Dredge is one of the most underrated games of the year so far. While it might look like an indie fishing game on the surface, it goes much deeper than that (pun intended). Watch on to find out how it deals with themes of capitalism, cosmic horror and more.
Script by LP Mills: twitter.com/li...
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Transcript
Dredge, Capitalism, and Cosmic Horror
Minor spoilers for Dredge (2023)
Dredge is a 2023 indie fishing game developed by Black Salt Games, inspired by moody, atmospheric day-in-the-life sims like Papers Please and the florid prose of notorious racist shut-in HP Lovecraft. In it, you control an unnamed amnesiac, brought to the misty coastal town of Greater Marrow by the churning waves. It starts out harmless enough: you take up a job as an angler, sailing the waters in search of mackerel, cod, crabs, and the like. But as the game goes on, you begin to realise that something is… Off. The fog that sits on the water by night harbours a strange, sinister life of its own; occasionally, you'll pull a fish aboard only to discover it has two heads, or gnashing, human-like teeth, or great staring eyes that pierce your very soul; often, you might see what you think to be an inviting place to dock, only to close in and find yourself staring at yet more cold, unfeeling ocean.
And this is only the beginning of your horror. You see, in the depths of the sea, a stranger and deadlier beast yet lies…
Capitalism.
Alright, bear with me.
The main gameplay loop revolves around managing the space aboard your vessel, and the time it takes for you to complete your work before the sun sets and the isles become drenched in fog. You can only carry so much cargo, so each new catch has to be sorted in such a way that maximises your overall haul. Once you've paid off your debt to the local townsfolk, you can earn enough to buy upgrades that give you new varieties of rod and more space to work within your cargo hold. And all the while, time ticks ever-onwards, walking us hand-in-hand to the inevitable grave.
Sorry, got distracted for a second. Time is an important resource within the game; once night falls, the sea becomes a deadly, maddening place, so it behoves you to get as much done during the day and sail your ship back to harbour in order to rest, patch up your boat, and sell your wares. Time only moves forward so long as you move forward, but the minutes tick by so quickly its very easy to lose your whole day to one or two especially rich shoals of fish. Merchants are open 24/7, so you can flog your catches pretty much whenever you wan-
Wait.
Why are the merchants open so late?
Why don't the shipwright and fishmongers and travelling salesfolk ever seem to sleep?
This is obviously a gameplay feature, ensuring that players who show up late aren't locked out of earning their keep for the day. But it points to something more subtly distressing about the game's setting.
Poverty is everywhere in Dredge. The towns of Greater and Little Marrow are inhabited by down-on-their-luck sorts who seem to barely scrape together a living. The nearby village of Istfell - once a prosperous whaling town - has fallen into ruin and disrepair. You even start the game in debt, with your own ship having been destroyed and replaced - at a premium - by Greater Marrow's mayor. No matter where you look, there's some poor schlub trying and failing to make ends meet.
This brings me back to my earlier point; the real monster in Dredge is capitalism.
Yes it's a bit click-baity and more than a little pretentious, but it becomes more obvious to the setting the deeper we get into the world itself. You see, the waters that surround this little archipelago aren't especially… safe. Monsters abound, creatures that will gladly take a chunk out of your ship as though it were a two-tonne bucket of delicious chum. The first encounters with these monsters are often breath-taking: a hint of a dorsal fin the size of a blue whale slowly emerging from the waves...
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