Xbox Game Pass Just Added A Surprisingly Chill Horror Hit

Horror and fishing might not seem like a natural mix. Waiting patiently for a bite while sitting by the water and watching the day pass by doesn’t exactly lend itself to much tension or fear. On the other hand, being isolated on the ocean, unaware of what might be lurking in its mysterious depths make it almost seem surprising that more fishing games haven’t already explored the potential for horror. One excellent title that does make that connection launched on all major platforms in 2023, and now it’s available on Xbox Game Pass.

Dredge was one of the surprise indie hits of the year it launched, and for good reason. Its cosmic horror fishing concept alone is enough to garner it some attention, but it’s how the game mixes initially relaxing gameplay with a growing sense of unease that makes it a favorite of so many players.

Dredge isn’t just a horror game with a fishing theme. From the very beginning, it’s clear that not all is right at sea, but the game takes its time revealing its darker aspects. You start off marooned on a small island where all of its exceptionally unnerving residents are clearly terrified of the ocean. You’re told not to stay out on the water once the sun has set, and to ignore any frightening phenomena you witness at sea. But you still need to fish to help feed the town you’ve stumbled upon, and you can spend quite a while just enjoying the fishing without taking much notice of the fact that you’re surrounded by otherworldly monsters.

Throughout the entire game, Dredge’s fishing is good enough that it would still be fun to play even if the game didn’t have its fascinating horror premise backing it up. At the start, your boat is barely seaworthy, and your equipment isn’t suited to catch much more than a few hapless fish at a time. As you earn more money from your fishing, you can upgrade your boat with better gear, from stronger rods that let you bring in bigger catches to more powerful engines that let you push further away from the relatively safe waters you begin in. Sure, you might catch glimpses of some unidentifiable beast lurking beneath the waves or a mysterious light glowing from the horizon, but all you need to focus on is the fish at the end of your line.

Eventually, though, you’ll be pushed to leave the safe, early stages of the game. Villagers ask you to catch certain fish that can only be caught at night, and exploring with a more powerful engine might lead you to islands where the supernatural horrors at sea haven’t been so successfully kept at bay. The longer you spend fishing, the more you begin to see what’s truly going on in Dredge’s world, and each trip on open water exposes you to more and more danger.

All the while, you keep fishing. Dredge’s biggest success is how it plays its chill fishing sections and the growing terror of the ocean against each other. No matter how bad things get out there, you need to keep exploring, dealing with the residents of the islands dotting the world, and fishing to keep money coming in. Being out on the water late at night is inherently terrifying, with the darkness of the sky and the sea blending, obscuring the horrifying creatures that always seem to be lurking just out of sight. That tension between the mundane act of fishing and the supernatural horror suffusing the world make Dredge an experience like no other game.

Dredge is available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC. It’s now included with Xbox Game Pass.