Dredge: The Iron Rig-Review
Sometimes, a great game gets a DLC that ties everything together. That’s what The Iron Rig does for Dredge. It’s a smartly conceived expansion that adds a firm finishing touch to the main game, specifically it’s end game. It’s packed with content, well written and intelligently designed. It was also kind of challenging at times and there’s a mix of luck, performance and grind that makes it rewarding.
The previous DLC, The Pale Reach, was an expansion that added more great gameplay and content, but The Iron Rig is focused more on expanding the game’s systems. It does add a lot of content, such as a new hub area, new fishes, new rods, new upgrade paths, new….I mean, it’s a lot. And while The Pale Reach’s new additions were really fun, the stuff in The Iron Rig is likely to change your day to day in Dredge.
The new hub area in The Iron Rig is, wait for it, the Iron Rig. It has, as evidenced by the images above, a bunch of stuff going on. The Factory lets you upgrade your materials, the Science Lab quests (not pictured) are the core of the gameplay content, the Foundry lets you reverse engineer items to get supplies, the Tech Lab provides upgrades to your boat and the Undermarket is another vendor. The Fleet Services node gives you access to another Hull for your ship. This is all stuff that will let you improve and customize your ship in ways you couldn’t before and it opens up a lot of possibilities.
It’s a cool hub and it’s well located too, right between The Devil’s Spine and The Twisted Strand. The new characters, like The Foreman, The Scientist and The Engineer are interesting and some of them tie in to characters and events from the base game. The plot of The Iron Rig is arguably stronger than the previous DLC and it ties in more with the base game and paints a larger picture of this Lovecraftian world.
Basically, there’s this corporation, The Ironhaven Corporation, shows up to drill for…something. You would think oil. But they’re super shady and the Scientist guy is a real creep. Everytime they drill, they cause these slicks of Lovecraftian ooze that is basically evil blood. The drilling also brought out a bunch of ancient fish that will require improved equipment to catch. The way you progress the story is by catching four (new) specific fish requested by the scientist and delivering them to him. This causes the slicks to spread and then you have to go do it in the next area.
The Lovecraftian ooze is a hassle (in a fun gameplay way) and requires you to be on your toes, as it raises your panic by being in it and there’s a whole ass Ooze Monster in there. Random tentacles will also shoot out. See, that’s the thing- the Ironhaven Corporation basically woke up a Kraken. And it only goes from bad to worse from there.
This DLC does a great job of introducing you to it’s new content in a way that is deliberate and paced so that you don’t get overwhelmed by all the new stuff you can do. It doesn’t feel as expansive as it is at first because you’re always tackling one thing at a time. It’s also smart in the way it gently nudges you towards systems you may not have used fully your first time around, like trawl nets and fish bait. It’s emphasis on building on already robust systems means that to get through this DLC, you’ll be taking advantage of all the tools Dredge provides you.
My favorite thing about the DLC is the possibilities it leaves you with in endgame. The ability to upgrade and add new things to your boat means that you can really fine tune it for whatever you need. It opens up the endgame and gives you so much to do. I’d say it adds about 5-7 hours of content if you do everything and that’s not considering the vast use you’ll likely get from the new content in your day to day Dredge experience.
Overall, if you’re already playing Dredge, there’s no reason not to pick up this DLC. It’s got the elements of everything you already like and then adds a bunch of new stuff. More good content is always good in my book and a game like Dredge is never hurt by it. Well, that’s The Iron Rig. See you on the high seas!
