Dredge, as both me and at least two of my coworkers have written before, is good fun. Its latest bit of DLC, The Iron Rig, is buy and large more of that same kind of fun, but I can’t help but feel that, at least from a narrative perspective, it had the potential to offer a bit more than it does.
As you’ve probably gleaned from the name, the central premise of the Iron Rig is that an oil rig has popped up to the north of the game’s established islands. So, as you did with the ice-filled Pale Reach, it’s your job to head to this new landmark and see if it has a need for the finest aquatic life and abominations in the land.
When you arrive, you’ll learn from the rig’s foreman that, as is the tradition, something mysterious is afoot. The ships dispatched by the Ironhaven corporation which owns the rig to bring the supplies its workers need to get it properly set up and drilling have sunk, and no one has the foggiest why. Thus begins one of the two central gameplay loops of the DLC – you head out, dredge up some crates belonging to the corporation, and bring them back to the rig to, on this occasion, unlock it as a home base.
Throughout your time with the Iron Rig, crate fetching and assembling will become not just your hobby, but your full-time job, especially if you’re the completionist sort. You see, the boxes are required both to upgrade the rig – gradually building it up via the construction of new modules like a factory, foundry, and tech lab – and fashion a lot of the boat and equipment upgrades the majority of these modules can be used to create.
Meanwhile, once the rig’s drill is up and running, you’ll find that every time the workers send it plunging to the deep, it triggers a great big crack heading towards one of the four locales which make up the base game’s archipelago, giving you an excuse to take in the excellent design and vibes of these established areas again. Where these big cracks end, three or four patches of oil-like dark liquid will pop up in different areas around the islands. These are where you’ll be tasked with heading by the rig’s scientist to catch the pretty sizable array of new fish the DLC adds to Dredge’s already impressive collection of weird and, er, wet stuff to catch.
The new species dwelling in the depths are pretty interesting, with the developers clearly having dug out some books about fossils for inspiration in creating a bunch of critters that generally look like they could survive a nuclear apocalypse, eat you whole, or both. Naturally, they’ve all got nightmare fuel aberration evil twins too. As you fish them up, you’ll have to avoid the bursting goo bubbles and extra creature which serve as the hazards in the dark liquid patches.
Catching these dark liquid fish does require some new rods, but these are a bit disappointing, as they’re just the same rods you were using for the various depths in the base game with some Ironhaven tech strapped to them. Plus, the dark sludge itself is a valuable crafting resource you’ll want to gather up via a new Syphon Net and take back to the rig.
The crate collecting/rig upgrading and dark liquid fishing trips go hand-in-hand throughout each stage of the expansion’s narrative as it progresses, with a couple more wrinkles being thrown into the equation as more drilling takes place and a typical corporate executive arrives to boss the workers about. The Iron Rig also gives an under-developed character from the base game a proper backstory, which is a nice touch.
Though, without going into too much detail in order to avoid spoilers, I did find the manner in which the Iron Rig’s narrative arc concludes a bit anticlimactic. What transpires certainly isn’t out of character with the rest of the game, but it’s built up so well by the events which precede it that it feels like it could have done with a payoff that’s a bit more impactful and memorable – as the ending to the base game is. As is, it feels like the developers might have accidentally written themselves into a bit of a corner with the rig’s plot, though I can also appreciate that this DLC is clearly meant to be played just as something that fits into the game’s established story – not something that overshadows it or provides any alternative story paths.
One that’s over with, you’ll be left with the task of upgrading the rig to its full potential. A lot of these upgrades you can fashion from doing so – a new hull, improvements to abilities, new bits of tech to improve you’re craft’s catching and movement efficiency – are designed to be a bit of an extra step for people who’ve already been playing a while and have assembled a pretty elite vessel, and there’s just about enough in the various stat boosts they offer to make them worth going for if you’re looking for stuff to do.
There are a couple of Iron Rig equipment additions I’d definitely recommend as essential crafting – these being the net and a crab pot that gather dredge materials rather than fish and the new types of bait. The former will save you from desperately hunting around for flotsam as much whenever you’re trying to upgrade your craft, while the latter – especially the exotic bait – makes the process of snagging any rare fish from the rest of the game which might have eluded you thus far a lot easier. Oh, and you can make tea that calms you down when things get spooky at night, which is brilliant
Overall, if you’re looking for more Dredge, or a reason to delve back into the game for the first time since The Pale Reach, The Iron Rig more than likely has at least a weekend worth of fun to offer you. Even if it feels in places like it could have been a bit more than just another fish added to the catch of a good and spooky net.
Dredge: The Iron Rig is set to release on August 15 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It was reviewed using a PC key provided by the publisher.