For the past few years, it has become increasingly difficult to identify a game that does not include some form of fishing. The reason for this is well explained in this material, and spoiler alert: it has to do with the need of temporarily decreasing the pace of the game. Interestingly, Dredge – much like Stardew Valley – probably didn’t get the memo, because fishing here is one of the more stressful activities 😉 However, unlike the best farm simulator on the market, Dredge is not an easy game and is hard to recommend to beginners. Casual players might fare slightly better, but they will most likely encounter their fair share of frustration.
The three main advantages of this game are: 1. Lovecraftian atmosphere, and there are very few games that capture the darkness, tentacleness, slipperiness, and filthiness of the world of the Great Old Ones as well as Dredge does. 2. Fundamentally, the game does not punish mistakes too often, allows for equipment improvement, which can make up for a lack of agility, and patience can often accomplish more than reflexes. 3. Despite the looming sense of doom over the player, relaxed gameplay is possible. Simply fishing from a cutter on a cold, unspecified sea – somewhere near frosty Iceland, rocky Norway, or perhaps foggy Scotland?
The simple graphics remind one of a darker version of Fortnite, the soundtrack effectively underscores this cold, maritime style, and the interface is rather uncomplicated.
However, the game also has three equally significant flaws. 1. Above all, the storyline is paradoxically both linear and excessively fragmented. There is a certain limit to mysterious insinuations in suddenly interrupted dialogues and on water-smudged letters in a bottle, after which the narration turns into a chaotic stream of consciousness. Don’t get me wrong! The babble of madmen, the disturbing glances of a shrewd mayor, and hooded figures with wheezing breaths are very Lovecraftian and intriguing ways of storytelling. However, between one significant silence and another, there should still be a clear guiding thought. Otherwise, our decisions cease to be choices and become a lottery among options we do not understand well, so we cannot even approximately predict the consequences – similar to Baldur’s Gate 3’s case – and as a result, they do not provide a sense of real agency or satisfaction.
2. From our beginner-casual perspective, the second flaw are the controls. As we know from physics lessons (or – more likely – from popular science videos on YouTube), once a body is set in motion, it stays in motion until another force acts upon it. And in life, we particularly see this Newtonian law in aquatic conditions of limited friction… What I’m trying to express in this scientific way is… when, after hours of struggling to accelerate our painfully sluggish cutter, this damned boat finally manages to move with sensible speeds, then – in accordance with well-replicated physics – it careens heedlessly onto rocks and regularly smashes into tiny planks. Exiting the port sometimes has the charm of parking in a small cove. And it’s not that most people couldn’t handle it. But one cannot expect that it won’t discourage a newbie.
The third problem is fishing. You know. That little detail that is central to this game. The mini-game of fishing requires a lot of reflexes. Again – is this the level of agility of an acrobat? No. We’ll manage. But will this be a constant source of frustration for many beginner players – likely.
The lack of voiced dialogues or narrators (even in English), which slightly limits the accessibility for some players, lack of a fish species map, leading us to frequently search the internet to avoid aimlessly spending hours looking for a specific, essential species, absence of adjustable difficulty levels, and certain limitations on game saves (only in ports, on only one save slot) do not help Dredge.
Despite this, it is not a “difficult” game. It’s a normal level of difficulty, with a series of nuisances that don’t spoil the pleasure of the game, which, however, is hard to recommend to beginners. And casual players probably won’t even reach such a niche title for simply being – as the name suggests – casually able to play games and there are many better known and more laid back titles.
Final Izzy Mode Score for Dredge
Casual score: how suitable the game is for casual players – casual players who like a challenge from time to time, but generally just wanna’ have fu-u-n🎵 a few hours a week without stress and just for the fun of playing. The higher the score the more casual-friendly the game.
n00b-o-meter: how suitable the game is for n00b players – new players whose gaming career started and ended with Candy Crush, Tetris or browser games or even never played a game and would like to start. The higher the score the more n00b-friendly the game.
General Izzyness Level: between Izzy Mode, Normal, Hard and Nightmare – how would the title score in the difficulty scale known from games?
