Was I full of shit when I originally gave this game a paltry 3 star rating and I rather glibly dismissed it as being largely boring? I absolutely was. This game is fucking amazing. What few gripes I do have with it are slight because this is seriously one of the most inventive, deeply original, and (for lack of a more apt descriptor) wonderfully weird games that i’ve ever played and I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to call it a masterpiece. The sheer leap in quality from Limbo to this game alone is nothing short of incredible. The levels are equally as tightly wound but far more creative and complex, managing to avoid feeling stiflingly linear while still remaining an incredibly focused and cohesively packaged experience, the mechanics feel weighty and smooth, aided by some fantastic controls and responsive animations, and the game features plenty of interesting and detailed environments that are consistently a treat to explore. The underwater levels are especially wondrous and they add a ton of flavor and tension to individual stretches of the game. From a technical and sensory standpoint the game is equally as outstanding too, sporting rich and captivating art direction, stark and beautiful visual storytelling, and a droning, atmospheric ambient score that’s coupled together brilliantly with the eerie and immersive sound design. All of these elements are just some of Inside’s many sumptuous delights. It also excels in regards to gameplay variety and it never once feels boring or uninspired. Nary a moment goes by here that’s not exciting or memorable in some way or another, the game masterfully blending and balancing platforming and puzzle solving, highly scripted but no less fun pseudo stealth sections, and equal parts engaging and thrilling action set pieces to great effect. The puzzles in particular deserve to be singled out for how surprisingly enjoyable they are. They’re unique, challenging, well wrought, and both immediately rewarding and immensely satisfying to solve, requiring genuine thought and skill from the player but never once feeling obtuse or oblique. The more trial and error driven gameplay segments from Limbo are still very much present here and they too are vastly improved over its predecessor. Not only are they utilized far less frequently throughout (on top of being generally less frustrating to play through due to very merciful checkpoints) but the game is so brilliantly designed and deftly paced otherwise that they are easy to discard as minor hiccups in the grand scheme of things. Bottom line? I had a total blast coming back to this game all these years later and it’s definitely much better than I had remembered it being when I first played it. It was frankly erroneous of me to have taken it for granted. It’s abundantly clear to me now that playdead studios are extremely talented game developers and I’m excited to see what they do next.

This is a rough one.

I think it's a fantastic little game, but I don't think I could ever give it an unconditional recommend. There's a lot of asterisks.

Dredge is a simple game: The Fisherman (That's you.) goes out to catch fish and other shinies through a series of varying-but-limited QTE prompts. A Tetris-style inventory and Amnesia-esque panic mechanic ensure you can't go out for too long, thoguh upgrades can alleviate this. At night, things take a turn for the worse and weird spooky threats come out to play.

Despite the simplicity and relative repetition, I like it... For the first 60%. Dredge is perhaps the only time where 'cozy horror' has been appropriate, rather than a joke. It is repetitive, and kind of dull, but there's something about the monotony of your day job contrasted with the unknowable horrors around you. Yes, there are awful things beyond your window, but they're not targeted at you directly and you still ultimately have a job to do. You are just a passive but employed observer to the horror, and you better clock in at the start of your shfit. It reminds me of working retail in the 2010s.

It carries on into the dialogue, too. Everyone is either mad, desperate or withdrawn. It may not be the end of the world, but it's visible if you squint. You can do small gestures of kindness here and there, but that's all you can do. Much of the 'horror' with the NPCs is far more human than mutant fish or demon sharks; grief driving a man to mania, the inherent horror of distance from one's family, the weight of being unable to feed the mouths of those you love so dearly, the emotional and social isolation of being a woman in a highly androcentric field, so on so forth.

And I liked the loop too, honestly. The routine of find new fishing spots > get more cash > get upgrade materials > get better upgrades > find new fish > repeat is nice for the first few hours. It's decently interspersed with the plot and the game mercifully doesn't have you hang around one spot for too long. All of this is bundled up in some excellent visuals, tight controls, and great music.

So why isn't a 5 star? Or even a full 4 star?

Because once the game runs out of tricks, there's still a pretty hefty amount of game to go, and it never really iterates on itself. There's no curveballs, unique mechanics, or remixes in the actual fishing/dredging mechanics. Unlike, say, Stardew Valley, there aren't even any fish with unique patterns to tackle. There are increasing environmental threats, sure, but those want for variance as well. It doesn't help that it's very easy to max all the upgrades by the third island (of five), leaving you with little to work for but the plot.

Many Lovecraftion videogames make the player ask how they'll avoid such unknowable horrors in their path. In Dredge, the answer is "Have an engine speed above 55 knots". No, really. If you spec into engines early on like I did, the threats are just speedbumps. Get used to the turning curve, and not even the narrow paths in the last area will let them threaten you.

And the plot honestly ruined a lot of nicer things I had to say about the story. That whole spiel up there praising the dialogue and feeling is torpedo'd by the end of the game. Without spoiling it, the lategame turns you from a passive observer to an active participant followed by a frankly annoying last minute ending choice that reeks of someone on the devteam going "Oh bother, we're a Lovecraft story". This is certainly one game that would've benefitted from not having a story.

That said, for a debut game by a small studio? This is still a fantastic effort. I may not be Dredge's biggest fan, but I honestly do like it for what it is and am absolutely keeping an ear to the ground for the devs' next game.