RAVE: Dredge

 "Our brains deliberately make us forget things, to prevent insanity"

    H.P Lovecraft

Dredge is a fishing simulator, a inventory manager but also a dive into grief and the madness that ensues. It is a game about the story of two men. The fisherman and the collector and what happens when the two collide in the middle. Dredge is also our first RAVE of 2024 and our first 100% game of this year. This is our story.

I realized as I went to purchase another different game that I have developed quite a affinity for the games that Team 17 produce. In collaborations with other smaller studios, they have given me games like 'Blasphemous 1 and 2', 'Thymesia', the I am going to get back to it 'Narita Boy' and 'Dredge' (this one created by Black Salt Games). These a just a couple examples of how Team 17 seems to pick games I like and gravitate towards. Pretty good for a company that used to be known only for their 'Worms' games. I think it is because I enjoy Team 17 games that Dredge was on my radar early and after hearing the premise I was 'hooked' pun intended. (There will probably be a couple fishing puns in this RAVE I am afraid). However in the back of my head, I was thinking, would I enjoy a fishing game with mostly quick time events? It turns out at first my fears might have been warranted and in the early days a RAVE for Dredge did not seem likely.

When I first booted up Dredge, I was hooked by the very unique graphics, this game looks like a water painting come to life and it definitely swings more towards cell shading than realism. However look at the image above? Is it not breathtaking? Also the fact you can clearly see above and below water was super important in what at its core is a fishing game. The music whilst isn't a stand out is still very cozy and relaxing (until dangers rear up their head). Black Salt Games, the maker of Dredge really put a lot of work into this and it shows, not bad for a bunch of New Zealanders (I'm Australian at my core, irrational competition with NZ is in our blood) and a rather small indie studio and their first major game I believe. However below the watery surface (SORRY) was some things I did not immediately enjoy and it slowed my roll with the game and even made me pick up other games as a distraction.

I must say, if you are reading this blog, I would like to draw you attention to a newly added side bar I call UPDATES. In Updates, I keep you up to date on what I am playing and my general thoughts. For example, leading up to this RAVE, a couple times I mentioned I liked Dredge but I also have reservations about it however the updates changed in time and eventually I got pulled in, hook, line and sinker (SORRY). As it stood, my reservations were not something that could not be conquered by playing the game more and now I can say I've beaten the game twice, got both the endings and have 100% all the achievements including a very big, long, collect-a-thon. I purchased the DLC 'The Pale Reach' and finished all the side quests and got 100% of the achievements for that too. What I am saying is eventually this game became my jam and now I am sad I have completed it so completely that I will probably not play it again until the next DLC drops.

Enough about me through, lets talk more about Dredge. As I mentioned earlier, Dredge at its core is a story driven, fishing simulator with some dark undertones. The H.P Lovecraft quote at the beginning isn't just for show, Dredge is heavily inspired by Lovecraftian mythos and especially his stories about the sea and what lies below it. Similar to how Darkest Dungeon (another heavily inspired by H.P game I really enjoyed, see my previous RAVE about it), it builds on the foundation of what H.P always warned us about. The fear of the unknown. In this case, the unknown horror is localized in a archipelago of islands with colorful names like 'The Devil's Spine' and a small town of eccentric people. Of course, we have some normal people like the lady who fixes our boat and upgrades it when given the right material (more on that later) or the kindly old painter but than we have people like the lighthouse keeper who knows more than she is saying and the driving force of the game, the collector. We meet the collector relatively early and him and our player character the fisherman has many meetings with him and he is whom sends us on our very elaborate fetch quest.

Gameplay wise is where I had my first issues with the game, the game has a day/night cycle with the night time being particularly dangerous to go fishing in and because of this, you want to do most of your leg work and finding what you need during the daytime. However the cycle moves very quickly where a couple minutes dredging an item will equate to 3-4 hours game time and you'll be stuck out in the dark a lot more than you want to be. Sure it gets you into where the game wants you with your sanity meter spiraling out of control but the day/night cycle is a bit too accelerated for my taste. I put in a fair amount of time into Dredge (almost 30 hours) but the game built in timer says I've played it for 200+ days. There is a way you can make time move much slower in the game options but that is not how the game is intended to be played so I honestly will not entertain that. However I wish there was a compromise. I did eventually set my in-game clock to wake me up at the earliest I could so I could still capture some night fishes (which definitely exist) without being out at sea at the craziest hours. Thankfully nothing is really timed in this game and previously timed quests with certain individuals was patched out so the in-game date is a arbitrary number. You can start a collector quest, go do all the side quests you want to do, do some side fishing for some profit and not be on a strict timer because the collector will still be there waiting which I appreciate, my game plan eventually came down to doing that and the collector's item was the last thing I handed in before I moved onto the next chapter which I always took a one/two day real time break before going back in.

Focusing on the things I did not like at first, I also did not like how fragile my boat was and how a simple tap on a cliff face or a stray tentacle thing could sink my dreams. I especially did not enjoy how slow my boat was and with a game with a accelerated time, it took me hours to get from one side of the port to the other. The quick day and nights and the handling of the boat plus the general feeling of being lost were some of the reasons why I did not enjoy myself as much as I thought I would. The irony is the thing I thought would not speak to me the most, the fishing mini-games, became the thing I liked the most about Dredge. It quickly became more than that though. I realized that the shipwright could upgrade my boat and I could find resources to upgrade it pretty easily so soon I had a much more sturdy rig, I took to researching and how it unlocked other engines which could be attached to the boat to make her glide on the water and most importantly I found guides which showed me where I need to go and helped me stay on the path and not get stuck in the weeds (which I understand now I hate lol). Once I fully embraced the game Dredge was, I fell in love with it and it steadily became the only game I played with spouts of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle and DNF Duel on the side. In the end, I completed the game and its subsequent DLC and I am very happy I did. I immediately dived (SORRY) back in through to get another ending, hunt down more multiple fishes at all times of the day and night and I even got all the aberrations, Eldritch inspired lovelies like this one

I got my EYE on you.

I normally hate collect-a-thon quests but since I enjoyed the fishing mini game I did not mind it and within a couple days I completed my collection. Each fish has a colorful description too. So the gameplay is good but the real hook is the story and well we can not talk about that without dropping a big spoiler. IF you do not want to be spoiled just stroll down to the image of the Cat-hulu and enjoy the conclusion.

Going back to what I mentioned earlier, Dredge is the story of two people, the collector and the fisherman and as we come to learn, they are one and the same. It turns out the collector is a alter-ego the fisherman created after a tragedy where he lost his wife at sea. In a very Lovecraftian twist, he has decided to turn to the dark arts to get her back and he does not care whom will be sacrificed for this. The elaborate fetch quest that you have been helping him do is to perform a ritual and well, let just say it does not end well for anyone. A lot of folks would get this ending on their first try because the true 'good' ending is much more hidden and requires dredging up (SORRY) the history of the inhabitants of the town which includes the lighthouse keeper and the original mayor of the town. Both endings are masterful and really enhanced the game for me and even  nicer is the game allows you to experience both endings on one save so you do not need to completely replay the game for the other endings. I mentioned earlier that even if the fishing game did not entrap me, I would have kept going because of the story and it was worth it.

In closing; yes Dredge gets a RAVE and I can honestly say you do not even have to go all in like I did and you will still have a good time. The fishing game is fun, inventory management becomes a game in itself, the storyline has just enough to hook (SORRY ) you and keep you on the line. These indie games producers continues to blow me away with how much Black Salt Games can do on a smaller budget and Dredge continues to keep up the amazing track record that Team 17 knows what they are doing when it comes to publishing. Do not let this chance to go insane, go away.

AV