Console Corner: Review of Dredge

For those who know the Myers-Briggs personality matrix, I am an INTJ. One thing this means is my brain is constantly looking to extrapolate patterns and trends to form a concept, a whole. In our modern flood of media, this can be a difficult personality type to have; there is so much—too much to digest and form a coherent idea. But one game did stick out of 2023's matrix of content: Dredge. Let's take a look at why possibly.

Dredge is a cosmic horror fishing game, or perhaps more precisely, a Lovecraftian trawling game. Players take on the role of a fishing boat captain who pilots around an odd archipelago of islands, catching a wide variety of fish and collecting ancient items. You collect the fish to pay your way, and you collect the items are for a strange recluse with an occult backstory that wants telling. Look no deeper (har har).

Dredge is what I would all a gamer's game; the fun is to be found in the manner in which you push buttons (as opposed to a narrative-driven game for which uncovering story trumps button pushing). All games have you pushing buttons, I know, I know. Think Dark Souls vs The Last of Us. The skill with which you push buttons means something in Dark Souls, and means less in The Last of Us. The trouble with Dredge is that even though it is a button-pusher, it doesn't require much skill.

Dredge possesses a paucity of difficulty. As long as you sleep most nights (in game, natch), there is little to worry about. I died twice playing this game. The first was an accident—realizing I could actually die, and the second was a freak occurrence (har, evil, har). Can't say the same about Dark Souls... The game's biggest challenge is figuring out where the fish are you need to satisfy a quest. Other than that, the player can putter around in their boat, do this, do that, find a lobster, avoid a rainbow hurricane... and eventually get to the end. Like fishing itself, the game is supposed to be relaxing.

But on the opposite end of the Dark Souls vs The Last of Us spectrum, story in Dredge is likewise minimal. It feels like an old-school Nintendo game in some ways. You spend hours hitting buttons while a bit of story, a drop of tale there appears on screen then disappears. And finally beating the game gives you a fantastic pixel screen, and that's it. The End, role midi music. Dredge is precisely that. You do a lot of running around and repeating tasks, culminating in one, nice, very short sequence. You spend ~10 hours to get a 2 minute scene.

So where is the fun in Dredge? Why play through an easy, repetitive game to a lackluster conclusion? Fishing mostly, with a touch of the apprehension that comes with piloting the horrors of the night. That's really it. There are a variety of quick-time events pulling mackerel, shark, et al from the depths, just as the peculiar things emerge from the fog when the sun goes down that will pique interest. If the thought of repeating a cycle of catching various fish for money to upgrade your boat and satisfy quests in a Lovecraftian milieu doesn't entice, skip this one. Otherwise, this can be a relaxing spot of light fun.

The one item I would be remiss not to mention is art. Dredge shines, or more appropriately, it glows. Mood and weather truly come through piloting the boat through the various islands, nicely complemented by a pastel, impressionist art-style when interacting with menus and NPCs. Gameplay is based on the day/night cycle, meaning the player feels the clouds settle in, the twilight gloaming, the tropics of one island chain, and so on. There are times the game is truly beautiful, distracting from the repetition of quests.

In the end, Dredge is a light game that should not be of interest to people looking for a challenging, button masher. This is a relaxing affair with many quick-time style games and strong emphasis on fetch quests. I think the game needed significantly more story, as well as more variety in the manner in which story points interact with game mechanics. It feels weird collecting specific types of fish and receive a typewriter from a rock in return. That being said, the art is wonderful, both aesthetically appealing as well as functional; the world has a soul of its own. Back to my INTJ surveillance of the interwebs for titles worth playing...