Dredge is a great find if you're after something a little more chill with a decent adventure. It has a fantastic art style, a great soundtrack and some awesome sound design (shout out to the NZ Department of Conservation for the best bird noises on the planet!) I really enjoyed the dark, "Lovecraftian" undertones throughout the main story, the gameplay loop and the art direction.

Dredge's art style is a great mix of impressionist paintings and stylised low-poly environmental design. It looks absolutely stunning! The different locations this game takes you to have their own extremely distinct vibes and effects, from hellish orange skies and volcanic coastlines to places that seem directly inspired by New Zealand's Milford Sounds. The low-poly 3D art style really seems like it allowed the design artists to flourish with the locations you interact with. In the menus, we've got a beautiful impressionist "painted" style which looks great on the characters you interact with and the fish in your encyclopaedia. Both of these styles work together to really force you to use your imagination to flesh out the world in the best way possible.

In the same vein, this game has great music and sounds that do an amazing job at pulling you into the world they've crafted. I especially appreciated the Kiwi touch of having our birdsongs used in-game as ambient noise. The sound and world design work together flawlessly and create an immaculate feel while playing.

The story really serves the gameplay as it will take you to each corner of the world, but that doesn't really detract from what's here. I loved the dark undertones and Lovecraftian style that creates a constant sense of "unease" (for lack of a better term.) There's no jump scares to be found, but the world does an excellent job of building a foreboding feeling as you progress through each area. As you explore further and do some side quests, you'll figure out in due time that things certainly are not as they seem at first. There's some great environmental story telling through certain locations you'll find off the beaten path, as well as through dialogue with the side characters. Very mysterious and brooding.

The gameplay is quite minimalistic - you fish at clearly marked points and to catch each fish you have to complete a QTE style minigame. Once you've filled your boat with all manner of stinky creatures or materials, you head back to a port or pontoon to sell these off for profit, repair and upgrade your ship and head back out. Interspersed are some side quest objectives and of course the main quest. I never found this to be too tedious, personally, but I knew that I wasn't looking for deep mechanics here. If you're looking for a complex fishing game you won't find it here.

Overall, I rate Dredge an 8.5/10.
This is an excellent example of a simple game done well. There's a lot of attention to detail where it matters, and it doesn't overcomplicate anything. There's a beautiful art style, great sound design and very relaxed gameplay.