Dredge: The Pale Reach Reviews
DREDGE's new The Pale Reach DLC is a great excuse to play more DREDGE, thanks to an interesting new area full of water based horrors.
Dredge: The Pale Reach is a rewarding, albeit bite-sized slice expansion that taps into what made the base game one of this year's most compelling indie efforts. For those after more of that unique, unsettling coziness, The Pale Reach should scratch that nautical itch.
If you're a fan of Dredge, then I would recommend The Pale Reach without hesitation, it's a good piece of new content to sate your appetite until Ironhaven releases. However, keep in mind that this DLC won't change your experience of the main game all that much if you've already completed it, it just gives you another chain to explore. All in all, it's like adding another puzzle piece to a completed puzzle.
Dredge remains an incredibly playable and captivating game in a uniquely eerie package and while The Pale Reach DLC is a decent enough addition, it doesn’t offer enough to justify being paid content.
Even with minor nitpicks, Dredge and its The Pale Reach add-on turned out to be one of the most enthralling experiences I’ve had in 2024 so far. It’s exciting, tense, full of mystery and wonder, and there is no other game like it.
The Pale Reach is an addition that makes the game even more special for first-time sailors, who will now be able to enjoy a more varied experience. The additional content brings exciting news and is recommended for veterans as well, especially for its attractive price.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It’s simple: if you enjoyed Dredge, you’ll enjoy The Pale Reach. While this DLC doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it offers a solid reason to return to one of this year’s best indie games. It’s a fairly small expansion, but for a budget price you’re getting new mysteries to unravel, new fish to catch and a new area to explore – what more could you want?
The Pale Reach is a nice, yet brief addition to the world of The Dredge featuring a beautiful frozen area.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The Pale Reach DLC adds another solid level to an already excellent game, bulking up the playtime of Dredge by another couple of hours and offering some great new equipment options for captains exploring the Eldritch seas. The content loses some impact if you’ve already completed the rest of the game, as you won’t really enjoy the longer term benefits of the new gear, but if you loved the original game (like I did), The Pale Reach offers the opportunity to enjoy more wonderfully grisly storytelling from Black Salt Games. For players yet to pick up Dredge, I’ll fly the flag for buying The Pale Reach alongside the main title, as this icy tale and additional kit will add plenty to your experience.
As a modestly-priced expansion, The Pale Reach's frozen wasteland introduces just enough new visual, narrative, & design baubles to keep one's enthusiasm continually burning.
Another opportunity to explore, uncover secrets, and generally get creeped out in the world of DREDGE
Dredge The Pale Reach is a nice little add-on to the original game and its runtime, while short, feels close to the amount of time I may have spent in a biome in the base game. As mentioned before, it’s more Dredge, which isn’t a bad thing, but maybe it might not be enough to jump in right away. It isn’t badly priced and shares just a little bit more of its world, so if you’re itching for some more, The Pale Reach will be a good fit.
Dredge itself is a great game that will give you at least ten hours of delicious H.P. Lovecraft gives horror. The life of a sailor and the dangers at sea in your small fishing boat fit perfectly with a horror theme. The gameplay is simple, so you can take your time. The atmosphere, the story and the presentation are rock solid. You really can't go wrong here. The expansion will merge invisibly with the rest of the game for new players. This will not be the case for players who have already completed the game. The best experience will be when you restart the game and Dredge is definitely worth going through in full again.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
The Pale Reach doesn't break the bank, but it does offer a pleasant addition for those who wish to re-immerse themselves in the dark and intriguing waters of DREDGE, adding complementary value to the already captivating experience of the main game.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The new biome fits in well with the rest of the world of Dredge, and if you have yet to get started in the game, it’s a location that you’ll naturally explore over the course of your adventure. For people like me who are coming back to it for this DLC, it might prove to be a tad too easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less of a pleasure given that it’s more Dredge to be had, and that alone is reason enough for me, really.
The Pale Reach adds few new features to the gameplay proposal, but it is still an excellent excuse to sail again through the turbulent waters of one of the best games of 2023. It's not a DLC that makes Dredge a much better experience than it is, although it is a slightly more interesting one thanks to its two hours of new content.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
DREDGE The Pale Reach DLC doesn’t add much new to an already solid formula. There are new fish to discover, new rods to collect and a cool new tool for your ship. It’s about an extra two hours of gameplay to add to the main content. If the main game hooked you, this DLC is well worth dredging up your copy of the game from your backlog to play.
The Pale Reach is as good a reason as any to dip back into one of the best indie games of the year, but it falters in a lack of content, interesting narrative, and scares.
The Pale Reach stands out as an impressive piece of DLC for Dredge, with all of its extras complementing the satisfying (and endlessly eerie) fishing action of the base game. It is worth noting that it doesn’t try to change things up too much and its two-hour runtime is on the short side, but with a £5.99 price point and the same rewarding sense of discovery players would’ve experienced in the base game, it’s hard to complain too much. It has certainly got me excited to see what else Black Salt Games have up their sleeves for Dredge, with its future a bright one if this is anything to go by.
For better or worse The Pale Reach is quintessentially more Dredge. It doesn’t improve upon or expand any given gameplay mechanic or feature. Nor does it address any of the problems I had with the base game. At the same time, the region it offers is as interesting and varied as the rest and fits in quite well. The Pale Reach simply adds a simple dessert plate to Dredge’s seafood dinner and extends the adventure just a tiny bit.