, but it builds so well to the events that came before that it feels like it could have had a more impactful, memorable ending – much like the ending to the base game. As it stands, it feels like the developers may have accidentally bogged themselves down with The Rig’s plot, though I can understand that this DLC is clearly intended to tie players into the game’s established story – not something that overshadows it or offers any other story paths.
Once you’re done playing, you’ll also want to upgrade your rig to its maximum potential. There are a lot of things you can get from upgrading – new hulls, power boosts, new techniques that make your ship more efficient at capturing and moving – these upgrades are an extra step for someone who’s been playing for a while and has put together a fairly well-made ship, and the various stat boosts they offer are enough to make it worthwhile to check out when you’re looking for something to do.
There are a few Iron Rig equipment add-ons that I highly recommend as must-craft items – these are nets and crab pots, which collect dredging material instead of fish, and new types of bait. The former will save you the trouble of desperately searching for floating objects when trying to upgrade your boat, while the latter – especially the exotic bait – make the process of catching any rare fish from other parts of the game that you may have been unable to catch so far much easier. Oh, and when the nights get spooky, you can make yourself some tea to calm yourself, which is really great
Overall, if you’re looking for more excavators, or a reason to dive back into the game for the first time since The Pale, then Iron Rig will likely provide at least a weekend of fun, even if there are places where it feels like it could be more than just one more fish in a pretty, spooky net.
Dredger: The Iron Ship will be released on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on August 15. It was reviewed using a PC key provided by the publisher.