Dredge preview: I need assistance, my builder was taken by an anglerfish!

I had an amazing time with Dredge that I won't soon forget. I entered there rather unawares, and I'm glad to report that its delectably dark depths pleasantly surprised me. Even though I've been a fan of Team 17's games for a long time, the many hours I've spent slinging onions about in Overcooked were in no way ready for what this ocean's gem has to give.

Naturally, initial impressions are sometimes based only on appearance, so I was first struck by how exquisite but simple the game looked. With its muted colors and chunky textures, Dredge's environment design is blocky, angular, and highly stylized; it reminds me of the modernist art style that many of my favorite independent games adhere to.

But the character design is a whole other story. Every strange person you see blends in flawlessly with their plain surroundings while nevertheless making a big impression with their expressive looks. The wide, geometric brushstrokes on each one of them are evocative of classic oil paintings created with a palette knife, and their cartoonish dimensions give you a glimpse into their personalities even before you've had a chance to speak with them.

The occasional cutscenes mostly consist of static, overlapping elements that move on different planes, much to a pop-up picture book. The character drawings are static. Although this may not be to everyone's taste, I think it creates a striking contrast between the land's immobility and the ocean's motion, giving the game a spooky sense all around.

Dredge starts out with a fairly basic configuration. You're a fisherman looking for a job. You head to the water after seeing an advertisement for an angler position. But the sea is dangerous, and before long you find yourself stranded on the coast of Greater Marrow, a little village. The mayor tells you that after mending your boat and bringing you ashore, you must now pay back the repair costs by, oh, becoming an angler and selling the fish you catch? Isn't life hilarious sometimes?

During the training, you steer your rickety little boat into the shallows and follow easy-to-follow instructions to learn how to navigate, use your camera, and throw out your line. It's easy to understand and enables you to explore additional features with some degree of flexibility straight away. But I didn't realize everything may not be as it looks until the training began to explain the time concept.

The date, time, and compass are shown at the top of your screen by your user interface (UI); they are the usual items one might see while embarking on a typical maritime task. The game then alerts you to the paranoia system, which is represented by the unsettling eye—or, more accurately, your unsettling eye—that flicks about wildly as the night draws near. The game tells you that the more time you spend out at night, the more nervous you get, and that the only ways to get rid of your heebie-jeebies are to dock your ship or spend time near bright lights. However, precisely about what are you paranoid?

The main gameplay loop has you going out to sea to catch fish and then dredging up resources and other objects. You may repair and improve your boat, sell or store your goods, or just relax on one of the many islands with docks. Whether you're fishing, sailing, or installing an update, time flies. Therefore, you should plan your time well to prevent spending too much time at night on the water.

The cabin of your spacecraft is a grid inventory including a puzzle mechanism akin to Tetris. To store all of the fish and other cargo you bring back from your adventures, together with your improvements and equipment (such as engines, fog lights, fishing poles, and crab cages), you must choose the most cost-effective arrangement. It's quite probable that you will damage your hull if you run into a barrier at sea, which will make one or more of your grid slots useless. In the unfortunate event if an item is placed in a slot that is damaged, the item is lost. Fortunately, as you go, you may buy a lot of upgrades to boost your ship's capacity, speed, and other features.

In order to fish, you must first approach an area of disturbed water, cast your line, and then finish a little minigame akin to a QTE by pressing the "reel" button when the marker is in the proper position. Similar to that, dredging requires you to flick your marker between the continually spinning overlapping wheels to prevent gaps. You'll be happy to hear that the accessibility menu has the ability to switch to "relaxed fishing mode," which greatly simplifies the system, if you have trouble with these kinds of games.

Dredge offers a non-linear story for you to explore via a variety of side tasks dubbed "pursuits," in addition to the standard sailing and fishing. Once your obligations are paid off, they provide you a purpose and direction to work for and often reward you with goods, cash, and lore explanations. Some are more unusual, like a castaway requesting you to carry him to a dock or a collector wanting you to dig up various artifacts and antiques. Some are extremely basic, like needing you to fetch a few particular fish for an order at the fishmongers.

At this point of the game, you will begin to see that Dredge is much more than just a cute fisherman simulator. You discover hints of a far darker realm as you go to unearth various artifacts and report back to the landlubbers. The sea may be your home in this game, but it's still a huge and unpredictable expanse with lots of mysteries buried in the depths. Unexplained disappearances, deformed fish, weird noises, and frightening images that afflict the night are all common occurrences.

I think it's best to walk in blind as I did and not delve any more into the enigmatic story you reveal as you spread your net further and beyond. I would admit, however, that the story's swings and turns, along with the nearly Lovecraftian quality of the underwater monsters, are all deliciously dark and strange, and that the advice to avoid sailing at night should not be disregarded.

Since I'm a naturally inquisitive person, I really chose to take a chance and ended up getting a whirling jumble of frightening hallucinations. But were they truly hallucinations? In any case, as this preview's title implies, what at first seemed like a ship in the distance turned out to be a disgusting creature like an anglerfish, and the unfortunate builder I was carrying paid the price. I apologize, but it seems like you're now sleeping with the (monstrous) fish.

My experience with this beta on Steam is flawless in terms of performance. Everything is as smooth as butter—there is no stuttering, no framerate dips, and no glitches—and I hope the Switch version keeps it that way. Along with being comfortable and simple to use, the controls have well-thought-out layouts, discreet instructions, an eye-catching user interface, and responsive inputs that make playing the minigames a breeze. At initially, controlling the boat might be a bit taxing since you move and turn very slowly. However, this is perfectly appropriate for the game's style and adds to the enjoyment of the later improvements.

The amazing sound design is the last thing I want to discuss in this preview. The only voice Dredge gets from the NPCs are a few grunts, but in my opinion, it only serves to highlight how alone and isolated the heroes' lives are. The sound of the waves lapping against the melancholic music effectively sets the picture.

I've had a great overall experience so far with Dredge. It's a visually stunning game that really stirs up feelings of emotion, and its straightforward yet entertaining gameplay serves as the ideal vessel for the eerie and strange story it tells. It's strongly recommended that you go on board and feel the cool embrace of the ocean; just remember to keep those fog lights on to ward off heebie-jeebies tonight.