Dredge is a wonderful indie cosmic horror fishing sport that eases you in with a stable fishing mechanic and some mutated catches. The story and gameplay are engrossing and had me hooked from begin to end, which is why I’m so glad that its newest and closing DLC, The Iron Rig, is one of the best excuse to start out a brand new save file.

Dredge: The Iron Rig is each a narrative and world enlargement for the bottom sport that manages to protect the core expertise to the purpose that you just’ll have a greater time with it should you restart the sport as an alternative of constant on from a near-complete playthrough. The DLC’s focus is a large oil rig that’s seen from each a part of the map, looming within the distance like some nice steel large simply ready to come back to life and chase you throughout the seas. Mercifully, The Iron Rig doesn’t try this. It does one thing far more sinister.

Dredge: The Iron Rig (PC [Reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X|S, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Swap)
Developer: Black Salt Video games
Writer: Group 17
Launched: August 15, 2024
MSRP: $11.99/£11.99

A brand new world beneath the floor

You’ll be able to’t entry The Iron Rig in Dredge till you’ve reached the bottom sport’s third main location. This ensures you realize what you’re doing and have a lot of the tools you’ll want if you lastly resolve to go to the hulking steel construction. That is the DLC’s biggest energy as a result of it helps hold the bottom sport’s story and development intact. The way in which you slowly achieve new know-how and upgrades by way of the story helps you grasp all of them, and The Iron Rig is all about rising your energy, so it wouldn’t do for it to interrupt that development proper off the bat.

You’ll discover the influence of the DLC from the very first second you set sail on a brand new save file, although. Unusual crates now seem in particular areas everywhere in the map. In fact, the sport teaches you to dredge up something and every little thing you’ll be able to, so these crates rapidly replenish your storage as you maintain onto them for a wet day. That wet day is your arrival on the oil rig simply after reaching Stellar Basin.

The crates you’ve collected are used to construct and unlock elements of the rig, permitting you to fulfill and greet the odd new characters it introduces. They’re simply as unusual and haunted because the residents of each different location within the sport, however each appears to be attempting to flee their previous. They add much more taste to a playthrough, and I had a good time working with them to unlock new options of the rig and use their companies.

After a short time, the true nature of The Iron Rig is revealed. As soon as operational, the oil rig inadvertently causes an enormous rift within the bedrock underneath the seas you thought you knew so properly. This causes a thick black substance to bubble to the floor and forces new fish species to return to the ocean, having solely beforehand appeared as fossils. It’s apparent Black Salt Video games had a blast with these creatures since you’ve obtained historic fish, crustaceans, and even issues we don’t totally perceive in 2024, just like the Tully Monster.

As you may anticipate, you’ll decide up quests that revolve round these new species and that darkish substance, however the base sport’s undercurrent of cosmic horror solely grows with this new improvement. You don’t have any thought what’s happening, and the DLC’s occasions solely worsen over time, including to the overarching narrative of this cursed assortment of islands.

A very powerful factor about the best way The Iron Rig‘s story evolves over time is that it follows Dredge‘s pure development. It takes you thru every space of the sport in the identical order you comply with within the base story, which felt prefer it let me see all of them in a totally new mild. The development additionally performs into the tools you have to use in these areas as they alter over time. Regardless of having already accomplished an space, you’ll want to enhance your tools with unusual new rods and kit if you wish to return and advance The Iron Rig‘s story.

Whereas some residents of beforehand visited areas will point out Ironhaven and the darkish ooze masking their native waters, many others don’t. I discovered this slightly stranger than is common for Dredge simply because these are large alterations to the setting, and I anticipated to see extra mentions of it in dialogue. Nonetheless, that is an odd sport with odd characters who match simply as properly on the earth, whether or not they point out modifications to their environment or not.

The Iron Rig‘s characters greater than make up for this, although. They’re extremely chatty and unusual and toe the road between unnerving you and making you are feeling like a agency good friend. They’re tremendous unsettling and don’t really feel like part of any of Dredge‘s communities. This suits completely as a result of they’re outsiders, in order that they shouldn’t be much like any of the locals. Black Salt Video games hit the nail on the pinnacle with them as a result of they are surely this cosmically haunted world’s definition of a rag-tag group of outsiders, all clearly hiding from their previous or trying to cover their intentions in essentially the most distant location on the earth. The issue for them is that location has simply as many secrets and techniques as they do.

The Iron Rig offers you extra causes to fish and dredge up supplies, however it may be a little bit of a slog should you don’t make the most of the brand new devices you’ll be able to seize from the rig. Customary tools like trawler nets and crab pots are altered to help you collect the thick black liquid rising up from the deep and gather the supplies strewn all through the ocean by crashed ships. You’ll additionally want a brand new set of rods to catch each new fish and crustacean the darkish liquid brings with it as a result of the infusions the rig offers shield your line from the unknown substance.

This accelerates development by way of each the bottom sport and DLC considerably, however with the added seven hours or so The Iron Rig tacks onto the bottom sport, it doesn’t really feel any much less meaty. I attempted to play by way of the DLC’s story in tandem with the bottom sport, and nothing ever felt like busywork. The preliminary story helps you grasp the fundamentals, and The Iron Rig helps you to stretch your wings, so to talk.

For all the brand new know-how The Iron Rig provides and the renewed velocity at which you will get it, Dredge‘s consideration to element could also be its personal downfall relating to the DLC. After buying upgrades for my engines that added new skills but in addition massively elevated my velocity, I discovered that traversing the world truly grew to become harder. I stored bumping into rocks that I by no means hit even when my boat was totally upgraded within the base sport.

I wish to stress that this solely occurred in a few areas, such because the Collector’s island and areas the place there are a lot of objects to dodge as you journey. It’s not a dealbreaker by any stretch, however it did frustrate me as a result of I knew I shouldn’t be ramming these items, and the one distinction is that The Iron Rig has given my boat extra energy than I can clearly deal with.

I fell in love with Dredge another time whereas enjoying The Iron Rig. It completes the sport in a manner I by no means thought I wanted and makes it really feel model new. Each level that the bottom sport made about humanity’s influence on the world and the unknown implications from…properly, the unknown, is heightened by the DLC. It’s the proper motive to replay, a incredible excuse to remain in mattress all weekend and play a comfy horror sport, and a brand new solution to make your self marvel about what’s lurking out of sight the subsequent time you look out on the vastness of the ocean.