As if there will not be sufficient issues in Dredge’s world — like, say, the aberration of a fish that has a spiraling black void as an alternative of an eye fixed — a mysterious, towering iron rig now looms over the watery abyss.
The Iron Rig is the second piece of downloadable content material for developer Black Salt Video games’ Dredge, out Thursday on Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Collection X, and it’s cause to hop again into one in every of 2023’s greatest video games. No matter the place you’re in your playthrough, you’ll be capable to load up the DLC and steer a course straight to the northeast aspect of the map, the place the rig is planted. The brand new content material works as should you have been arriving at every other island in Dredge, besides that the whole lot isn’t instantly unlocked. As an alternative, to open up new areas of the rig for repairs and upgrades, as an illustration, you should assist the Ironhaven Corp. by supplying analysis supplies, largely within the type of the wooden, material, and different gadgets you’ve been dredging up this entire time, or by catching fish throughout the accursed archipelago.
Black Salt Video games says on its Steam web page that there are greater than 50 new fish to catch, most of which could be present in a wretched, oozy oil that’s taken over a number of components of Dredge’s map, emerged from the rifts created by the aforementioned oil rig. The Iron Rig is the kind of DLC that you just’d technically be capable to play proper alongside the unique recreation, as if it have been shipped with it. It takes you again round the entire map, revisiting every location and its creatures, new and previous. However should you’re enjoying it after finishing practically the whole lot there’s to do in Dredge, like I’ve, it’s a pleasant little jaunt again right into a world I spent a lot time in final 12 months.
It’d been some time since I performed Dredge, so it took a second or two to get used to the gameplay once more: The place do I promote fish once more? What do I must catch fish right here? Oh sure, and don’t keep out all night time on the ship. However as soon as I obtained used to the rhythm of Dredge once more, The Iron Rig felt like a wise little addition to the sport, not solely including quality-of-life updates to previous mechanics (like tea that staves off nervousness whenever you’ve ventured too far into the abyss too late at night time) but additionally piecing on new ship upgrades to work in the direction of, like a brand new hull and further tools with a brief little thriller that unfolds over round 4 hours.
Should you preferred Dredge, you’ll like The Iron Rig. I haven’t performed Dredge’s first DLC, The Pale Attain, however The Iron Rig is double the value, and, going off the numbers on The Pale Attain’s Steam web page, practically double the content material. However should you’re searching for extra Dredge after you end The Iron Rig, you’re in luck: Documentarians NoClip launched a free documentary on the design of Dredge this week, which you’ll be able to watch on YouTube. Past that, you’ll merely have to attend for the Dredge film adaptation, which was introduced in April from the manufacturing firm based by Sonic the Hedgehog producer and dj2 Leisure founder Dmitri M. Johnson.