Dredge: The Pale Reach – DLC Review

Over six months have passed since we where last sailing around the oceans of Dredge, but with Team 17’s fantastic Fishing adventure still one of the best indie games we’ve seen this year, it’s time to pull on the waders and get your bouys wet, because we’re heading to the Pale Reach.

After installing the new DLC pack, you’ll still be able to continue any saved game, and initially you’ll find The Pale Reach is nowhere to be found, your old saved status, and maybe a few rotten fish in your hands, but heading to the map, you’ll see a red area marked at the bottom, and find talk of a photographer down south as you converse with familiar I habitants.

If you haven’t played much of Dredge, you might want to make a little progress with the main game first as it’s a bit of a treck, but regardless of you’re progression with the main story, you can head south at any point, where you’ll eventually find new missions from the photographer and a small base of operations complete with some new upgrades to work towards.

Initially, it’s the same Dredge grind we know and love as you venture around this mysterious icy island, collecting fish in order to sell them for advanced upgrades, allowing you to progress to other areas of the island and work towards a new boss to defeat as well as various side-notes scattered around which provide a little extra back story.

If everything sounds a little familiar, you’ve got it hook, line and sinker, as The Pale Reach, sticks with “if it ain’t broke”, offering a very familiar gameplay loop, with no major deviation from the core content you may have only just played, which might be a little dissapointing to some players, but for anyone like myself who’s played the core content to 100% completion, it’s great to be back on the water, exploring a new area.

One downside is, it’s quite a small area and the entire DLC might only last 2-3 hours depending on your experience coming in to it, thankfully at just over the £5 mark it still brings decent value, especially for those wanting more of the same, but if you’re heading to the Pale Reach in search of something new and innovative, you’re in for an icy reception.

Graphically, we see everything we expect after being fed a few screenshots and trailers, it’s an icy setting, and any ideas about what that might include are probably spot on. White, icy scenary, new boat upgrades and a few new fish to fit with the theme.

Between these icy obstacles and the same style for chatting to similarly drawn characters, with the exact same fishing style and mini-games, as far as the sound, you will of course be able to expect the same (or very similar) audio quality, across the board, which was always on par with the rest of the game.

Its safe to say, I really enjoyed Dredge and even after finishing the story, I happily Continued to collect every fish and Achievement before awarding it an impressive 86% in our review. The Pale Reach’s desire to stay true to the core game, sadly backfires a little, with the new content never really feeling like anything new or innovative and while we can’t complain about the price, the content never quite feels as much quality or quantity as I was hoping for.

This review will feel a little short, because we don’t want to repost everything about the main game, so we highly recommend checking out our original review, throw a few ice cubes on top and add a couple more hours and you’ll know exactly what we’re getting at.

The Pale Reach avoids any surprises, delivering what we expect and not much more or less. It’s saved a little by the low price, but ultimately feels a little average for DLC releasing 8-9 months after the main game that it sticks so close to.. Fans will no doubt appreciate staying true to form, but just don’t head into the water expecting many icy surprises.

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