So I’ve been watching my partner play Dredge, and I’ve become weirdly invested in this little indie game – which was unexpected, you know, because “a game about fishing” didn’t immediately grab me. But really, Dredge is a game about fishing, in the same way that Resident Evil is about exploring a mansion, or Bloodborne is about killing werewolves. “Just go out and kill a few beasts,” says Gehrman, “don’t think too hard about all this.” In Dredge, you inexplicably crash your fishing vessel, only to wash up on the island of Greater Marrow, and be offered an immediate replacement. You’ll have to take up the mantle of being the island’s fisherman however (conveniently, the previous fisherman has vanished, seemingly without a trace) and accept the responsibility of keeping the residents fed. A small price to pay, no? But these waters are strange – monsters lurk in the depths, an otherworldly fog rolls in at night, and strange whispers follow you if you dare to brave the open water after the sun goes down. Mutated fish with strange eyes and extra appendages? No big deal. Spooky red lights in the distance, or a ghost ships that appear after dark? Pay it no mind. Just catch some fish. Don’t think too hard about it.
I’m a sucker for a game with Atmosphere. Capital A. But I do feel like that’s a tough thing to pull off – I find many horror (or horror adjacent) games relying on things like jump scares or loud music to create an atmosphere that puts the player on edge. Personally, I appreciate when these elements feel like a smaller branch on the tree of horror, rather than the main bulk of the experience. A game like BioShock for example, balances this really well; BioShock has plenty of jump scares, with Splicers waiting in several scripted encounters to scare you, but the overall combination of the crumbling city of Rapture, and the narrative of the game creates an atmosphere of dread that you can’t shake. Similarly, Bloodborne (take a shot every time I find an excuse to mention this game) uses a combination of sound effects, music, narrative, and environmental design to create an oppressive atmosphere, unrelenting and sinister. It’s still the most unique of any game I’ve ever experienced.
While Dredge doesn’t have the all-encompassing atmosphere of the games I’ve mentioned, it’s almost more interesting for it; the tone of the game feels subdued, but to great effect. The term “Lovecraftian” feels almost overused nowadays, but it does apply here – the prevalent sense that something beyond your understanding is happening, along with the mysteries that the game slowly introduces combine to instill a very subtle kind of fear. It’s unsettling. The people are strange and paranoid, the environment can be unforgiving, and your boat starts to feel very frail and insignificant against the forces of this world. It’s this underlying fear that hits more than anything – it’s the way you can let your imagination run away with you. Alone, in the dark, on the open water, with monsters (real or imagined) lurking just beneath the surface, waiting.
The later you’re out on the water (potentially combined with lack of sleep, if you’ve been neglecting your fisherman’s singular need) the more your Panic increases. You can gauge your Panic by the eye at the top of the HUD, where the current time is displayed – the more quickly it’s moving, and the more red it becomes, the more intense your Panic. Not only do I love this mechanic within the context of this game, but I love this representation. While the eye begins roving diligently, it will eventually begin moving spastically, swiveling back and forth rapidly as its colour changes and the tension ramps up. You can feel the heightened sense of anxiety as you watch this change happen, and it communicates a genuine sense of distress from the character to the player in control. The world around you begins to distort, and the double-vision makes it more difficult to see clearly. You may even begin to experience more insidious things while plagued by Panic, like a red-eyed flock of birds circling your ship, or a ghostly shark that appears out of nowhere, determined to damage your hull. Even fairly innocuous things can feel frightening; a very real chill went up my spine when I first saw the warning “something slithers into your cargo hold…”
Yet another subtle horror element, and a smart addition to gameplay to make fishing more compelling, are the aberration versions of each type of fish. The name feels slightly mean to me (they’re all beautiful and doing their best), but oh well. These are “special” versions of each fish – they’re mutated and genuinely horrifying. Make sure you read the lore on these ones, as they’re usually pretty disturbing. For the completionists out there, there are several different aberrations available for each, so you’ll want to find them all. There’s a particular section with the Fishmonger, where he requests that you bring him a mutated fish. “What do you think happens to a person that eats the flesh of one of these mutants?” he asks. Upon delivery, he acts quite strangely – he asks if you can hear whispering (you can’t). For several days after, the Fishmonger will be MIA. Not only do you have to grapple with the fact that something is mutating these fish, but you have to consider the effect they might have on the food chain – what implications does this have for the bigger picture?
But monsters and other impending horrors aside, there is, you know, normal fish in these here waters as well. There are a few different styles of mini-games standing between you and your prizes, but most are fairly simple. In order to cast your lines further from shore and expand your horizons, you’ll want to upgrade your vessel as well – from your fishing rods, to your engine, you can improve upon various aspects of your boat to travel faster, and carry more fish. Upgrade materials are dredged up from shipwrecks and other ocean debris (the dredging mini-game is slightly more demanding, judging by the amount of swearing from my boyfriend during these segments) and are well worth exploring to find. You might even find some sunken treasure while searching – or, more importantly, one of the ancient relics that the Collector is seeking. One relic safely delivered to the Collector equals one special power for our well-to-do fisherman (for example, Haste to travel more quickly for a brief period of time). We haven’t finished the game yet, so I’m not entirely sure how this quest is going to end, but it’s definitely the most intriguing mystery of this title so far.
The way the Lovecraftian fear of the unknown (and unknowable) marries perfectly to the fear of deep water, and what lurks within, is one of Dredge‘s smartest elements. Shoutouts to the eel from Super Mario 64 for awakening that phobia in me as a child. It’s these subtle elements of horror that really grabbed my attention and got me fully invested in Dredge as a story. The way the narrative skirts around these aspects, leaving them on the fringe of your experience, like seeing something out of the corner of your eye, is brilliant. It encourages exploration and drives the player to engage with potential danger, even if it might lead to some deadly consequences. Whether its finding a random altar on small island that requires a sacrifice of Cod, or following along with a story from years ago by collecting bottled messages, everything in this game felt equally compelling. It seems rare to find an atmosphere like this, that incorporates aspects of outright scares (like the Kraken-creature in Stellar Basin) as well as the more understated horror of spooky fog and strange lights. Dredge was an unexpected experience for me, and one that I’ve been enjoying immensely; its atmosphere is expertly crafted, and I’m both excited and afraid to see how this tale is going to end. I have a bad feeling about the fate that’s in store for our fisherman…
Meghan Plays Games 