3/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of Dredge.

TLDR: Evil Dave the Diver be like: The Ocean is NOT a marvelous and colorful place Gameplay: Dredge is a charming and calming game with very little actually going on. You explore, you fish, you sell, you rest, rinse and repeat for about 10 hours. Dredge is fun to play casually and I was really wrapped up by the world it created for a while. But the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. The main arc of the game has you go to several isles, talk to people, they tell you to go find something, you find it, you're done. There is no real evolution of gameplay, a change of pace or really much of anything exciting. Because of this, Dredge is a game that I may never play again because another playthrough has nothing to offer and I don't really feel like slowly working my upgrades back. Catching fish is super simple, and fun. Finding abberations is even more fun. Dealing with any and all obstacles, is not fun. From actual enemies to the night time, every obstacle is a strict inconvienence to the player because you can't interact with it in any meaningful way besides "avoid it". Getting damaged is annoying because you can lose cargo or lose functionality of your engines, which made me rather kill myself than trudge to a dock to fix it. Resource gathering late-game gets old fast considering there is no real fast travel, crafting things is quite costly and you're stopped by night every 3 minutes which makes exploring or gathering much harder. You don't wanna waste time because your fish can spoil which lower the sell value. It's a mess, so don't try to hard. Seriously. Also Dredge lacks a proper Act III. You finish up your business on the 4 Isles and then the games ends about 5 minutes later. No "finale", no final isle, no new mechanic, just "go here and die please". And I did. Story: GHOSTS, I think. The story is pretty minimal. I suggest you just play it. Like I said, the game just kind of ends but at least the endings are pretty satisfying. Graphics: Dredge has a beautiful style that is pleasing to look at while also being slightly disturbing. I loved fishing up the abberrations and reading their descriptions, honestly, that's the main reason I even liked this game. Sound: The sound is good. I think the music has some kind of influence from...somewhere. But I can't really tell. My girlfriend said she liked it as I played it so that's a bonus. Extra: I did all the quests and all the DLC's. But to truly 100% the game you may want to fill our your encyclopedia. Something I decided I didnt want to do because there was basically nothing in it for me. Yes, I get to see the spooky well designed fish but the process of getting them is way too long and tideous. The fish don't actually do anything besides let you sell them, sometimes you'll get a request for a specefic fish but that's rare. Favorite Thing: I was delivering this guy to civilization and I hit a rock and he fell overboard and the quest ended and he just died I guess Not My Favorite Thing: When the birds spawn the game is essentially telling you to go fuck yourself and rest.