Dredge is a game that constantly tempts you with the promise of more: one more catch, one more sidequest.
You’ll notice this as you study the in-game map and set self-imposed goals, struggling on towards remote rocky islands even when the darkening horizon warns you to turn back. You’ll notice this as you grow more confident out on the seas, staying out later and later to catch far-off fish, keeping one eye on the clock but ignoring it all the same. It’s a clever mechanic, and one that Dredge weaves together with its fishing, storage, and time management elements to create a net that’s hard to struggle out of. The horrors you’ll encounter are dangerous not just because of the physical damage they can deal to your vessel, but also for the Panic spikes they provide, which alter the world around you, making it more hostile in turn. Like a more flexible version of Bloodborne’s Insight system, Panic lets the horror flow from the fraying sanity of the player character, rather than simple monsters. This is a rare instance of Lovecraftian horror in games done right. The fishing process consists of a short timing-based mini-game, one which varies from fish to fish and area to area, but which never takes more than a few seconds to complete, less if you get the rhythm down. You can fish at any area of ‘disturbed water’, provided you have the right equipment to do so. For a game seemingly built around fishing, the systems that govern it are incredibly simple. In order to pay this debt off we must fish, and so we set sail to do just that. In the proud tradition of Animal Crossing, we begin the game in debt, having been granted a boat by the mayor after our own was mercilessly dashed against the rocks. We start the game, and a short cutscene hammers this home, showing the grizzled sailor we control washed up on the shores of Greater Marrow, to be greeted by a cheerful yet unsettling mayor. Right from the title screen this is made plain, with sudden jitters of red and green interrupting the tranquility of the main menu, making sure we know that something isn’t quite right. Dredge is not, as some have claimed, a cozy game with evil bubbling beneath the surface, but a full-blown eldritch horror in its own right, drenched in unease from start to end.
While an excellent pun, “undercurrent” doesn’t feel quite right here.
0 kommentar(er)
