Dredge: Fishing the Leviathan
Few games blend the mundane with the terrifying quite like Black Salt Games’ Dredge. Released in March 2023, this indie gem takes the simple premise of fishing and weaves it into a mélange of Lovecraftian dread. What starts as a peaceful career as a fisherman in a remote archipelago quickly descends into encounters with eldritch abominations, cursed relics, and the maddening truth lurking beneath the waves.
For fans of cosmic horror, Dredge delivers an experience that’s equal parts meditative and unsettling. It’s a game where you’ll spend hours managing your inventory and upgrading your boat, all while the ocean itself seems to watch you with malevolent intent. Let’s dive deep into what makes this fishing simulator so unnervingly special.
The Story of "Dredge"
Arrival in Greater Marrow
The tale opens when a lone fisherman survives a violent storm and washes ashore in the coastal settlement of Greater Marrow. He has answered a notice seeking a new angler, and fate places him there at the perfect moment: the town’s previous fisherman has vanished without trace. The mayor, eager to keep the community fed, lends the newcomer a modest boat and presses him to begin work at once. However, before he sets sail, the mayor offers a firm warning — never remain at sea after nightfall.
Although the job appears ordinary, the fisherman soon senses that Greater Marrow hides troubling secrets. Once darkness falls, a dense mist rolls across the water. Rocks emerge where none stood before, phantom vessels drift past in silence, and hostile creatures stir beneath the waves. At times, he feels watched by something vast and patient.
As he explores the surrounding archipelago, he discovers bottles washed up along the shore. Inside, diary pages recount the story of a newlywed woman, J.J., who arrived on these islands with her husband. According to her writings, her husband dredged a sealed casket from the seabed and opened it, releasing the unnatural fog that now suffocates the region. In doing so, he awakened a colossal being known as the Leviathan — a guardian of the deep that destroyed their boat, claimed J.J.’s life, and stranded the survivors. From that moment onwards, the creature stalked the waters, determined that no one would ever leave.
The Collector and the Relics
Before long, the fisherman encounters a solitary figure known only as the Collector, who resides within a decaying island mansion. This enigmatic man requests five artefacts scattered across the archipelago. He insists they are valuable historical relics, yet his urgency suggests another motive.
Each object lies within a different region and demands courage or ingenuity to retrieve:
Ornate Key (The Marrows)
Music Box (Gale Cliffs)
Jewel-Encrusted Band (Stellar Basin)
Necklace (Twisted Strand)
Pocket Watch (Devil’s Spine)
To assist in this quest, the Collector entrusts the fisherman with the Book of the Deep, granting him unsettling powers drawn from unknown forces. Nevertheless, as the relics accumulate, doubts begin to surface. The artefacts feel personal rather than historical, and their connection to J.J. becomes impossible to ignore.
Gale Cliffs and Broken Brotherhood
At Gale Cliffs, the fisherman meets two estranged brothers. One resides in Ingfell, while the other — known as the Hermit — survives alone amid ruins left by a serpentine beast. The Hermit confesses that he stole his brother’s Family Crest but lost it when the creature dragged it beneath the sea.
Determined to mend the rift, the fisherman dredges the crest from the depths and delivers it to the Retired Whaler in Ingfell. In return, the Whaler agrees to forgive his brother, provided the fisherman clears dangerous debris blocking the waterways with homemade explosives. After completing the task, the fisherman escorts the Hermit home, reuniting the siblings.
While investigating a strange red beam of light near the ruins, he uncovers a music box — another fragment of a wider mystery.
Stellar Basin and the Abyss Below
In Stellar Basin, an ageing fortress shelters a dedicated Researcher who studies the region’s distorted marine life. A monstrous presence lurks at the basin’s floor, attacking any vessel that ventures too close. The Researcher asks for assistance in collecting specimens, hoping to understand the aberrations surrounding her.
First, she directs the fisherman to recover equipment from her destroyed research outpost. With these tools, she constructs a device capable of fishing within the abyssal zone. Even so, the creature remains a threat. To counter it, she develops a repulsion machine that emits a piercing sound, driving the beast away for a short time.
Once the device powers up at the old generator, the fisherman seizes his chance. He sails into the basin’s centre and dredges up an ornate ring — one more relic tied to the Collector’s scheme.
Twisted Strand and the Airman
Twisted Strand forms a tangled maze of vines and narrow canals. The waterways appear to shift without warning, and hostile entities known as Mind Suckers stalk the shallows. These creatures distort perception and attack without hesitation.
Within this treacherous landscape, the fisherman discovers a stranded Airman — the last survivor of a crashed squadron. Together, they rebuild a mortar and lay a trap for the Mind Suckers. After eliminating the creatures, the Airman searches their remains and uncovers a necklace hidden within one corpse.
Despite the chance to escape, the Airman chooses to remain among the wreckage, unwilling to abandon the memory of his fallen comrades.
Devil’s Spine and the Fanatic’s Ritual
At Devil’s Spine, a solitary Fanatic inhabits an ancient temple carved into volcanic rock. He greets the fisherman as a destined successor and insists that he perform a purification ritual. According to the Fanatic, previous aspirants failed and now wander the isles in eternal hunger.
Temple carvings warn of the Unseeing Mother — a vast blind fish whose offspring attempt to drag prey beneath the waves. After the fisherman completes the ritual, the Fanatic relinquishes a pocket watch, another relic bound to the growing collection.
By this stage, the truth presses ever closer.
Two Possible Endings
If the fisherman surrenders the relics, the Collector finally reveals his identity: he is J.J.’s husband. Having recovered the Book of the Deep from the casket, he discovered a rite capable of restoring his wife to life. The relics, all personal belongings of J.J., form essential components of the ritual.
Together, they sail to the waters where she drowned. The fisherman casts the items into the sea, completing the ceremony. J.J. rises once more — but the act also awakens an immense eldritch horror from the depths. The creature devastates Greater Marrow and brings ruin far beyond the archipelago.
Alternatively, the fisherman may refuse. In that moment, he realises the Collector is not a separate man but a manifestation of his own buried guilt and fractured memory. Rejecting the illusion, he sails into open water and casts the Book of the Deep into the ocean. The Leviathan responds at once, swallowing him, his vessel, and the cursed tome. Yet with their destruction, the unnatural fog lifts, and the archipelago finally breathes freely again.
Mythos
The central horror of the game, the entity dwelling in the depths, is never fully explained or shown in detail. We catch glimpses through aberrations, through hallucinations, and through the twisted geography of reality near certain islands, but a complete picture remains elusive. In fact, it simply exists—vast and indifferent to human suffering, warping reality through its mere presence. This creature shares many traits with Leviathan, the vassal of Cthulhu. Furthermore, the resurrection ritual at the “bad” end of Dredge directly echoes the awakening of Cthulhu at R’lyeh.
The fishing towns within the archipelago bear a striking resemblance to Lovecraft’s Innsmouth. Local inhabitants are aware something is deeply wrong, yet they have adapted to it and even normalised the situation. For this reason, they speak of the aberrations quite casually. They warn you about the dangers of nighttime fishing, but they do not leave. It remains unclear whether they cannot leave or simply won’t.
Much like Innsmouth, these communities are undergoing a slow transformation due to their proximity to cosmic horror. Lovecraft often used the ocean as a metaphor for the vast, uncaring cosmos. In The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and Dagon, the sea is the place where humanity encounters things that predate and will certainly outlast us.
On a final note, if you enjoyed this maritime horror, I recommend you look for texts by William Hope Hodgson, such as The Boats of the “Glen Carrig”. Hodgson had a lifelong fascination with horror at sea.
Dredge’s Visuals and Atmosphere
The art style of the game is deceptively cheerful. Use of a low-poly aesthetic with vibrant colours during the day—blues, greens, and warm yellows—makes the archipelago feel almost welcoming. However, this pleasant veneer ensures the horror elements hit harder. When night falls and the water turns black, or when an aberration flops onto your deck with its impossible anatomy, the contrast between the cute art style and the grotesque content creates a uniquely unsettling experience.
Sound design within the world is equally phenomenal. During the day, one hears gentle waves, distant seabirds, and the boat’s engine puttering along. At night, the soundscape transforms. You hear things moving beneath your hull, while distant, unidentifiable calls echo across the water. Your engine begins to sound laboured, as if something is dragging on it. Once panic sets in, the audio becomes actively hostile.
Gameplay and Progression
The experience lasts roughly 10-15 hours, depending on how much you explore and whether you pursue side quests. Pacing remains deliberate—some might even say slow—but this works in the game’s favour. The mundanity of fishing and sailing creates space for the horror elements to breathe. Players are not constantly bombarded with scares; instead, dread builds gradually as you notice things are not quite right. While the main quest is relatively linear, there is enough freedom to explore at your own pace. Side quests add depth to the world and often reveal more about the disaster that befell the islands.
The upgrade programme feels rewarding without being a chore. The story, while simple in structure, is emotionally resonant and sticks with you after the credits roll. In short, the game respects your time and contains no filler content.
On the other hand, the fishing mini-games can become repetitive despite being functional. After you have caught the same species dozens of times, the novelty wears off. The late-game can feel a bit of a slog if you are trying to max out all upgrades.
Furthermore, the night mechanic can occasionally feel more annoying than scary. This is particularly true when hallucinations cause damage to your boat and there is nothing to be done to prevent it.
Wrapping Up
Dredge is a remarkable achievement in interactive Lovecraftian horror. It understands that cosmic horror is about atmosphere, dread, and the slow realisation that you are out of your depth in more ways than one. In many ways, the fishing mechanics could have been a gimmick, but they are integral to both gameplay and theme. The cosy aesthetic could have clashed with the horror; instead, it enhances it. At its core, the story could have been a simple tale of oceanic monsters, but it is actually a meditation on grief.
For anyone interested in Lovecraft-inspired games, Dredge is essential. Just remember: some things are better left undredged.