4/5 ★ – RossMc's review of Dredge.

This isn’t saying much, but this is the best fishing game I’ve ever played. Overall I was getting bored with it near the end, but I enjoyed the bulk of my time with it. I didn’t think the game could actually be scary going in, but I have to admit, the world is sufficiently spooky at times. I also think the sanity system is very creative. Rocks appearing where they weren’t before is an especially cool touch, even if this is underused. I also liked the plot. You get a sense there is something going on in this world, and it is cool going from zone to zone and dealing with the unique threats of each area. However I thought the story was too vague at times. The fishing gameplay is also pretty fun to do. The unique minigames are relatively quick and last a lot longer than fishing minigames in any other game. Near the end I started getting tired of it, and felt like I was going through the motions to check every fish off, but it wasn’t too bad. I also appreciated that the abilities you get actually give ways to more quickly collect all the fish types. The biggest problem is progression. I like that you have to collect materials to get ship upgrades, but you are very locked into a set path. There is very little opportunity to experiment. You are able to choose the gear you research, but you are given so few slots that by the end of the game I still had to swap things out to accomplish everything. I feel by the end of the game I should be able to equip everything I want to at the same time. This is a small issue though, since I only dealt with this a few times. I also wish I had the ability to upgrade the powers you get. It was annoying having to wait a full day at times to get some of the powers back at the end when I was trying to finish up the compendium and finish achievements. Again though, not a huge problem.