There absolutely is a lot of what I’ve previously called “fluff” text which is expository story elements to build up the world without greatly advancing knowledge in or for gameplay, but what is important is highlighted. It bears mentioning because it is my experience and I’m trying to give feedback no matter how tiring some might find hearing about dyslexia and gaming. I mentioned it a second ago, but the entire story is told through text boxes and lots of reading. Your only recourse is to run and try to keep fishing. A lot of great work goes into creating that psychological aspect, and unlike many horror games that get this wrong a lot of the time, you can’t fight back. As such, when that chromatic aberration, controller vibration, and those bright eyes and gills burn through the fog and deep waters, it is tense. You’re constantly told through text boxes espousing fear and dread of what happened to every other fisherman. I think the reason for playing a bit more contemplatively is that I was captured by the story and gameplay. It isn’t just the fish that are your impending death, the fog of night and lack of sleep by the end of the day can produce some difficult moments. There are big angry fish out there that want to kill every known fisherman, and I’m the only one “brave” (read stupid) enough to go out there and hallucinate lovely big rocks that pop in three feet from my bow. Over the two weeks of playing DREDGE, I think I’ve played a lot slower than is intended because (of course) I was trying to make lots of money from fishing and get as many upgrades as possible. With the horrors of the deep blue and the short time frame, days may go by rather quickly. In fact, there are two tech trees to advance through with an additional shop to buy the additions to your trawler. Either through the adventure side quests by dredging something from the many shipwrecks or by capturing specific fish, you gain gear for your RPG-style upgrades. Keep in mind that these are the central cores of DREDGE : fishing and adventure. The downside of the panic mechanic is that the time scale in a day is so short you can get through an entire day in about 5 minutes of fishing or traveling. Do I want to find out what that something is? Does the pope defecate in the woods? Do you want to put your hand around the U-bend in your bog? No, exactly. In deep waters that panic will manifest itself in the form of a similar boat to yours following something in the water with a bit of chromatic aberration. Particularly at night and in the dark, you’ll slowly build up a sense of paranoia as displayed by a shifty eyeball in front of your clock. One of the central mechanics is based on panic and what that will do to you in the wrong place at the wrong time. DREDGE isn’t horror but it does intentionally try to play with you psychologically. The truth is you don’t see me jumping head-first into many horror games because I am what we delicately call a big girl’s blouse, and I run away screaming to the nearest safe place the first opportunity I get. The old wives’ tales are true and Captain Cutler is dead, so no one wants to go out on the big blue wet thing. I prefer games for my fishing since it lacks the smell, having to touch them, the experience of adding your breakfast to the port-side bow, and having to go back to land to finally breathe for the first time in hours.ĭREDGE is a fishing adventure title with a twist to the fable we covered last time in Moonglow Bay, as this time the weird fish are angry. The few times I looked up from the side of that boat (or the back of my eyelids) the views were nice, and that’s the best thing I can say about my experience. The one time I tried sea fishing (under invitation), I added more to the ocean than I caught.
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