Dredge (video game)

Dredge is a 2023 fishing video game developed by Black Salt Games and published by Team17. The game follows a fisherman who encounters increasingly Lovecraftian creatures as he ventures out further into an open world archipelago. It was released on March 30, 2023, for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Gameplay
Dredge sees the player control a small motorized fishing boat. The game takes place on a day–night cycle, where specific actions the player takes, such as sailing or fishing, push the clock forward. The player can look for fish to catch or underwater items to salvage at certain spots, where they play a short minigame to bring their catch on board. If the player stays out into the night, a panic meter starts to rise, with higher levels leading to hallucinations that change reality around the boat, creating hazards that may damage the player's vessel; however, some fish only become available during the night hours, forcing the player to stay out during these times. The waters around the archipelago also contain a number of sea monsters which can attack the player.

After docking at the main settlement or with a traveling merchant, players can sell their catch and buy new equipment for their boat such as brighter lights, faster engines, or better fishing equipment that expands the types of fish that can be caught. The boat has a predetermined amount of space on board, and the player has to choose which gear to fit inside along with space for their catch; however, players can upgrade their boat, expanding its capacity and resilience to damage. At other docks scattered around the archipelago, the player can also accept side quests, completing tasks for the residents of the islands to earn rewards, as well as stop and rest which decreases panic and quickly advances time for the player.

Plot
A Fisherman sails to the coastal town of Greater Marrow, situated in a distant archipelago, to take up a job offer to be the town's local angler. While the job starts normal enough, the Fisherman soon begins to notice strange phenomena, especially at night, when he encounters strange mist, rocks that suddenly appear out of nowhere, ghost ships, hostile wildlife, sea monsters, and the feeling of being watched. In addition, as he sails around the archipelago, he begins to find messages in bottles, which are diary entries written by a newlywed wife known only as J.J. as she recounts how she first arrived in the archipelago with her husband, whom she witnessed dredging up a mysterious casket from the sea floor, which he subsequently opened and released some supernatural power. After awakening a creature in the depths, it destroyed their boat, killing his wife and stranding himself and the old mayor on a small island.

The Fisherman then encounters a man called the Collector, who lives alone in an isolated island mansion. The Collector tasks the Fisherman with exploring the other archipelago islands and the ancient ruins they hide to recover several relics. The Collector also uses a unique book called the Book of the Deep to grant the Fisherman supernatural powers that he can use on his expeditions. Once the Fisherman collects all the relics, he can either hand them over to the Collector or withhold them.


 * If the Fisherman hands over the relics, the Collector reveals that he is J.J.'s husband, who recovered the Book of the Deep from the casket and discovered a ritual that could resurrect J.J. He had the Fisherman gather the relics, all personal items of J.J.'s, because they are required for the ritual. The Fisherman takes the Collector to the part of the ocean where J.J. had drowned and performs the ritual by throwing the collected relics overboard. The ritual successfully resurrects J.J. but also awakens a massive Cthulhu-like eldritch beast, destroying Greater Marrow and presumably the rest of the world.
 * If the Fisherman withholds the relics, he confronts the Collector and finds out, to his shock, that the Collector is a figment of his own imagination, an avatar of his own repressed memories and guilt over J.J.'s death. Rather than follow the Collector's bidding, the Fisherman heads out to sea and throws the Book of the Deep into the ocean, resulting in him and his boat being swallowed by a massive sea monster.

The Pale Reach
The Fisherman heads south of the archipelago to discover The Pale Reach, a frozen biome that appears and disappears every few years. After helping a nature photographer capture a photo of a ravenous creature resembling a narwhal, as well as finding and assembling an icebreaker ram for his boat, the Fisherman finds himself on the trail of an arctic expedition crew that disappeared nearly 100 years ago while investigating the Pale Reach, finding journal entries that reveal that the Captain, Navigator, and Boatswain of the crew had become enthralled by the ravaged and still-living corpse of an enormous eldritch monster trapped in the ice. As the crew attempted to free the creature under the promise of treasure, the First Officer led a mutiny, ending in the crew either dying or fleeing the Pale Reach, with only the four men remaining and becoming trapped in the ice themselves, still bound to the creature and unable to die. After finding enchanted ice axes, the Fisherman is able to free the men from their torment, with their deaths killing the creature as well.

Development
Dredge started development in 2020 by New Zealand studio Black Salt Games. The team was inspired by other games with oppressive atmospheres, like Papers, Please and Frostpunk. Fog was used as an artistic tool to contrast the day, which is almost completely clear, to the night, where the player can barely see in front of themselves. A developer described the process of creating the game's mutant fish, saying they were "coming up with the craziest adjectives to describe these messed up fish".

In May 2023, Black Salt Games announced a number of future updates to the game, including boat customization, a photo mode, a "passive mode" that makes hostile creatures no longer aggressive allowing for less stressful gameplay, and a paid DLC expansion revolving around the mysterious Ironhaven Corporation. An additional DLC expansion entitled The Pale Reach, containing a new polar biome, was announced in October 2023.

On December 15, 2023, crossover content based on Dredge was released as free DLC for Mintrocket's Dave the Diver video game. Another paid DLC, The Iron Rig, was announced in June 2024 to release on August 16.

Reception
Dredge received "generally favorable" reviews, according to the review aggregator Metacritic.

Writing for Eurogamer, Edwin Evans-Thirlwell felt that over the course of the game it did not "evolve much", while also criticizing the player's ability to upgrade their ship to make challenges trivial.

Roland Ingram of Nintendo Life praised the night sections, writing that "The story relentlessly sends you out of your comfort zone, out among treacherous cliffs or bobbing vulnerably atop sickeningly deep, dark waters".

In GamesRadar+'s review of the game, Ali Jones wrote that he disliked the late game progression, but enjoyed the sound design, saying "the minor piano trill that cuts through when you pull in one of these nightmares, is enough to send a shiver down your spine on even the game's most idyllic-seeming days".

Sales
Dredge sold over 100,000 copies within the first twenty-four hours of release, a milestone that the developers had expected would take a year or longer to reach. In October 2023, Black Salt Games reported that Dredge had sold one million copies.

Accolades
Dredge was named among the best games of 2023 in lists compiled by GamesRadar+, Time, The Guardian, Svenska Dagbladet, and Polygon.

Film adaptation
A live-action film adaptation is being developed by production company Story Kitchen.