Whereas some horror games have you getting chased by terrifying monstrosities that scream and moan as they shuffle or outright bolt after you, the horror of Dredge is far more understated. In fact, the game could almost appear relaxing on the surface. You play as a new fisherman who just moved to the island of Greater Marrow. And as such, you spend your days drifting about on the ocean and catching fish to sell to the local fishmonger. At first, it almost feels as if a quieter, more peaceful job couldn’t possibly exist. (Spoilers for the bad ending and the Iron Rig DLC shall follow.)
But you quickly learn that something’s not right when you start to catch aberrations, mutated fish that can range from a cod with multiple heads to a gar with human molars to fish so twisted and torn apart that death would be a mercy. And that’s not including the awful things you see at night when you’re sleep-deprived. But whatever eerie sighting you might be tempted to dismiss as a mere hallucination are quickly revealed to be all too real when the sea-dwelling abomination rams your boat and nearly wrecks your engine, forcing you to drag your wounded vessel to shore, lest you’re consumed by the ocean’s cold, uncaring grasp.
Creepy fish are, frankly, more than enough to get my skin crawling, especially when those poor creatures seem to be in anguish. Unfortunately, it starts to become clear that whatever is infecting these fish is not limited only to creatures of the deep. One minor hint is when the fishmonger eats an aberrated fish you gave him and becomes sick for several days. No more comes of this particular storyline, but the dockworker of Little Marrow is not so lucky. Multiple times, I was tasked with delivering some suspicious packages to him, which are heavily implied to contain infected fish because of how they drip with the same black liquid that slithers into your cargo on occasion. After several deliveries, the dockworker’s skin eventually turns grey, his eyes become black, and he becomes unresponsive. And unlike the fishmonger, this guy never gets better.
Of course, I doubt anyone is particularly surprised that aberrated and infected fish would make someone ill. It’s not until the Iron Rig DLC that we are no longer left with any shadow of a doubt what this infection is capable of. After the Ironhaven corporation builds an oil rig in the middle of the ocean, they start to drill, causing a bunch of oil to rise to the surface, polluting the water and simultaneously scaring a bunch of fish not normally seen by human eyes to much shallower depths. Only…this isn’t really oil, but rather, the very same substance that has been infecting the fish and dooming them to eventual mutation, now labelled as Dark Ooze. And it seems to be alive, as indicated by little eyeball creatures that will attempt to splash the “oil” onto your boat and the dreaded Gleaming Goliath, a large tar monster covered in eyes with a big gaping mouth. Nope, that is no ordinary oil, no sirree.
And this is where it all comes together. On the oil rig, there is a scientist who wishes to study the Dark Ooze and the fish that were brought to the surface alongside it. As you bring back what he asks, you learn that the Dark Ooze is able to influence electronics, even causing the overhead lights to flicker and buzz. And at one point, the scientist will extract a dark liquid from some of the fish that seems to “crawl up into the vial by itself”. Things get even stranger when you attempt to tell the scientist about some of the things you’ve seen, but the memories basically erase themselves. That’s not sleep deprivation, my friends. That’s…I’m not sure I want to know what that is.
As the quest continues, the scientist starts to grow increasingly anxious and begins to say such cryptic things as “the elder…communicates in power”. Not long later, you’ll return to find him hiding behind a blackboard and obscuring his face with hands whose nails seem much too long. And then it happens. With no other forewarning, the scientist bursts through the blackboard, no longer a fragile, old man, but a muscular and inhuman being, described as having “stretched skin and sharp teeth” and calling out with a “feral cry”. Soon enough, the “aberrated form of the scientist” jumps right out the window and into the water below. That’s right, folks. The scientist is now a mutant fish man! (If you want to see the scientist’s transformation, and my encounter with the Gleaming Goliath, why not check out the video below?)
But that’s not the last we see of him. You can actually catch the creature that used to be the scientist, the unknown fish #230, who has since been stripped of his lab coat and has become fully wild, embracing his new home in the ocean depths. If you reach maximum panic by depriving yourself of sleep for long enough, you’ll finally get a name for him, Deep Form, and a rather poetic description.
“In the sable depths, elder blood seeps through the void; each conquest of corruption weakening the veil.
From host to host, it withers and wanders, climbing towards the clouding Sky.
Such transient flesh has no hope of enduring the true Deep”.
Well, that’s all very cryptic. Or is it? On second thought, I think the meaning is quite clear, but I’m not sure you’re gonna like it. Deep, deep beneath the ocean’s surface is the elder, the one the scientist was muttering about. It seems likely this is some sort of eldritch god (as seen in Dredge’s bad ending). It seems likely that the Dark Ooze is the elder’s blood, and it corrupts everything it touches, starting first with the fish inhabiting the neighboring waters, but slowly spreading outwards, where it has already begun to infect those on land. And it’s only going to get worse from here. After all, the last line implies us puny mortals have “no hope of enduring the true Deep”. So in short, an eldritch god is slowly twisting every lifeform into its own image, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Neat. I’m going to move to the highest mountaintop now, as far from the ocean as I possibly can to prolong the inevitable. Buh-bye, nice knowing you!
When I started playing Dredge, I just thought it was a spooky fishing game where you catch creepy mutated fish, with some Lovecraftian horror mixed in. But the truth is more than clear. The aberrated sea life is merely the beginning of something much worse. The corruption is spreading, and it’s already starting to infect the people who have come into contact with it. Eventually, no one will be safe, not the rest of us poor, miserable humans nor the animals, either. And from what we’ve seen of the fish, the side effects are horrifying! Frankly, the scientist’s fate is probably the best we can hope for.
If you’re interested in other spooky Dredge posts, why not read my top 10 lists on the worst aberrations?
VIRTUAL BASTION 
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