Dredge - The Pale Reach DLC [Xbox]
For those of you who read my Dredge review, you’ll know that I loved it - so when Black Salt Games revealed an expansion, The Pale Reach, I was super excited to dive back in. It adds a brand-new, icy location to the Southern section of the map, with a selection of new fish exclusive to the colder region. Naturally, new species of fish brings with it a whole creepy bunch of new aberrations to find, as well some variants for the originals, too.
There are strange figures frozen in the ice in this area, with spooky sounds coming from within - all of whom tell the tales of a mysterious creature that once lurked in the deep, and the fate that befell each of them. A heartbeat can occasionally be heard thumping under the ice, and the threat of a glowing-horned narwhal that hunts you down, all had me feeling rather panicked at first when visiting the Pale Reach - making far too many mistakes when weaving through the floating chunks of ice, and doing my poor vessel an absolute boat-load of damage (I’ll see myself out).
You’ll unlock new equipment for your boat, including ice-smashing protection for the front of your boat, and reels to fish in the icy depths, as well as gaining the ability to purchase ice blocks which will slow down the rotting process of anything you catch. The new equipment is only really required for this new area, but I’m hoping that as Black Salt continues to add, this will give more reason to use it - as once you’ve completed the area, the Icebreaker becomes pretty redundant, though the ice does still have its use if you’re grabbing everything up to deliver for particular quests - though in itself isn’t totally necessary, either.
An earlier update removed the timed element of the Hooded Figure quests, which is a shame, as I felt that these added an interesting - and somewhat panic-inducing - element to the game, as pretty much everything else can be done in as relaxed a manner as you like. The only part I didn’t like about these quests was that there was no announcement to say they were timed - instead simply telling you you’d run out of time once you returned late. There’s a new Hooded Figure to serve in the Pale Reach, so I was almost hoping for there to be a return to having this as a timed quest - maybe warning you of the timer running out - but sadly not. I hope that’s something they might consider as an option further down the line, as though I do enjoy the relaxed pacing of the game, having something here and there to push you to do things with haste would have been a fun inclusion, too.
Priced at £5.99 on Xbox, it adds on the extra gameplay time regardless of where you are in the story. As much as the region will be available and accessible from the beginning if you’ve purchased the DLC, I’d likely still leave it to the end if it were my first playthrough, knowing that it came later - but the rewards for completing it might be enough to sway you to do it early. It does feel like this region - given how quick you can complete it - probably should have just been included as part of the main game, or held back to be added alongside later content to justify the extra cost a little more. The main takeaway from the region - aside from new equipment - is a mystical anchor that allows you to teleport to a fixed point, so this could be useful for certain tasks throughout the story. I do wish the expansion was longer, to give me more reason to keep playing - but I know there’s plenty more to come in the future.
If you’ve played Dredge already - or even if you haven’t - I’d highly recommend you check out the Pale Reach DLC, alongside the rest of the game. It’s one of my most enjoyed games of 2023, and is definitely one I’m looking forward to coming back to with each new update. The next DLC, “The Iron Rig” is set to release sometime in early 2024, after being pushed back from the end of last year. As mentioned on their official Steam page, this is "a paid and entirely optional DLC featuring the mysterious Ironhaven Corporation. They’re looking to establish an innovative drilling operation in the area to revitalize the towns and populations, but their ultimate goal is unknown. As you gather materials to construct new buildings and biomatter to fuel the rig, meet new characters, craft new equipment, and catch new fish, you may uncover the truth behind their potentially nefarious operations." It’s safe to say, I’m in.
In the end, we decided to give Dredge - The Pale Reach the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.
Are you interested in The Pale Reach? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Team17 for the Dredge - The Pale Reach Xbox review code!
