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

RAVE: Darkest Dungeon

 Normally, I try to get blogs out at least once a week. However this one has been delayed mainly because I can't stop playing it enough to actual write a blog about it. It is time tho; here is my RAVE for

As always, we will begin with a brief history and what made me pick up this game. As I've explored the Roguelike genre, I heard many good things about a indie game called 'Darkest Dungeon'. I heard it was brutal, challenging and very, very unforgiving. I actual brought this game for Steam back in November 2022 and I got it for a steal of only $3.80 which now I look back on it, is amazing because of the now 180+ hours of entertainment I've got from it.

However due to the nature of how the game is best played with Mouse and Keyboard (M&K), I did not immediately sprung to playing it. For awhile I made an excuse it was because I did not want to play a M&K game and I had other games to play instead. However I eventually did learn to use M&K and ironically, one of the first games I learned it was with 'Iratus: Lord of the Dead', a game I've mentioned before on this blog and one of my favorite Roguelikes. 'Iratus' is heavily inspired by 'Darkest Dungeon' and now I've played both I can clearly see how much it influenced it. However I played the 'inspired by' before I actually played what inspired it. Sure, I brought 'Iratus' before 'Darkest Dungeon' and I really, really enjoyed 'Iratus'. I put in a lot of hours and beat the game twice, on the easiest and standard difficulties. I did many runs and bought all the DLC and even some of skin packs. 'Iratus' deserves its own RAVE and perhaps I'll replay it in the future and write one then but this is a 'Darkest Dungeon' blog.

So after playing the Hell out of 'Iratus' I played other games and I think my 'Risk of Rain 2' obsession kicked in not soon after and we all know how long that went for. I, however had 'Darkest Dungeon' in the back of my head. I wanted to play it and I had a couple of false starts before we finally started in earnest, about a month ago and boy oh boy, we have not looked back.

Another big deciding factor of giving 'Darkest Dungeon' a real go was me finding out it was 'old' enough to played on my desktop computer and I, no longer had to set up my Steam Deck to play it. The easier access of 'DD' on my desktop meant I could play it anytime I was on my desktop and spoiler; I am on my desktop a lot. Being able to play a M&K game on a desktop makes things so much easier and it is also why previous RAVES 'Indies' Lies'  and 'Deadbolt' also got played a lot. Surprisingly, I recently tried to play it on my Steam Deck and even through it works, the M&K made a massive difference in how much I enjoyed it. The controller options just felt limiting and I've become more a M&K person lately, strange because most of my gaming career I've always had a controller or a arcade stick in my hands. Okay, enough of the how we got here because we are here now and we are more and likely will not be going anywhere soon. I, honestly see 'Darkest Dungeon' becoming an ongoing feature on my blogs much like how 'Risk of Rain 2' was. You see, it is that addictive to me.

To quote it's Steam page, 'Darkest Dungeon' is a challenging gothic roguelike turn based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Can you keep your heroes together when all hope is lost? They are not lying to you either when they call it 'challenging'. My first couple of days with this game really took me for a ride and I deleted so many campaigns when things got too tough and I'll ran out of money and recruits to keep playing it. When I was new to the 'Stress' system, I would let highly stressed adventurers go into back to back missions and watch them fall apart and turn on their allies and sometimes, even worst, ruin a mission. I would dread the minute a 'Affliction' popped up on the screen and one of character's lost their marbles and became 'Sadistic' or 'Machoistic' or even worst 'Hopeless' and refuse to help the squad, or hurt themselves and sometimes even refused to be healed when they were about to die. Everything I heard about the game was true. This game was unforgiving and it really pushed me to the limit many times. Also just like any good Roguelikes, the deaths are final and anytime you lost an adventurer, you'll have to start from scratch with a new one. Sometimes they did not even have to die but you had to cut them loose because they came back so broken, it would not make sense to keep them cause it would take more money to heal them, money you did not have.

The rarest of the rare, an Inspired Hero!!

However, sometimes the RNG (random number generator) is on your side and instead of rolling an 'Affliction' you adventurer gets 'Inspired' and well that is one of the best feelings and every-time it actual happened I got super hyped (except the one time when one adventurer got Inspired and die on the next turn. As I said, unforgiving). Moments like that are few and far between and 90% of times it is opposite and I slowly learned that I should not let my adventurers reach their breaking points and actually invested in a bigger roster so the stressed individuals can rest whilst the younger, fresher recruits go and do the job instead.

Speaking of adventurers, it time to talk about the very colorful cast of characters you can use. Each one brings its own playstyle and nuances to the field. Be it, the Vestal whom can heal your whole team and swing a mean mace when she needs too. Or would you prefer to use the tank Man at Arms who specializes in taking hits, screaming folks into submission and setting up comeback ripostes or go completely off the rails and use the Jester whom is great for relieving stress but when the time comes, swings with the best of them. The games base roster of 15 (16 if you count the palate swap Musketeer whom shares all the skills with the Arbalest with her own twist) and each character comes with their own quirks and character lines. The Bounty Hunter is grim and focused on collecting his booty whilst the Highway Man is super cocky when things go his way. Each member has really endeared themselves to me and I can honestly say I do not have a 'favorite' character yet. At first I really did not like the Antiquarian because she had nothing but support skills and a very weak attack but I realize the purpose of a Antiquarian is helping you get more loot and I can honestly say I am only doing better now money-wise because I learned how to use her. Also early in my time with the game, I did not understand how strong the Occultist was because he kept healing adventurers for 1-2 hit points and bleeding them and how his playstyle seem too much of a mixed bag. Now the Occultist can slot into any team because of his amazing bag of tricks. Having a healer on the front lines and still able to hit with the best of them is just chef kiss. Each character has a diverse skill set too and you can mix and match them according to your team's composition. Some really work but everyone does have their preferred spot and you'll figure it out as you keep playing the game. Honestly, that and being able to personalize each adventurer and even naming them and choosing a specific color for them has made losses all the more sad when they succumb to the evils of this world.

If you get this reference, we can be best of friends.

The game even warns you, not every hero will survive and you are bound to fail some missions and abandon others. This is the nature of 'Darkest Dungeon'. This game is so unforgiving that you can successful complete a mission, with full health and low or zero stress and the game still decides to give your adventurer the 'Black Plague' disease (which screws with your stats and make you even more susceptible to more diseases... yay) with no warning. On top of that, it might give you a real life quirk like Kleptomania and cause you adventurer to random steal loot for themselves and not share with the squad. Such is the perils of dungeon diving in this world. Then you find something sending them to treatment centers to get rid of said disease or negative quirks but you can also lock in positive ones you have picked up as well. Never have I've played a game which almost gleefully likes to set you up for fail but for some strange reason because I am who I am, the guy who likes to die (in video games) and loves a challenge I keep playing it and even funnier, enjoying it.

However enjoying it I am. I just hit a 170 hrs and beaten the final boss and I haven't even started on the DLCs (which I still need to purchase). I am enjoying the base game (mind you with some very needed Quality of Life mods like Faster Walking and Expanded Inventory) and then there is so much more I can explore. The afore-mentioned DLCs including one that is heavily inspired by H.P Lovecraft's 'The Color From Space' and the big one, 'The Crimson Court' which adds a lot more bosses, a new class and VAMPIRES!!

Maybe its the RPG elements without all the extra fluff that comes with RPGs (walking to and from places, having to find McGuffins to open locked doors, the hunt for stronger, better weapons). Maybe its the addictive hook of leveling up a squad of killers and finding new synergies with them and finding innovative set-ups like twin Crusaders who constantly swap position with each other so they can both access their very OP Holy Lance move. Maybe its the cool narrator who always has something to say or maybe its beating the odds even tho it is stacked heavily against you. I also love the setting being a fan of Lovecraftian themes and gothic fantasy in general. Hell, maybe its the town management of keeping a home base (in this case your Hamlet/ Estate) up and running and your army in top shape which I never realized I can do. Traditionally I've ignore a lot of base building games but in Darkest Dungeon, all this micro-managing is part and parcel of the experience and I've grown to enjoy that too.

Every thing in this game, hits all the right spots for me and I feel its honestly why I need to do this long RAVE about it. Despite it beating me down so many times, I still get back up and hit 'Embark' and prepare a new squad. As promised, this is the beginning, we will probably be back with our 2 cents on the DLC's adventurers, the Flagellant and the Shield Breaker and of course review the DLCs. If you enjoy a challenging turn based game that asks you a lot but rewards you as well, you will not regret diving into this 'Darkest Dungeon'.

AV