The coral bass’ skin erodes as do the living reefs it inhabits. Bruises on bright orange skin are bleached white rotting scales to exposed bone. Dead-eyed and open-mouthed, the fish that has not yet festered lurks in the shallow waters of Dredge‘s Stellar Basin. The ocean might as well be an alien world, a place completely uninhabitable for humans – and yet it covers most of our planet and holds more mysteries and horrors than most can imagine.
In Dredgedeveloper Black Salt Games’ debut video game, these mysteries are beginning to emerge. Dredge begins with a fisherman arriving under special circumstances at Greater Marrow, an island in an archipelago that disrupts a vast stretch of wine-dark sea. His ship was wrecked on the rocks guarding the shore, so he quickly handed in a new boat and some fishing line and sent it on its way by the mayor; People must have something to eat.
And so he fishes. Dredge is a fishing game after all – albeit a tugging one idea of fishing instead of reality. As a fisherman, I go to sea and cast out my line. During the 12 hours of sunlight you can see where the fish bubble to the surface and their shadows dance beneath the waves. If you cast off your line, a fish will bite immediately; There is no patiently waiting for a single nibble. Catching the fish requires a simple timing mini-game that requires you to press a button at just the right moment. But to store the fish for later sale, you need to make room in your hull; each catch means rearranging the gridded hold to optimize storage, a little game tetris
The more fish you catch, the more you can sell, and that leads to upgraded fishing rods, motors, and nets. The challenge, however, is that new gear takes up the same valuable cargo space as your fresh (and rotten) catch. Fish a few hours in-game and you’ll quickly discover that filling your ship with mackerel that take up two grid spaces can be easy, though much more difficult to organize rays and sharks that quickly take up space unpredictably. Through all that fishing, selling, and upgrading, you’ll find places to dock on other islands, one of which will send the fisherman on a quest for several artifacts that threaten to reveal more of the ocean’s mysteries than he might want to see. You understood that quickly Dredge‘s ocean holds many mysteries – many of which emerge at night.
It’s not just mackerel and coral perch swimming in it Dredge‘s seas; something rots the fish and turns them into grotesque monsters. Fish long enough at night and they will reveal themselves more easily and burst out of the sea to tear your ship apart. In those moments Dredge
in many ways Dredge reminiscent of developer Adam Robinson-You A short hike. DredgeHow A short hike, forces me to consider why I’m playing a game. It’s not about winning as quickly as possible or getting a payout, it’s about stopping and doing nothing – paying meaningful attention to the small details of the world. It’s in the way Dredge‘s sun hides behind the water as day turns to night, in the shocking horror of pulling out a fish that’s just a cluster of eyes, or dredging up a bolt of sodden cloth Only if you need it for a new hull. The atmosphere says so much more Dredgeworld than any dialogue ever could. It’s a story made up of gentle nudges into subtle niches of beauty and horror.
Hiking is desired Dredge; The map needs to be pulled up and studied as there are no waypoints to set. There is no on-screen marker leading you to the next quest; Instead, you head northwest or far east, looking for landmarks that match what you saw on the map. And there are bound to be some surprises along the way: perhaps the silence rush of a pod of dolphins before you see them, or the screeching of a murder crow ready to poke your eyes out.
Dredge analyzes those moments of rewarding exploration without losing focus on the core ideas of fishing and discovering new creatures. But it also masterfully balances two different tones. It embraces the kind of fear and dread that creeps in, with shaky eyes, after too many nights without enough sleep. It’s not boiling terror or panic, it’s more of a simmer. There’s enough daylight for some respite, but it never stays too long. Dredge is the perfect kind of dark yet cozy game. It can be unsettling, yes, but it never swims too far into the abyss.
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