Dredge (2023): The Review

Overview

Dredge excels across the board, from its murky horror-tinged mystery and deeply addictive gameplay to its striking visual style, oppressive atmosphere, and immersive sound design. Everything meshes smoothly into a consistently strong experience, even when it starts to lean a little too hard on familiar rhythms. That repetition is its only real hiccup, as the game fully commits to its strengths and never really steps outside them. Still, Dredge thrives precisely because of that commitment, standing tall as a brilliantly focused, paranoia-soaked fishing game that knows exactly what it wants to be.

Score: 9 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Dredge absolutely nails its presentation, pacing, and overall narrative delivery. From the very first minutes, the game radiates a fake calm, the kind that looks peaceful until your brain starts whispering “something’s wrong here.” Every NPC feels just a little off, every conversation raises more questions than answers, and the mystery slowly tightens its grip without ever needing to shout. The tone, atmosphere, and storytelling work together so smoothly that you barely notice how deep you’re already in. It’s quiet horror done right.

The gameplay loop is dangerously addictive. Fishing is quick, simple, and satisfying, designed to be repeated without becoming annoying. You cast, time your inputs, reel in the catch, dopamine hit received, repeat. But the real star is the inventory management system, which turns every trip into a logic puzzle. Fish, resources, ship equipment, loot, passengers, everything lives in the same limited grid. Planning matters. Shapes matter. One bad decision and suddenly you’re playing Tetris under pressure while the ocean watches.

Visually, Dredge is stunning in a deeply unsettling way. Daytime seas are warm, open, and serene, lulling you into a false sense of safety. Nighttime flips that serenity on its head with thick fog, jagged silhouettes, flashing lights, and an ever-present sense of dread. The art direction understands restraint, letting atmosphere do the heavy lifting instead of cheap scares. NPC portraits are expressive and full of personality, selling their quirks with just a still image.

Sound design deserves special praise. The music shifts beautifully from calm piano melodies during the day to ominous stings when danger creeps in. Even better are the sound effects, every action has a crisp, responsive audio cue that makes the gameplay feel snappy and tactile. Clicks, splashes, thuds, it all reinforces the feeling that what you’re doing matters. For a $24.99 game, the amount of polish and content on display here is borderline insane.

The Negatives ⚠️

If Dredge has a real flaw, it’s repetition, and it doesn’t even try to hide it. The core gameplay loop never meaningfully evolves. Every in-game day revolves around the same routine: explore, fish, dredge, manage inventory, sell, upgrade, repeat. The tools change, the locations change, but the structure stays firmly in place from start to finish. If you’re someone who needs constant mechanical shake-ups, this might start to feel samey.

Quest design doesn’t help much either. Most objectives boil down to familiar tasks: catch a specific fish, gather a set amount of resources, retrieve an artifact, sail somewhere and come back alive. They’re effective in reinforcing the atmosphere and worldbuilding, but they rarely surprise you mechanically. The mystery keeps you going, not the objectives themselves.

There’s also very little mechanical complexity beyond what’s introduced early on. Fishing and dredging minigames are polished and fun, but they don’t deepen over time. You get better tools, sure, but you’re still playing variations of the same timing-based interactions. For some players, that consistency will feel comforting. For others, it’ll feel limiting.

That said, these issues are more about expectations than outright failures. Dredge knows exactly what it wants to be, and it refuses to stretch beyond that vision. Whether that’s a strength or a weakness depends entirely on how much you enjoy doing the same things… just with rising paranoia.

The Experience 🎮

Personally? Dredge ruined me. I already loved fishing minigames in other games, but this one grabbed me by the collar and refused to let go. Add a compelling mystery, gorgeous art, haunting seas, and an inventory system that rewards obsessive organization, and I was done for. I spent embarrassing amounts of time just rearranging items, chasing the perfect fit, forgetting there was an ocean actively trying to kill me.

The atmosphere hit hardest at night. The game is full of subtle moments that mess with your head, distant lights, passing ships, shapes in the fog that vanish when you look twice. After enough harmless scares, you start to relax. Big mistake. I remember feeling “safe” near a settlement when a monster launched itself out of the water, wrecked my ship, knocked cargo loose, and sent my brain into full panic mode. I survived the attack… then immediately crashed into a rock because my hands forgot how steering worked. Death by fear, basically.

What really got me was how inventory management became the core mechanic. Everything fights for space: fish, equipment, resources, upgrades, even passengers. Every trip required planning, compromises, and constant re-allotment. Somehow, my obsessive need for neatness turned into an actual survival skill. I loved every second of it.

By the end, Dredge had me fully locked into its rhythm. Survive the night, patch up your ship, head back out at dawn, and do it all again. The tension never fully disappears, it just resets. And honestly? That’s why it works. Dredge doesn’t try to be everything. It does one thing extremely well, sticks to it, and drags you into its slow, creeping nightmare until you’re lining your cargo hold with fish and thinking, yeah, one more trip won’t hurt.