Is it me or is this game.... not very good?

[TeknoTel]

This game is rated overwhelmingly positive. After completing it I genuinely have no idea how this is the case.

It starts off very promising absolutely, however after you have done anything in Dredge you have done everything. There is no real variation at all. Just go from one point to the next.

The fishing mini games are very simplistic, its fine, if it was one of several other game mechanics, which it isn't.

I think this style of game, travelling from point a to point b and back to point a would be fine if the game world, characters or story were engaging or immersive in any way. This is actually where the game is at is absolute worst in my opinion.

Nothing is developed. You meet characters and are like, oh, I wonder what is going to happen here, nothing happens with any of them. You will have one or two maximum interactions and the story will never develop any further with them. I found this to be the most surprising aspect of the game as I expected this would be where the games focus would be seeing how simplistic virtually everything else is.

I completed it very quickly and after doing so I had two open quests, very tedious rinse and repeat quests so I had seen the overwhelming majority of the game as well.

The game looks set up to be very good after the first 30-60 minutes of play and I think this explains a lot of the overwhelmingly positive reviews, however when you eventually realise that very little actually develops in Dredge you see how quickly this game has been put together and how little there is to it. Honestly after completing this I thought this was one of the most shallow/rushed games I have ever played and the price of £20 is obscene for how little has gone into this game.

[Alaskan Blizzard]

Idk, I like it

[TeknoTel]

Originally posted by Alaskan Blizzard:

Idk, I like it

I didn't dislike it, it just felt like a very shallow game with little to it. Felt like it had been put together in a month. I still played it through, but after the first two main quests I was like, this is going to be it isn't it, no variation at all and I was right.

Its a 6/10 at best for me, even that is generous, but definitely not Overwhelmingly Positive worthy game.

[Lod101]

its clearly you, otherwise you would give it a positive review like every1 else.

[TeknoTel]

Originally posted by Lod101:

its clearly you, otherwise you would give it a positive review like every1 else.

I mean do you have any counter points? Do you not think it was weird how there was no development on characters? Completely useless mechanics like lights? Complete RNG on catching special fishes (clearly no time spent on it at all)? No variation at all on any mission or sub quest in the game? £20+ game completed in less that 10 hours (probably could be done in a few hours if you wanted)?

I dont know, I mean I played it through, but I expected things to significantly change after the first hour, new mechanics, massive world event, lots of missions and detailed story, character development and progression. Literally had none of it. Just catch fish a, bring to point b, rinse and repeat. Characters hint of things happening that never do, the mayor warns not to stray too far away as the town needs you to finish, yet nothing ever happens further with the mayor and nothing happens no matter what you do. The collector tells you not to use the abilities too much or something might happen, nothing ever does, can use as much as you like.

I dont know, I think its good for the first hour or so and then when you finally realise there is nothing more to it at all and there is only really a bare bones story, no character development and the quests are all identical you realise this was a quickly put together game. The game hints at a lot of things, but they never actually materialise.

Each to their own though.

[RCMidas]

And games that do that sort of thing tend to cost $70+ on release, not $20. I don't like the inflation of prices that has decidedly jumped in the last decade or so myself, but it is what it is, and you are going to remain disappointed over and over and over until you accept that this is what used to go for $5-8 "back in the day".

[TeknoTel]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

And games that do that sort of thing tend to cost $70+ on release, not $20. I don't like the inflation of prices that has decidedly jumped in the last decade or so myself, but it is what it is, and you are going to remain disappointed over and over and over until you accept that this is what used to go for $5-8 "back in the day".

Thats simply not true, lots os amazing games with tons of content cost £20 or less.

This isn't even about the price, the main point is there isn't very much to the game at all. Even if it cost £6 I would still say it had been made in a couple of months and is priced as such.

[Adrian Shepard]

Since everyone else just wants to troll what I feel is a very thought out opinion, I will try to share my view on this game.

Like TeknoTel said, the game starts off strong, there is even an atmosphere of relaxation to it but after an hour or two, you realize that there isn't actually that much to do. Yes, there is a codex of all the fishes and once you complete quests in the main story, you unlock new abilities.

However, I feel that the game's biggest strength is also it's biggest weakness, namely the horror aspect. I get that there is a cycle where in the day, you're safe and at night there is a lot of danger but I would have preffered an ability or something, where I can explore a night
or two as well, without having to worry about something taking a bite out of my boat.

And I was also dissapointed that the characters are so simplistic. You never get to know them outside of one quest. I did play this game, had fun with it and found the two endings but once I finished it, I didn't return to it. I just didn't see any point.

[Lod101]

Originally posted by TeknoTel:

I mean do you have any counter points? Do you not think it was weird how there was no development on characters? Completely useless mechanics like lights? Complete RNG on catching special fishes (clearly no time spent on it at all)? No variation at all on any mission or sub quest in the game? £20+ game completed in less that 10 hours (probably could be done in a few hours if you wanted)?

I dont know, I mean I played it through, but I expected things to significantly change after the first hour, new mechanics, massive world event, lots of missions and detailed story, character development and progression. Literally had none of it. Just catch fish a, bring to point b, rinse and repeat. Characters hint of things happening that never do, the mayor warns not to stray too far away as the town needs you to finish, yet nothing ever happens further with the mayor and nothing happens no matter what you do. The collector tells you not to use the abilities too much or something might happen, nothing ever does, can use as much as you like.

I dont know, I think its good for the first hour or so and then when you finally realise there is nothing more to it at all and there is only really a bare bones story, no character development and the quests are all identical you realise this was a quickly put together game. The game hints at a lot of things, but they never actually materialise.

Each to their own though.

I personally did not expect character development. I mean i had no Interest from the Mayors life story. I am a Fisherman there for the Job and not to make Friends along the Way. ( where you enticed by the RPG tag?)

you are surprised that a game mainly focused on driving a boat and fishing has mostly fetch quests?

The Mayor warns you to not go out at Night because its dangerous.
If you use the Abilities from the Collector your Sanity decreases and with lower Sanity stuff can and will happen.
With haste its pretty obv that overuse can damage your engine too.
lights give you more vision at night and stronger lights lower your sanity degradation.

i would give the Game a 7/10 and your 6/10 would still be a positive in the review section so it would kinda at to the overwhelmingly positive rating.

[PancorJackhammer]

Originally posted by Adrian Shepard:

I get that there is a cycle where in the day, you're safe and at night there is a lot of danger but I would have preffered an ability or something, where I can explore a night
or two as well, without having to worry about something taking a bite out of my boat.

the lights do that late game. when you have the setup with the most lumen you basically get no panic from the night itself, only from other threats, like the red mist, which can be avoided by turning off the light for a short time while driving away from it.

[TeknoTel]

Originally posted by Lod101:

Originally posted by TeknoTel:

I mean do you have any counter points? Do you not think it was weird how there was no development on characters? Completely useless mechanics like lights? Complete RNG on catching special fishes (clearly no time spent on it at all)? No variation at all on any mission or sub quest in the game? £20+ game completed in less that 10 hours (probably could be done in a few hours if you wanted)?

I dont know, I mean I played it through, but I expected things to significantly change after the first hour, new mechanics, massive world event, lots of missions and detailed story, character development and progression. Literally had none of it. Just catch fish a, bring to point b, rinse and repeat. Characters hint of things happening that never do, the mayor warns not to stray too far away as the town needs you to finish, yet nothing ever happens further with the mayor and nothing happens no matter what you do. The collector tells you not to use the abilities too much or something might happen, nothing ever does, can use as much as you like.

I dont know, I think its good for the first hour or so and then when you finally realise there is nothing more to it at all and there is only really a bare bones story, no character development and the quests are all identical you realise this was a quickly put together game. The game hints at a lot of things, but they never actually materialise.

Each to their own though.

I personally did not expect character development. I mean i had no Interest from the Mayors life story. I am a Fisherman there for the Job and not to make Friends along the Way. ( where you enticed by the RPG tag?)

you are surprised that a game mainly focused on driving a boat and fishing has mostly fetch quests?

The Mayor warns you to not go out at Night because its dangerous.
If you use the Abilities from the Collector your Sanity decreases and with lower Sanity stuff can and will happen.
With haste its pretty obv that overuse can damage your engine too.
lights give you more vision at night and stronger lights lower your sanity degradation.

i would give the Game a 7/10 and your 6/10 would still be a positive in the review section so it would kinda at to the overwhelmingly positive rating.

I dunno, I dont think character development is something niche, I think most good games have some sort of development, be it in quest, storyline, character, mechanics etc. Dredge doesn't really have anything like that. To me its a good foundation/premise for a good game that never really goes any further than that. If some told me it was made in a month I would believe them

I am currently playing Dave the Diver, this is similar in terms of catching fish, however the there is so much more to it, like this game has 5 - 10% of what Dave the Diver has. It feels like a work of art and whilst sure some of the mechanics aren't that in depth, it has so much to it you don't mind those bits, story, multiple quest lines, boss fights, pokemon, sidescrolling dungeoneering, mini games, farming, management simulation aspects, virtually has everything.

For me, overwhelmingly positive is a moniker that applies to very few games, the best of the best that transcend genre. Factorio, Rimworld, Dead Cells and even Dave the Diver. These are 9.5 - 10/10 out of games.

Dredge for me just doesn't have enough to it and its the only real thing it does well is the setting and atmosphere. Everything else is too simple or bare bones for this to be anything more than a mediocre game. Just interested to see what people thought as to why this game would receive such high accolades as there really seems to be little to it. It is one of those games which is so simple you think, well it must be more of a story based game, yet it isn't at all.

[TeknoTel]

Originally posted by PancorJackhammer:

Originally posted by Adrian Shepard:

I get that there is a cycle where in the day, you're safe and at night there is a lot of danger but I would have preffered an ability or something, where I can explore a night
or two as well, without having to worry about something taking a bite out of my boat.

the lights do that late game. when you have the setup with the most lumen you basically get no panic from the night itself, only from other threats, like the red mist, which can be avoided by turning off the light for a short time while driving away from it.

By late game you realise there is nothing really to do at night in this game in all honesty, other than the couple of quests which require a fish that only appears at night. Also panic never seemed to really do anything and when you get Banish, there is literally no threat at all from anything which is ridiuclous.

This is kind of what I mean and is typical of the game, a lot of the mechanics are meaningless at a certain point in the game and never really go deeper then for example the engine getting a touch faster or the light getting a touch brighter. At a certain point these mechanics have barely any meaning in terms of advancement, for me late game was simply a race to finish the main quest line as there was very little else to get immersed in.

[TeknoTel]

Originally posted by Adrian Shepard:

Since everyone else just wants to troll what I feel is a very thought out opinion, I will try to share my view on this game.

Like TeknoTel said, the game starts off strong, there is even an atmosphere of relaxation to it but after an hour or two, you realize that there isn't actually that much to do. Yes, there is a codex of all the fishes and once you complete quests in the main story, you unlock new abilities.

However, I feel that the game's biggest strength is also it's biggest weakness, namely the horror aspect. I get that there is a cycle where in the day, you're safe and at night there is a lot of danger but I would have preffered an ability or something, where I can explore a night
or two as well, without having to worry about something taking a bite out of my boat.

And I was also dissapointed that the characters are so simplistic. You never get to know them outside of one quest. I did play this game, had fun with it and found the two endings but once I finished it, I didn't return to it. I just didn't see any point.

In my opinion the game has to have the cycle of day and night as there is so little else to do. Imagine if you could freely sail the daytime or even the night time, what would there even be to do? The only way it feels like a game is by putting the time limit on what you can achieve each day or night, the thing is this doesnt really add gameplay or immersion, just tedium.

Oh your in the middle of needing to go to point a, b and c, well you can only achieve point a and b before night falls, and at night fall you need to head back to port. Its just this over and over and over again and because thats all there is it gets tedious after a while.

[Ghennkin]

I quit without finishing it a few days ago. People have different bars at varying heights and for me, this game was far to low under my bar to keep playing. For other people, its above the bar.

I also thought it was dull and boring. It misses the mark when it comes to capturing what the game seems to be striving to be. They want people to vote for this game for best Horror game of 2023. Seriously. What horror?

Its thought that almost everything has been written already. Its incredibly hard to make something new and innovative. This is especially true with video games. You have a flat screen, player input device, audio output, and you can do a finite amount of things with this space. After 40 years of video games, most new games are similar to older games.

Sid Meier's Pirates is a boat perspective game were you collect resources and sell them to port merchants. That game succeeded in being what it was intended. Dredge does not. Anyways, all the time I played Dredge, I felt like I already played the better game years ago and that game had much more depth. So playing something much more basic and simplified probably isn't going to hold my attention. I forced myself to play Dredge while never getting invested in the gameplay or story. Maxed out boat on the 2nd relic island.

As far as I can tell, this is Blackalt's first game. For a first game that is overwhelmingly reviewed as positive, that's a fantastic start. Wish them all the best moving towards the future.

Doesn't really make any difference if I do or don't like their games.

[a passerby]

For me, I enjoyed exploring the world and going through the fish-sell-upgrade cycle. I also quite enjoyed the way the game instilled the dread of sailing at night.
The game is made to be short and simple, and I enjoyed it for what it is. Not every game needs a deeply compelling backstory or character development.

[maru]

Originally posted by Lod101:

...
you are surprised that a game mainly focused on driving a boat and fishing has mostly fetch quests?
...

+1 to this. Honestly, if you come into a fishing game with expectations other than to mostly be doing fetch quests in a scenic environment, then the issue is more to do with yourself than the game..