This one is a personal GOTY contender, for sure. Having played it first in one of Steam’s Games Fest I was immediately enthralled by its relaxing fishing vibe with a speckle of Lovecraftian undertones. DREDGE is a weird mix that works surprisingly well, given how charming everything looks and how addicting the gameplay loop of fishing to upgrade your boat can be. It’s also a rare gem that manages to create an interesting world and drop enough hints here and there to keep you invested in uncovering more of your past story and the story of its eerie archipelago and its inhabitants. There’s a bit of everything: a mysterious lighthouse keeper that clearly knows more than she’s letting; powerful artifacts; dangerous creatures, the decaying remnants of a once-thriving civilization; desolate landscapes and mysteries that should be left unperturbed.

During the day things are relatively chill, and seafaring is safe, and it’s the best time to explore its many mysteries while trying to catch as many fishes as you can fit into your hull as you work to your next shipping upgrade. These upgrades aren’t anything special and are mostly a way to keep you fishing and make you explore in search of better catches, earn more money, find more materials, and find new locations. Its upgrades are mostly linear, and they’ll add more hull space, and new fitting locations for fishing rods, dragging nets, motors, and lights. There’s some customizing you can do to make your boat fit your preferences. Just want to fish in coastal areas? Just equip one of the rods and free light and motor space to cram even more eldritch salmon. Want to explore faraway islands? Strap in your best motors and speed along while you have enough light.

At night things get… I wouldn’t say scarier, because that’s not true. More unnerving, would be the correct way to put things. The screen starts to flicker with colors from outer space, rocky formations start to appear and disappear in the ocean surface out of nowhere, and some surprises I’m not willing to spoil because they’re best encountered unprepared. Despite the fact that there’s no combat, you never feel like you’re in a situation you can’t escape, and most of the time things will just scare you away, rather than outright destroy your boat. In my full playthrough, my boat was destroyed only once, and it was due to me throwing my boat around, rather than a sea creature. Just load the save and continue, there are no consequences. I finished the game in 13 hours, but if you take things a lot more relaxed than me (because I wanted to finish it before going on vacation), then there’s content for some 20 or so hours, probably more if you love collecting and really feel the urge to complete your abhorrent pokedex of gross and unnatural fish from the depths of these uncharted waters.

The game has 3 different endings, which you can unlock just prior to the last mission, so there’s not need to keep on replaying game unless you want too.

Recently, Dredge was updated with even more weird aberrations to find and catch. A new passive mode that has monsters acting nicely, and a much needed photo mode.

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