What are the main differences?
With the console version, the fishing mini-game was always fairly generous timing-wise and on mobile – it’s just as straightforward, only requiring you to tap the screen at the right moment.
The inventory system, meanwhile, is even easier. You can simply tap, drag and plop your fish, scrap metal or valuable trinket where you want it to go, and hit place, that’s it. No more messing about repeatedly tapping or clicking the analogue sticks here. The various icons that pop up as you bob about are also pleasantly sized, meaning there’s no danger of annoying missclicks.
What’s a Dredge anyway?
Stellar performance aside, you might be wondering what Dredge actually is. Given it’s a veritable indie darling, my opening preamble assumed you’re reading this review to find out how well it runs on mobile. As established, the answer is splendid. But if you’re new to Dredge and wondering what this delightful-looking fishing sim-meets-Lovecraft is about, wonder no more.
It opens with you waking up after unceremoniously crashing your boat into the rocks. The town mayor is seemingly unconcerned about your safety yet is happy that Greater Marrow finally has a fisherman after the last one vanished. He then sets you up with a new vessel and lets you get to work, making sure you’re aware the boat will have to be paid for eventually.
From there, you’re treated to Dredge’s painterly beauty. The sun glistens off the water as your boat bobs along the surface, and everything seems peaceful. And so long as you only venture away from the relative safety of Greater Marrow during the day and get back before night, it’s incredibly relaxing. Day fishing in Dredge is genuinely cathartic. Floating over to an area of water teeming with fish and reeling them in is surprisingly compulsive.
It’s not too complicated
It’s not overly complicated, but still involved enough to bring a sense of satisfaction while squeezing your fish into the remaining storage space pleases the puzzle-loving part of the brain. After that, you drift back to the dock and sell your day’s catch to the fisherman, the little coin-dropping sound as you sell everything providing a delightful full stop to a hard day’s work.
Fear of the dark
You see, after the sun goes down, an almost impenetrable fog rolls in and the once-beautiful world takes a turn for the sinister. Stick around in it for too long and your Panic level will rise, causing nightmarish creatures from the deep to rear their ugly heads and attack your ship, damaging your hull and potentially causing it to break entirely.
Not everything you see is dangerous. At least not directly. Demon birds might simply swoop down from above and steal your hard-earned fish while some rambunctious presence might switch off your boat’s light. Or, you might crash into a rock that definitely wasn’t there before, meaning making a desperate charge towards the safety of the dock is ill-advised. It’s all brilliantly executed, successfully instilling a sense of paranoia that could only come from hours of isolation on the water and an unrelenting eldritch presence.
Cosy becomes creepy when the sun goes down
I truly felt relieved when I saw a dock in the distance, the sun peeping out from the edge of the horizon as my boat limped its way to safety. At this point, you’ll hear a soothing piano track play that’s as comforting as one could hope after a night at sea with Lovecraft’s finest. It perfectly captures the weariness you’d feel coupled with the perceived comfort and protection the sun brings.
During the day, your fear goes away
When during the day you set sail changes, though. Alongside fishing, you can, well, dredge up items from deep within the ocean such as wood, paper and scrap metal. These resources are used to kit out your boat, fitting it with more space for better rods, engines, and lights. Once your erstwhile companion is upgraded sufficiently, you’ll feel more confident sailing out into the night to look for fish that don’t swim about during the day.
But as the fellow Lovecraft-inspired Darkest Dungeon states, “Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer” and all it takes is for your powerful new engine to get damaged, leaving you adrift at sea at the mercy of Cthulhu’s shark cousin.
And that’s a common thread in Dredge. The little details are everything and play a huge role in making it such a delight. As I’ve nodded to already, the music and sound effects are excellent, doing exactly enough to instil a sense of relief or unease, depending on what’s required.
The various animations and blurring of the world, as things get more intense, are fantastic and always pair expertly with the sound. Definitely make sure you play this one with headphones.
The world is also crafted beautifully. Each character you run into wears the exhaustion of folk who have faced the fog’s horrors more than enough in their lives. Their dialogue is often short, to the point and refreshingly down-to-earth. Whether that’s dredging up the possessions of a lost loved one to bring a man peace or reuniting two stubborn brothers who fell out over a long-forgotten dispute, you want to help them.
Elsewhere, the mystery surrounding the collector is an intriguing one while all of the descriptions of the mutated fish are incredibly visceral, with some as spine-tingling as the creature’s appearance.
My only real issue with Dredge is the fourth and fifth islands aren’t as compelling as the first three. Discovering new fish and their aberration counterparts remains a joy. That sense of discovery is never lost.
However, the Twisted Strand, in particular, is a labyrinthine island that feels overly laborious thanks to vines occasionally snaking their way across routes, leaving me to wait for them to move back so I can carry on. It’s only a minor irritation, in truth, but it does slightly blemish an otherwise perfect game.
