It's extremely difficult to get interested in a fishing game without being close to the genre, but here's a game that not only breaks that niche barrier, but also brings incredible gameplay mechanics, with a Lovecraftian theme.
Developed by Black Salt Games and distributed by Team17, Dredge is the developer's first game, which has only four people working on the project.
The game is available for: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
STORY AND GAMEPLAY
You are a fisherman who sails to the city of Greater Marrow and, there in the city, you are offered a job to be the official fisherman of the city. Throughout history, we noticed some unusual situations during our fishing trip: ghost ships, completely deformed fish, Lovecraftian creatures...
The Collector is an important character in the story. He lives alone in a mansion on an island near the beginning of the game. The collector gives us the task of finding relics scattered across the map in various ways. To find them, we searched deep into the maps and even helped other NPCs tell their own stories. Each new relic delivered to the collector will give us a new ability, such as the ability to use traps, transport directly to the Collector, Banishment that damages ghost ships, Atrophy that captures all fish from a nearby fishing point, among others. Each of the relics is undoubtedly a big difference, which makes the player interested in all of them.
In Dredge, we fish in many different ways. We can fish with rods, pots, fishing nets and other different equipment. There are many different types of fish to catch, each with its own gear, such as in abyssal, volcanic, and oceanic biomes. Some fish are harder to find and others easier. Virtually every fish has a freak version that is rarer. In the game, there is a kind of "Pokédex" that records all the information about the fish we get, which is crucial for us to identify what is missing to finish the game definitively.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
Completely developed in Unity, the game has beautiful graphics and a very relaxing soundtrack at the right time. Dredge is one of those games where we can admire its beauty throughout the entire day cycle with incredible landscapes under moonlight or daylight.
The team took clear inspiration from games with an oppressive atmosphere from recent successes like Frostpunk and Papers Please.
Dredge presents some interesting mechanics in relation to time, for example, while the boat is stopped, time does not pass, while fishing or sailing the seas, time really is the enemy of the player, since sailing during the night can be a problem. challenge for players.
Dredge features some progression systems that initially seem robust, but towards the middle of the game, we realize that they are extremely simple and easy to achieve. I'm sure that aesthetic modifications to our boat or deeper mechanics in this game would really do you a lot of good.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Dredge's achievements are extremely friendly, the ones you'll probably have the hardest time doing are catching all types of fish and their variations. After finishing the main campaign, I put the game in passive mode so that fishing was more peaceful at night, since some fish are nocturnal, so it is much easier to access them without problems. The game has two endings, the good one and the bad one, each one represents a different achievement, but you can do both in the same save, since whichever ending you decide to do, you'll come back before the final mission to complete it. there.
TRAILER OFFICIAL
CONCLUSÃO
Dredge is addictive, it's one of those types of games that you open and when you see hours have passed, definitely an exponent in the genre and every mechanic implemented in the game is well done, from the daily cycle, to the different types of fishing methods. I couldn't stop playing until I finished it completely, the game has a perfect length to the point that you don't get frustrated spending hours chasing something, and every hour I spent on the seas was definitely worth it, and it's amazing that it was fully accomplished by such a small team. Whoever is next to step on this style of play later on, or make a monster collection game has to look at Dredge first. In everything that Dredge sets out to be, he is at least very good and I can say that it was one of the best games I had the pleasure of finishing this year.
Review by Gamertag: Scoulz
Comments