DREDGE Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · April 11, 2023

For our DREDGE Review, a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten.

DREDGE Review Pros:

Beautiful graphics.
Download size.
Platinum trophy.
You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders rebind controls, camera shakes amount slider and re-center.
Accessibility settings – change color schemes (Colourblind support), relaxed fishing mode, radial menu, motion smoothing, chromatic aberration, pop-up duration, and text speed.
In-game cutscenes.
Set the clock style (12/24), and units used (metric/imperial).
Tutorials – on/off.
The fishing is done via a mini-game where you have to press a button within the marked areas.
Item management is handled like Resident Evil in that you can almost play Tetris arranging and moving items around to make them fit.
Full 3D camera control.
You can see fishing spots on the water’s surface.
All fish and items come in different shapes and sizes to add an extra puzzle-like layer to managing your inventory.
Time only advances when you are fishing, moving, or doing a particular action.
Full day/night cycle.
All fishing spots are different kinds like seawater, freshwater, etc, and require particular equipment.
Easy dock and undock controls.
Trophy fish can appear.
The goal of the game is to repay your debt for the boat repairs and help keep the town running.
Multiple choice encounters.
Your inventory is the Shap of your boat and this means you have sections marked out for new ship parts, engines, rods, etc.
The shipwright will repair damage to your ship and also sell upgrades.
Research new equipment for it to appear in shops.
Central storage box.
Quick sell all button option.
Encyclopedia fills in with caught fish. 128 in total with 7 water types like coastal, volcano, oceanic, etc.
There is an upgrade tree for your boat.
Collect resources by finding them or exploring shipwrecks.
Panic sets in in the dark and can only be lessened by sleep or using the boat light.
Different weather effects.
Pursuits are the game’s missions amd you get a lot of side ones to accompany the main story pursuits.
Upgrades take real in-game time to complete.
Advance time by sleeping.
You can see the fish underwater swimming around and this helps with identifying rare fish.
Books can be awarded and found. Select one to have it read as time passes.
Fish locations randomly change.
At night you can catch different fish/resources.
Interact with landmarks and points of interest.
Chilled soundtrack.
Corrupted fish are rare and can garner a high sell price along with a bonus award.
When upgrading you can store what resources you have at the moment to free up inventory space.
Find lost relics and give them to the collector for dredging tools.
Talk with locals to learn about potential side pursuits and secrets like sunken ships etc.
All the dredging and fishing mini-games are variations of the idea.
The map fills in with destinations.
There is a dark almost horror element to the game.
Five locations to unlock each with unique towns folk, shops, and selling prices.
The game is a huge time killer.
You read the books to get permanent buffs.

DREDGE Review Cons:

A lot to take in.
The first hour is tough as you have a slow boat, Wide open areas and you need to grind out currency.
Turns into a juggling act with so many pursuits on the go at once.
The true game takes a while to show itself.
Dragging and dropping is not as snappy as it should be.
Fair bit of grinding as you need to get the upgrades so you can do a few things at once.