As if there are not enough problems in Dredge’s world — like, say, the aberration of a fish that has a spiraling black void instead of an eye — a mysterious, towering iron rig now looms over the watery abyss.
The Iron Rig is the second piece of downloadable content for developer Black Salt Games’ Dredge, out Thursday on , PlayStation 5, , and , and it’s a good reason to hop back into one of 2023’s best games. Regardless of where you are in your playthrough, you’ll be able to load up the DLC and steer a course straight to the northeast side of the map, where the rig is planted. The new content works as if you were arriving at any other island in Dredge, except that everything isn’t immediately unlocked. Instead, to open up new areas of the rig for repairs and upgrades, for instance, you must help the Ironhaven Corp. by supplying research materials, largely in the form of the wood, cloth, and other items you’ve been dredging up this whole time, or by catching fish across the accursed archipelago.
Black Salt Games says on its Steam page that there are more than 50 new fish to catch, most of which can be found in a wretched, oozy oil that’s taken over several parts of Dredge’s map, emerged from the rifts created by the aforementioned oil rig. The Iron Rig is the sort of DLC that you’d technically be able to play right alongside the original game, as if it were shipped with it. It takes you back around the whole map, revisiting each location and its creatures, new and old. But if you’re playing it after completing nearly everything there is to do in Dredge, like I have, it’s a nice little jaunt back into a world I spent so much time in last year.
It’d been a while since I played Dredge, so it took a moment or two to get used to the gameplay again: Where do I sell fish again? What do I need to catch fish here? Oh yes, and don’t stay out all night on the ship. But once I got used to the rhythm of Dredge again, The Iron Rig felt like a smart little addition to the game, not only adding quality-of-life updates to old mechanics (like tea that staves off anxiety when you’ve ventured too far into the abyss too late at night) but also piecing on new ship upgrades to work towards, like a new hull and extra equipment with a short little mystery that unfolds over around four hours.
If you liked Dredge, you’ll like The Iron Rig. I haven’t played Dredge’s first DLC, , but The Iron Rig is double the price, and, going off the numbers on The Pale Reach’s Steam page, nearly double the content. But if you’re looking for more Dredge after you finish The Iron Rig, you’re in luck: Documentarians NoClip released a free documentary on the design of Dredge this week, . Beyond that, you’ll simply have to wait for the Dredge movie adaptation, which was announced in April from the production company founded by Sonic the Hedgehog producer and dj2 Entertainment founder Dmitri M. Johnson.
