behold: the comfiest fishing game on the market today and it can run on a toaster. or a steam deck, if you prefer.

i was honestly really pleasantly surprised with this, despite the very simple controls and visual aesthetic, theres lots of little system at play to keep you engaged; of course theres the obvious things such as certain fish requiring you to use a specific reel in speed, or a specific lure, or to travel to specific parts of the map, but then you have more unique wrinkles such as dissecting what you catch in order to fill out a database of the fish that exist within the current lake youre in more quickly than just catching them. a little bit later on and youre sent out to do full on comprehensive catalogues of entire lakes, even.

sure, you dont get those moments in the 3d fishing games where you pull up a fish and your guy stands there heaving up the big one you just caught, but theres still plenty to chew on here. certified hidden gem, for sure.

This game was reviewed using Version 1.4.7. Your experience on other versions may vary.

A fishing simulator with some light RPG elements and a ton of depth hiding behind its simplistic appearance. It sets itself apart through its meticulous approach to tracking down fish and crafting lures, but this can understandably turn away players that just want to focus on the fishing itself. Watch the "Developer Rundown" video on the store page and/or keep reading down below to make sure that this game is the right fit for you.

Intergalactic Fishing is a fishing simulator that I really, really enjoyed, but also kind of struggle to recommend without a few asterisks attached to it. It's not because it's bad or unfun—I wouldn't give it the blue checkmark if it was either one of those—but because it's a game that I think only appeals to a specific demographic of players due to its more in-depth approach to mechanics that tend to be more streamlined in other fishing games. There's a "Developer Rundown" video alongside the trailer and screenshots on the store page, and I'd strongly suggest watching the whole thing to know what you're getting into; but I'll do my best to explain the parts that I feel are most important.

The actual fishing is fairly simple, just that classic "tension meter" minigame where you hold down the button to reel in and let go before the meter fills so your line doesn't break; but there's a lot going on under the hood to determine what (or even if) you'll be able to catch when you throw your line in the water. Every species available in a lake has a lure preference as well as behaviorial patterns that determine where (e.g. surface, deep water, vegetation) and what time is best to find them, and much of the gameplay loop revolves around gathering that information. NPCs on the lake have a chance of giving you a piece of this info, every successful catch nets you a little more, and dissecting your catch will provide the most data at the cost of no longer being able to sell that fish. Once you have at least some data on the fish you're targeting, you can go through the process of making a lure best suited for catching it.

Lure crafting is the system that will probably make or break your enjoyment of the game as a whole, because it's simultaneously the most dissimilar to the rest of the gameplay while also being arguably the most important part of it. Basically, you stick tetromino pieces into this little grid, and the stats of the resulting lure—shininess, volume, size, and brightness—are determined by what pieces you use and where you place them. It might take a bit to wrap your head around how exactly your placement affects the numbers even with the provided help page, but you can craft and destroy as many as you'd like at no cost, so you're free to experiment for as long as you need. This is important, because your choice of lure has a direct impact on how quickly you'll catch both your target species and local fish in general. Failing to engage with this mechanic means you're going to hit a wall in your progression very quickly since your pre-made starter lures won't always be fit for the job, so if you don't find yourself at least tolerating the lure crafting system, you're going to struggle to engage with the rest of the game as well.

If you do end up liking it like I did, though, then you've got a lot to look forward to. There are 64 lakes in the ULT Network (more on that shortly) where you can collect data on the local fish, try to break their local size records if you're feeling lucky, and even engage in the occasional side quest. Any fish you choose not to dissect can be sold for credits that you can use to purchase better fishing poles, new boats, and modules that add extra functionality to those boats like auto-selling or short-range teleportation. Credits can also be earned by completing fish contracts (e.g. catch X fish of Y size) or participating in tournaments, both of which are unlocked once you purchase their respective modules. Progressing far enough in the story will also unlock the ability to visit procedurally-generated "unknown lakes" where you can earn credits by collecting research data on what you find there. These can be more challenging since you can't rely on NPCs to give you preliminary data, but it makes for a good test of your understanding of the game's mechanics; and you even get the option to name the fish and the lake itself once you gather all their respective data, which is a nice touch even if you're never likely to see that again once you leave it.

Speaking of which, this game does actually have a story, albeit a short one. The basic premise is that a company called ULT Corp have made this new teleportation tech that lets anglers travel to a bunch of lakes across the galaxy through something called the ULT Network, and your home of Ankobo Lake has recently been added to that network. Shortly after, all the fish in Ankobo start dying, and you're sent to travel the Network to try and find out how to fix it. The main story quests act as a way to slowly integrate you into all the different gameplay systems on offer, with some like the unknown lakes being locked entirely until you reach specific points in the story, but you're otherwise free to step away and take on other activities as you please. Completing the story unlocks a new set of challenges from the Intergalactic Fishing Society (IFS), which tracks all progress past and future and provides you with new rewards as you rise up in their ranks.

The core gameplay loop manages to be relaxing without feeling boring, occasionally ramping up the excitement when you happen to reel in an unexpectedly big fish. Much like real fishing, though, catching fish can still be a slow process at times even under optimal conditions, and the unknown lakes in particular can be very finicky when it comes to tracking down new species. Network lakes are better about this, but you can still feel like you're at the mercy of RNG in some cases, like whether local NPCs are going to give useful fish data or just tell you that they sell for a lot and can grow up to be this big. As far as content I actually didn't like, the only thing I can think of is the tournaments, which I gave up on when I broke the lake record for a fish mid-tournament and still had three other NPCs surpass me. Call it a skill issue on my part if you want, but it felt too random for me to want to engage with it any more than I had to.

This game doesn't take too long to beat, but completionists can sink far more hours into it depending on their chosen criteria for completion. For example, you can try gathering all the research data for fish in the network lakes, or even break all their size records, or reach the highest rank with the IFS, or you can just stick to the milestones used in the Steam achievements. Each one of these on their own can take dozens of hours to accomplish, so it all just depends on what you think would be fun to do—or you can just call it completed once you've decided you've had your fill, which is ultimately what I did after over 40 hours of total playtime. Intergalactic Fishing is not a game for everyone, but find that it clicks with you and you're in for dozens or even hundreds of hours of fun.

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