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Dredge is a 3D Sunless Sea. It’s…mostly fine.
Dredge takes place in a strange pocket universe, which you apparently arrive in after driving into a fog bank. Corruption seeps into the land, infecting fish and driving the locals mad (maybe). You have no real direction, other than the mayor of the local town foisting the job of fisherman on you and warning you to avoid the fog. Soon, you broaden your horizons and meet a variety of strange folk, solving their problems as you can (with fish).
There are many things to enjoy about Dredge: the camera is very pleasant, slightly zooming out and muting nearby sounds when you look from above, and zooming in and giving you a taste of the fresh salt air when viewing from the level. The audio design is equally apt, giving you a sense of dread and mystery as you sail between islands, all within the view of the original lighthouse.
Sadly, that last point also brings up a slight issue: the whole world is quite small, and you’ll be finishing up the game in around 6 hours (I didn’t go for 100% completion, but I also didn’t go straight for the critical path, and finished just around there). There are really only five areas, and the fishing minigame doesn’t evolve enough to keep it entertaining across those areas, leading to a sense of tedium as you approach the ending. I can’t say Sunless Sea doesn’t have a similar issue (with farming Echoes becoming a bit of a chore as you finish exploring), but Dredge seems to have sunk quite a bit into the upgrade paths for fishing – which seemed odd to me as I finished the game before I had even the slightest chance of fully upgrading my boat, and many upgrades I ended up acquiring far before I was able to use them. Had I not been pushing for the upgrades, I wouldn’t have even reached the penultimate stage.
I almost can’t believe I’m saying this, but I missed the resource management found in Sunless Sea; while trying to fit all your fish in Dredge can be an interesting occasional challenge (ah, if only I could mirror the inventory slots), there is very little danger to be found in the world even from the nighttime fog, and even the inventory minigame starts to become unnecessary once you get nets. As you come to the conclusion of your adventure, this means most of your time is spent sailing from place to place, either looking for a specific fish or running back to progress a quest.
The plot is serviceable, though since I think I stumbled across the “good” ending by accident it didn’t really explain much and introduced what appeared to be several plot holes. Some of the side quests provide quite thematic and atmospheric accents to the world, and the middle third is probably the most relaxing part of the game (if you find vague horror relaxing, that is).
Overall, I mostly enjoyed my time in Dredge, which saves it from Tier Three. It goes into Tier Two for the well-designed and crafted moment-to-moment atmosphere.
