Evening Latte

Year Originally Released: 2023
Version Played: Dredge Digital Deluxe Edition
Platform/Hardware: Xbox Series X
Primary Game Genre: Resource management
Player Perspective: Top-down camera
Hours Played: 19 (one playthrough)
Achievements: 58% (35/60)
Gamerscore: 56% (820/1,450)
My Favorite Thing: Upgrade mechanics
My Least Favorite Thing: Lack of story

Why I Started Playing It

It routinely goes on sale, has very good reviews in the Xbox store, and seemed similar to other resource management games I’ve liked.

Story

The opening sequence showed my fishing boat crash on the rocks of an island at night. When I woke up the next morning, the nearby town’s mayor took pity on me and “sold” me and old/small fishing boat on promise of repayment from what I sold to the local fishmonger.

I interacted with a few people on the main/central island to initiate the main gameplay loops and introduce the mission/progression mechanics. After some fishing and upgrades there, my boat was good enough travel to the other islands and do short multi-part missions for 1-2 people per island before finally deciding my and the islands’ fates.

The real overarching story/narrative was collecting relics for a mysterious person on an isolated island; since there was one relic per island, it was the primary drive to visit all of them. I wasn’t told much about my life before the crash until the very end of the game, and while there were sinister elements that hinted at evil all around me, it was mostly non-impactful elements and vague comments until the last mission.

Gameplay

The primary gameplay loop is to gather resources to upgrade your boat at shipyards located around the map. This can be done directly (scrap metal, wood, etc.) or indirectly (gather fish to sell for money). Upgrades make the boat faster/more resilient, add more space for resources/components, allow new fishing methods, etc. Fishing can be active or passive.

• Active: You find “disturbed water” that indicates fish are nearby. If you have a rod that aligns with the spot, you complete a short minigame, and one fish is added to your inventory. After each fish, you can quit or continue. You will eventually deplete the spot entirely. Under normal operation, rods to not have to be repaired/maintained.
• Passive: Nets can be cast out behind your boat to gather fish as you ride around. Similar to rods, they will only gather fish in certain areas, depending on the type of net. Crab pots can be tossed into spots that have crabs, and you then return later to check/harvest them. Both nets and crab pots have durability stats and must be frequently repaired using money.

I read some reviews saying they thought the fishing minigames were too difficult, and there’s a setting to make them easier, but I found them very easy on the Normal setting. They’re mostly 4-5 second timing/rhythm things.

Time/Night/The Fog

Time only passes when you’re doing something. If you sit in one place without fishing or doing anything else, time will simply not pass. But as soon as you do anything, time kicks on again. And it passes fast: if you’re constantly moving/fishing (which you will be most of the time), sunrise to sunset only takes a minute or two. Which definitely gets old if you only fish during daylight.

One of the first things you’re told is that fishing at night is dangerous because of the (supernatural) fog that envelops the island. Since I’m a risk-minimizer, I spent the first half or so of the game managing my time in a way that gave me enough time to get to a port and sleep/rest overnight every night. At one point, I was kind of forced to sail through the night, and…it’s just glowing specters that increase your stress/panic along with lowered visibility. No hull damage, loss of resources, or anything else truly impactful.

Exploration

The primary incentive to explore the map is to find additional crafting materials. The fact you’re always on a boat limits land-based “exploration” to selecting locations while visiting a port, and sea-based exploration is mostly limited to finding fishing/dredging locations. There are a handful of side quests, but they only consist of 1-3 step fetch tasks.

Tips/Things I Wish I’d Known

• Like most games, resource carry capacity is the most important thing to upgrade first. The more fish you can hold, the more money you can make on each run, and the faster you can upgrade everything else.
• The default engine is very slow. Even a small upgrade there will be significant, and being faster will allow you to avoid dangerous situations. Zooming around also just makes the game more fun.
• Don’t buy an early type-dedicated rod. Some combination of hybrid fishing rod and deep-sea winch will cover you for almost everything. If you visit the islands in the encouraged/expected order, you won’t have to worry about Volcanic fishing until you have enough money and resources to easily buy the required equipment.
• Active fishing seems like the fastest way to make money to me (especially once you figure out which fish have the best space:price ratio) since there are no equipment repair overhead costs. But a handful of crab pots and forced time passage (via resting at a dock) is also very effective and avoids the minigame mechanic.
• Once you fit some decent lighting, sailing at night is no big deal.
• On your initial visit to a port, visit every available location. Many of them will have some sort of resource you can scavenge.
• There is a trader in Little Marrow who buys trinkets (non-craft items).
• There is no visible differentiation between regular trinkets and ones that are involved in side quests. When you arrive at a new island, make sure you talk to everyone before you sell any trinkets you gather there.

Final Thoughts

I think i went into this game with the wrong mindset because I’d read a bunch of reviews about how good the story was. In truth, it’s a solid 10-15 hour resource management game with some fun mechanics, but I was left disappointed by the barebones narrative. The additional time I spent was to get a few achievements (and enjoy zooming around with my maxed-out engines while doing so).

I don’t have a huge amount of experience with resource management games, but if you’re also new to the genre and want something that has more of a focus on exploration/combat and has a much wider variety of tasks and upgrade choices, I recommend checking out Dysmantle. I happily put a little over 90 hours into it (wished there was more), and if you’re patient, you can get the base game and all DLC for less than $15.