Yer fond of me lobster, ain’t ye?

April 11, 2023 6:33 AM

Dredge invents and perfects the fishing-horror genre [YouTube][Launch Trailer] “Dredge begins with a fisherman arriving at Greater Marrow, one island in an archipelago that interrupts a vast stretch of wine-dark sea, under peculiar circumstances. [...] Catching the fish requires a simple timing minigame, in which you have to hit a button at the exact right moment. But to keep the fish to later sell, you have to make space in your hull; each catch means rearranging the gridded cargo hold to optimize storage. [...] Through all this fishing, selling, and upgrading, you’ll find places to dock on other islands, one of which will set the fisherman off on a search for several artifacts that threaten to reveal more of the ocean’s secrets than, perhaps, he wants to see. It’s quickly understood that Dredge’s ocean has plenty of mysteries — many of which arise at night. It’s not only mackerel and coral grouper that swim in Dredge’s seas; something’s rotting the fish and turning them into grotesque monsters. Fish for long enough at night, and they’ll reveal themselves more easily, bursting forth from the sea to tear your ship to shreds. In these moments Dredge veers slightly into horror. But it’s a soft psychological horror —” [via: Polygon]

• Dredge Sends You Fishing in the Horrifying Depths [Siliconera]

“It becomes more than just a fishing game, but rather a game about resource management to make greater strides. The additional islands surrounding Greater Marrow can take more than 12 hours to reach, if you haven’t upgraded your engine, which could leave you limping into a port once you try to make the trek out there. You’ll come to realize that precautions that keep you safe at night, like lights, draw in the very things that can kill you. When you start fishing up questionable catches, taking them to certain people can make you realize others also know something is “wrong,” but are handling it in different ways. It’s incredibly unnerving and unsettling, but without jump scares. Rather, you’ll sometimes encounter moments where you know things are wrong and you’re in danger, but you can’t exactly address it properly to save yourself. [...] Another thing I didn’t expect is for Dredge to be as accessible a horror and fishing game as it is. There’s a dedicated section in options designed to help make it easy for people to play, without toning down the difficulty in most cases. You can set the colors for emphasized, important, positive, and negative text. You can turn the option to toggle the Radial menu for abilities and equippment. You can set text speeds and pop up durations. You can adjust motion smoothing and the turning deadzone. Also, if you are having trouble fishing, there’s a “relaxed” mode that guarantees you will catch a fish, even if you fail. It’s all very accommodating, but doesn’t negatively affect gameplay.”

• Dredge is probably the least predictable farming sim you’ll ever play [Kotaku]

“Dredge is most successful when it’s working to unmoor you, surprising you with elegant horrors that descend when fog creeps in, and it smartly uses your previous experience with fishing minigames (which are usually calming, methodical, found in inoffensive farming and life sims like Disney Dreamlight Valley) against you. Unfortunately, in my five hours with Dredge—the debut title from New Zealand-based studio Black Salt Games—I don’t always feel like it’s succeeding. After sitting up, sopping, from where I was spilled in Greater Marrow, the main cluster of buildings in the small archipelago my character now calls home, I’m approached by its paunchy, overly-familiar mayor. Following in the footsteps of other life simulation games including Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, the mayor introduces my fisherman character to the town, loans me a boat, and, less expectedly, issues a cryptic warning—come back before the fog rolls in. Though the daylight doesn’t last long—time moves only when you’re fishing or boating, but it moves fast—everything is fine when you’re in it. The game’s art style, with its sharp-edged, geometrically shaded cartoons, issues the water as robin’s egg blue, matching the sky until the sun lowers and stains the edges of it in pomegranate.”

posted by Fizz (42 comments total)

Started playing Dredge at the weekend, and myself, my wife and my mate who was visiting have absolutely fallen in love with it. It's a wonderfully self-contained and oddly soothing Eldritch horror out there - thoroughly recommended.
posted by onebuttonmonkey at 6:37 AM on April 11, 2023 [5 favorites]

[stamps loudly on one ivory peg leg over to the taffrail of the Pequod]

A fishing horror story with a primer in economics and facts about the denizens of the deep you say
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:51 AM on April 11, 2023 [22 favorites]

It has SUCH a satisfying gameplay loop of: fish/explore eldritch horror, sell, upgrade, repeat. And while the horror can get creepy, it doesn't feel overwhelming. I've found its the perfect game for when you want to keep busy but not stress out your brain too much at the end of a long day of work. I'm only about 5 hours in but I can see myself playing this endlessly.

Stardew fishing and lovecraftian horror, whats not to love.
posted by Fizz at 6:55 AM on April 11, 2023 [9 favorites]

The game can be unnerving (as it tries to be) but often is quite gentle. Some of the inhabitants of the archipelago are strange but nobody (so far) actually wishes you harm. Indeed, if you are spending too much time in the mists and darkness, they will comment on how tired and spooked you look and that you should probably stay in port and get some rest.

I have, however, been playing it too much over the last few evenings. I've started dreaming about it and, while that may be thematically appropriate, it is not great for my sleep.
posted by antiwiggle at 6:56 AM on April 11, 2023 [6 favorites]

Let me be clear, the fishing is not as fussy or as annoying as Stardew. I simply meant the simulation aspect of it has a kind of Stardew feel in slowly getting to know people around the bay and that core loop of work/upgrade. I know a lot of people who hate the fishing mini-game in Stardew and this is so much easier and not at all frustrating.
posted by Fizz at 7:02 AM on April 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

It looks really pretty in a PG-13 nightmare kind of way. Love the art direction.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:03 AM on April 11, 2023

“But there are times you pull something out of the water for which there's no accounting, the only remnant of a story whose contours are a mystery.”
― John Langan, The Fisherman
posted by doctornemo at 7:08 AM on April 11, 2023 [9 favorites]

My wife is playing and really wants to like it, but her biggest gripe is that time goes way, way, way too quickly. Is there a setting to slow it down?
posted by kbanas at 7:10 AM on April 11, 2023

My wife is playing and really wants to like it, but her biggest gripe is that time goes way, way, way too quickly. Is there a setting to slow it down?

I have the same gripe, but doesn't look like that's an option (unless they patch that in down the road). That being said, the one bit of advice I can give is that at night-time, try to stay close to the coast, helps keep the horror at bay or at least a bit more bearable in regards to escaping or running away when shit hits the fan.
posted by Fizz at 7:20 AM on April 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

My wife is playing and really wants to like it, but her biggest gripe is that time goes way, way, way too quickly. Is there a setting to slow it down?

I don't have my console to hand but I'm not aware of a game setting to slow down the clock.
The clock moves noticeably slower as you get better engines (and faster fishing gear), and I found every upgrade made a noticeable difference.
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 7:23 AM on April 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

That being said, the one bit of advice I can give is that at night-time, try to stay close to the coast, helps keep the horror at bay or at least a bit more bearable in regards to escaping or running away when shit hits the fan.

And in the game, too.
posted by curious nu at 7:24 AM on April 11, 2023 [18 favorites]

The clock moves noticeably slower as you get better engines

Really? I thought it was just me getting better at handling the time.
posted by antiwiggle at 7:26 AM on April 11, 2023

I have too many games backlogged right now, but this is so so on my wishlist for some point because the vibes look impeccable and I love an off-the-beaten-path take on horror.
posted by cortex at 7:33 AM on April 11, 2023

My only complaint presently is I'm terrible at spatial logic and the mangroves are stressing me out trying to find the place that needs the fish before the fish rots away.
posted by Scattercat at 7:37 AM on April 11, 2023

Let me be clear, the fishing is not as fussy or as annoying as Stardew. I simply meant the simulation aspect of it has a kind of Stardew feel in slowly getting to know people around the bay and that core loop of work/upgrade. I know a lot of people who hate the fishing mini-game in Stardew and this is so much easier and not at all frustrating.

I'm so happy for the clarification, Fizz. I didn't love the fishing mechanism in Stardew. Thanks!
posted by mochapickle at 7:51 AM on April 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think that Dredge has received the most unanimous praise from my peer group since The Case of the Golden Idol, and the critical consensus also seems to suggest that it's something pretty special, so it's on my list.

Ironically, it's blocked at the moment by a potentially infinite replay of Sunless Sea, which seems to have some setting and aesthetic commonality with Dredge, but a very different core loop.
posted by running order squabble fest at 7:57 AM on April 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sunless Sea, which seems to have some setting and aesthetic commonality with Dredge, but a very different core loop.

I bounced off of Sunless Sea b/c the controls for the boat were so fiddly. Maybe I need to give it another chance, does the navigation get easier or "less floaty". I know its a game with a boat but still, it just never felt right and I set it aside despite really enjoying the aesthetic and world its built.
posted by Fizz at 8:03 AM on April 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

>The clock moves noticeably slower as you get better engines
Really? I thought it was just me getting better at handling the time.

You're right. the clock doesn't actually move slower. It just seems that way if you have a faster engine or faster fishing gear.
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 8:24 AM on April 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I like grids! I like virtual fishing! I like weird eyeball fish!
posted by Going To Maine at 8:42 AM on April 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Fizz: Try Sunless Skies. Same studio, same setting (well, sorta), set a few years(?) after Sunless Seas when the Zee has spilled into the heavens and you and others pilot locomotives through the skies.

The gameplay is very similar, but smoother, and the quests are less frusturating in that you can come back with an item you need instead of missing out and the quest ending abruptly if you didn't have the right doohicky at the right time.

It is ever so slightly more actioney, in that they replaced the aiming by keeping the target in sight for X seconds mechanic with actually firing projectiles and aiming yourself.

Great mood, great music, great game.
posted by sotonohito at 8:45 AM on April 11, 2023 [6 favorites]

I bounced off of Sunless Sea b/c the controls for the boat were so fiddly. Maybe I need to give it another chance, does the navigation get easier or "less floaty".


I think I would be hard-put to say that the controls for the boat are ever great - it's a bit of a "stick with it and it gets good in Season 2" answer, but I found that when I upgraded to a better gun, a more powerful engine and, ultimately, a more robust boat I found the control of the boat less concerning, because I was less likely to run into shore and lose my last point of XP or get rammed to oblivion by a living iceberg that I had sailed into the ambit of while my attention was distracted. However, I have a very high tolerance for atmospheric repetitition, and YMMverypossiblyV. The game definitely opens up once you've opened up a decent number of ports and have multiple deliveries, trading routes and quest lines open that might get advanced whenever you put in somewhere.

I haven't played it yet (because backlog), but apparently the follow-up, Sunless Skies, maintained the brilliant writing and sense of an evolving world with consequential choices, but significantly improved on the real-time elements of the gameplay.
posted by running order squabble fest at 8:46 AM on April 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

How much time and inventory management is there? They are my least favorite things in gaming. I love exploring and atmosphere, maybe some action.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:50 AM on April 11, 2023

I've been thinking about picking this game up! Any reason to get it on the PC vs on the Switch? Seems like a good game to play on the couch if it plays well on the Switch...
posted by rivenwanderer at 9:03 AM on April 11, 2023

I don’t know why but “minor key piano music and occasional tentacles” is a day one gaming purchase for me every time.
posted by mhoye at 9:11 AM on April 11, 2023 [6 favorites]

How much time and inventory management is there?
Inventory management involved:
* How can I fit these fish/stuff onto the tetris grid of my (initially) small boat?
* I need to find research tokens to research new engines/rods/nets etc
* I need to collect various bits of scrap to upgrade my actual boat
* I need cash to buy the new kit/upgrades I've researched
Your boat is always slightly too small to do all the things you want to do.

Time management is the killer, and one of the main mechanics in the game. Time flies and night falls very quickly. And if you're still out on the water when night falls, bad stuff can happen. Upgrading your engines and lights etc gradually mitigate this, allowing you to go farther and do more before night falls. Or just stay out at night with a lower chance of the horrors getting you.
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 9:11 AM on April 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

How much time and inventory management is there? They are my least favorite things in gaming. I love exploring and atmosphere, maybe some action.

A fair bit of the game is figuring out how to Tetris the fish, crabs, monsters you catch. It's a rogue, so you're making lots of trips back to the dock, and thankfully there is a single button "sell all fish" option but you will be futzing with inventory. It might be worth watching a few streams, here's Northernlion playing Dredge (one of my all time fav streamers), give him a watch and you can decide if its up your alley or not.
posted by Fizz at 9:13 AM on April 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

> I've been thinking about picking this game up! Any reason to get it on the PC vs on the Switch? Seems like a good game to play on the couch if it plays well on the Switch...

I've only played it on the Switch, and it runs well. I've not noticed any slowdowns or other glitches.
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 9:14 AM on April 11, 2023

I've been thinking about picking this game up! Any reason to get it on the PC vs on the Switch?

If you happen to have a Steam Deck it's basically the perfect Steam Deck game. Runs great, looks great, the atmosphere is beyond amazing. You can play it in the dark, curled up on your couch, getting mildly creeped out. Strongly recommend.

One note, avoiding spoilers: there are four timed quests that give no indication they are timed. It is entirely possible (likely, even) to fail them without knowing you're failing until it's too late. It makes very little difference in gameplay, but if you're a completist you might grumble a little at this wrinkle in an otherwise nearly perfect vibe.

For more on the trend and this game:

If you’re a video game developer that wants to make waves this spring, there’s one easy way to do it: Make a game where you have to organize some sort of inventory while also ignoring The Horrors.

- Polygon
posted by The Bellman at 9:29 AM on April 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Sunless games have way more content, much more intricate and challenging resource systems, and are much less forgiving of mistakes.

Stardew Valley also has way more content and more freedom to the gameplay.

Dredge is a simpler game but that's a virtue in some ways.
posted by Hume at 10:19 AM on April 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've started dreaming about it

"The chick that's in him pecks its shell."
posted by Paul Slade at 2:36 PM on April 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

okay I've been playing for like four hours they managed to get my dopamine going a+
posted by sibboleth at 2:58 PM on April 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

This sounds amazing. But I hate anything on a timer. Even Stardew Valley was too much for me with its day/night cycle. I know you can basically ignore that part of the game, but I was always rushing home thinking I was going to be too tired tomorrow. I can take brutal games, long, complex games, weird quirky games. But put a timer on anything and I just melt. In a bad way.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:58 PM on April 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've basically started ignoring the timer, at least once I've got a basic handle on the geography of a new area. All the fun stuff happens at n i g h t
posted by rifflesby at 4:52 PM on April 11, 2023

I'm definitely looking forward to playing this. I did get a similar vibe to Sunless Sea and Skies, though those were much more like a collection of mini-fictions that you had to do a really tedious driving game to access. This seems much more my speed.

Incidentally (and this may get me to go back to Sunless) I understand there are some really solid mods that do stuff like double your speed and fuel and cargo capacity, which does nothing but improve your ability to play the actual game, which is difficult decision-making and reading deliciously weird prose.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:53 PM on April 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: helps keep the horror at bay or at least a bit more bearable.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 8:50 PM on April 11, 2023 [6 favorites]

― John Langan, The Fisherman

Pardon the derail, but this is an absolutely incredible gothic horror novel, one that built up images in my head that I can't forget. Big recommend! I have so many unread books these days I basically never reread anything--but I reread this book, it's that good.
posted by zardoz at 12:49 AM on April 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

The game has a pretty decent balance in gameplay and accessibility. I got pretty hooked into the fishing and got my timing down so I've been able to land plenty of trophy fish. When you see a gold target area rather than the usual green, that will land you a trophy fish.

I am also happy to see Team17 still has it. Worms will always be close to my heart.
posted by john at 3:57 AM on April 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I would second the point about time, but it takes a few hours to get there. By which point you will have lost some of your sense of day or night in the game and, as my partner noted after I wondered why I had a slight sanity issue in the daytime, “that’s because you haven’t slept since the horrors you encountered last night”. Which is completely valid and firmly hammers home both the game’s atmospheric success, as well as how easily we become corrupted by are surroundings. This is an excellent game.
posted by Callisto Prime at 6:28 AM on April 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yes, I stayed up past my bedtime playing this! I'd say that the Switch controls are a little clunky in that "I feel like this was designed for mouse and keyboard first" kind of way, but I got used to it pretty quickly. I'm a huge scaredy-cat so I've been mostly sleeping at night while I get my boat better, but I'm loving the game overall so far.
posted by rivenwanderer at 10:34 AM on April 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I should revisit the Sunless series; I got stuck in a loop where I could never build up resources of any kind, so I was forever stuck with the same set of options. I assume there's a way out of that, but I never found it.
posted by ChrisR at 1:42 PM on April 12, 2023

ChrisR - it's offtopic, but I found the answer in Sunless Sea was, significantly, "grind", certainly to begin with, but at a certain point there are ways to make quite a bit of money quite quickly in Sunless Sea. Happy to share some of my strategies if you do pick Sea back up, although to avoid a further derail it might be best to memail.
posted by running order squabble fest at 6:13 PM on April 12, 2023

I'd say that the Switch controls are a little clunk

Agreed. It's not a deal-breaker but its more of an adjustment that you get used to and wish was a bit better.

I too have mostly been focusing on day time trips to upgrade equipment. But a handful of night time excursions do still happen and they're thrilling in short bursts!!
posted by Fizz at 8:36 AM on April 14, 2023