"Your role, as my initiate, is to act as Herald of the Purge. Just as I was, for the one before me."
--Fanatic, Dredge
A triumph of simplicity and uniqueness, the indie game Dredge unites elements of Lovecraftian cosmic horror with the mechanics of a fishing game and a tetris-like inventory system. You traverse a handful of regions in a boat from a third-person perspective as a timer denoting day and night quickly elapses, and unusual things begin to happen in the darkness. The usually peaceful daylight settings become shrouded in a fog that conceals hostile animals, obscuring almost everything in the immediate vicinity that can only be dispelled by a light that can be toggled on and off. The catching of fish, selling of fish, repairing and enhancing of the fishing vessel, and completion of tasks for various people quickly becomes entangled in the enigmatic abnormalities that mark the inhabitants and waters of the game's world.
Production Values
Other than in the opening cinematic, all of the characters seen, from the mayor at the introductory port to the traveling merchant, are simply shown in a 2D format during conversations while the boat is docked. Out at sea, however, the boat and environments are entirely three-dimensional, presented with a basic but very smooth cell-shaded aesthetic. On a seemingly random basis, the weather system can produce lightning, waterspouts, rain, and wind, which does provide some variety. The biggest source of visual variety is still found in the different locations. A particular area of the game is based around a volcanic mountain that is surrounded by very distinctive molten gashes in the visible seafloor nearby; another is populated by bioluminescent cephalopods that appear at night. The lack of voice acting is certainly outweighed by such quality graphics and environmental diversity.
Gameplay
Day and night pass very quickly as the boat sails along, turns in place, catches fish, or dredges sunken materials. Remaining in place without turning or doing activities on shore do not advance the time of day, which is, of course, not reflective of how moments necessarily elapse with or without any natural or human phenomena (even if the sun and moon disappeared and all events ceased, time could still endure). Once night falls, though, dangerous ocean life and seeming hallucinations appear. Giant anglerfish patrol, waiting to attack your vessel, while rocks might suddenly protrude from the water, vanishing into thin air with a red outline wherever they go past the ship's range of illumination. People at the scattered docking areas will start encouraging you to rest, which can be done by choosing the sleep option at a dock. Continue long enough without rest, however, and a swarm of crows can appear above you, swooping down to damage the ship. You can sleep all the way until morning once night arrives, but you do not have to--and some fish only come out at night. Deposited crab pots also catch crabs over time, so they have to be visited across days or nights for the largest hauls.
An indicator at the top-middle of the screen not only provides the time, but it also states what chronological in-game day the player is on. Though this number increases with each full day-night sequence, there is nothing inherently adverse about going past a certain number of days. Going through 100 or 113 day-night cycles as opposed to 40 or any other such amount does not kill you, make you restart from a certain point, or give you permanent hallucinations. Upgrades to the vessel that can be eventually bought do allow you to travel much greater distances far more quickly within the same timeframe. Books provided by various characters to passively read as the boat travels can improve travel speed other things. For instance, while fishing in the same place over time temporarily depletes the animals in that exact spot, fully reading one book makes it 10% more likely that the stock will not be depleted upon catching something.
Story
Mild spoilers are below.
A fisherman arrives at an island community that warns of nightly fog, aggressive, aberrant ocean creatures therein, and a threatening past whose shadow ultimately hangs over the whole region. He soon begins collecting items that a mysterious Collector desires, finding himself granted a superhuman ability for each artifact he recovers.
Intellectual Content
Dredge does acknowledge more detailed scientific issues than some might expect, like that some of the catchable creatures inhabit the abyssal (also called the abyssopelagic zone) or hadal zone (also called the hadopelagic zone) of the ocean, the zones between approximately 4,000-6,000 meters below the surface and 6,000-11,000 meters down (in the trenches of the seafloor) respectively. Many fish catalogued in real life are discoverable along with their altered variations, tainted by the Lovecraftian presence in the ocean. Of course, scientific information is neither absolutely certain nor intrinsically true like logical axioms and other necessary truths. It is exploration of logical necessities and possibilities that would always elevate art more than any amount of scientific emphasis.
Dealing with ambiguity in its metaphysical themes, Dredge features an "insanity" mechanic, as it is sometimes called in other Lovecraftian games with a similar thing, which can as mentioned lead to what the game suggests are hallucinations. However, someone can only be insane if they deny or reject reason, including by making epistemological assumptions. I have written before about how sensory perceptions on their own are involuntary one way or another, and no one can prove that they are not hallucinating a great deal in their daily life as it is. In truth, everyone can grasp the necessary truths of reason that start with the self-evident, self-required axioms, like the fact that some things do or do not follow from others and that these necessities cannot be false. If they were false, their truth would still be required in order to make them false or for them to be demonstrated/known to be false! While no one is insane for perceiving material things that are not there and vice versa, it is only for neglecting logical axioms, disregarding other necessary truths, or believing in assumptions that is really irrational and tbus genuinely insane.
Conclusion
A small scale and reliance on quality in a few fundamental categories do not thwart Dredge from reaching great heights--or depths. Lovecraftian games can actually be quite diverse in their subgenres and styles, from the gamebook Omen Exitio: Plague to the third-person detective game The Sinking City to Call of Cthulhu's more direct but still loose adaptation of the Lovecraft story of that name. Dredge showcases the potential glory of indie games and the creativity that can be realized by exploring Lovecraftian horror. A relatively short length and the lack of voice acting aside, the very focused scope of the game works in its favor. Simplicity can be deep and artistically elegant as with this fishing game where more than just ordinary fish is encountered.
Content:
1. Violence: Some creatures can non-graphically attack the boat.
2. Profanity: One character uses the word "damn" when she is introduced.
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