Details: Written by: Brian Moats; Category: Video Games; Published: 05 June 2024

Review Copy Provided

Maybe the South will be less Dreadful...

Dredge: The Pale Reach expansion (2023)
Developer(s)	Black Salt Games	Publisher	Team17
Platform Availability	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/X/S, PC (Steam and GOG)	Genre	Adventure, Horror
	1	12+		1-2 Hours

This is a quick overview of what you can expect from the Pale Reach expansion for Dredge. I recommend checking out our coverage on the base game first to better understand this game.

The Pale Reach is actually new content opening up an Ice Region, new fish to find, new equipment for your ship, and a new mystery.

Story

In terms of story additions, there is not much. You are gathering some new equipment to help you fish in this ice zone and discover a unique creature plaguing the Pale Reach...the Narwhal. It is only slightly problematic and honestly less of a threat that the creatures in the other areas of the game. You will learn how to trick it into helping your through some ice to open up areas to completely the main story of the DLC. You will find some people trapped in ice, free them, and unlock a few unique items that would be great if you have them while playing the core game. It was fairly short overall but largely enjoyable despite being fairly short.

Final Thoughts

While I thoroughly enjoyed the core game of Dredge, I am not sure there is enough content for most people at $6. I feel this would be a perfectly good expansion for $2.99-3.99. For me, it provided roughly 2 hours of entertainment. I stretched that time out to 2 hours since I wanted to get all of the fish. If I had really just focused on the focus additions in this expansion, it likely would have only been about 30-60 minutes. To be fair, I played this expansion after fully playing the core game; I may have enjoyed it a little more if I had played this expansion along side of the core game. There just wasn't anything "post game" that was worth it alone.

Again, I really enjoy Dredge, but this expansion did feel a little lacking for the price. I highly encourage you to check out the base game and pick up this expansion if you can get it on sale in a bundle.