Dredge, the video game that combines fishing with Lovecraft’s horror stories
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The fisherman arrives in the town of Medolla Maggiore (Greater Marrow, in the original language) looking for a job: his boat crashes on the rocksis rescued and treated and another boat is made available to him so that he can repay his debt.
These are the assumptions from which it starts Dredge (dredge, in English), a small video game available for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo and computersdeveloped by New Zealand’s Black Salt Games and distributed by team17historical name in the world of gaming.
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The story of Dredge and references to the Cthulhu mythos
The game it costs about 25 euroscan be purchased as a digital download and that’s how we bought it for our Xbox X: it’s basically a fishing game, but with some unexpected horror and supernatural aspect.
Dredge it is divided into 5 main environments, between overhanging cliffs, fjords, coral reefs, oceanic abysses and mangrove forests with shallow waters: you play the role of a fisherman who will gradually move away from the Midolla archipelago in search of increasingly rare, large, strange and profitable fish. Added to this is the fact that the game world, graphically rendered in a remarkable way, is almost idyllic by day but becomes dangerous and inhospitable by night, with a fog that almost prevents you from seeing where you are going, ghost boats, strange voices, whispers, tentacles emerging from the waters and so much more.
It will be up to the player to try to unravel various mysteriesin the midst of torn diary pages to reassemble, cultists, strange sacrifices, continuous references to creatures that emerge from the depths of the sea to subjugate humanity, ancient relics and vanished civilizations of which only temples and monuments remain: it is impossible not to notice the many references to the works of American writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft, one of the masters of literary horror. If only for the fact that Dredge is set between the twenties and thirties of the last century in a place that looks a lot like New England. Just like Lovecraft’s stories.
What it’s like to play Dredge
The ending will confirm all these sensations, so much so it can be just bad or bad. Despite this, it is still worth making the journey to understand how and why you get there.
In Dredge, a fundamental variable is that of time: it takes a lot to go from one point to another on the map and from one safe haven to another, and since moving at night is not advisable (especially at the beginning), it best managed. The interesting aspect is that it flows only if you do something: if you move with the boat, if you fish, if you sleep. If the boat stands still, time stands still. And this, which is only apparently a detail, will prove to be a decisive aspect of the game mechanics.
Which for the rest follows the predictable tracks of any fishing game: you fish, the fish is sold, with the money the boat is repaired or improved, adding more lights, more powerful engines, more space in the hold, new rods, nets and pots to fish in new areas and therefore you can also go fishing in those areas that were previously inaccessible. And the tour begins again, in a relaxing and carefree loop in its own way, if it weren’t for that aura of mystery and anxiety that hangs more or less over everything.
Dredge it’s not a long game (you end up quietly in a weekend) but it’s a really nice game, it deserves to be tried and not to be forgotten because some multimillion-dollar production steals its space. It’s true: it costs like two months of Game Pass Ultimate, but in our opinion it’s money well spent.
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