Dredge, the horror-fishing game with immaculate vibes, is free on the Epic Game Store

Taking money for an octopus that's about to get the chop in Dredge

(Image credit: Black Salt Games)

Dredge is great. We called it "a fantastic fishing game with a sinister mystery lurking in its depths" in our 89% review, and also named it Best Setting in our 2023 Game of the Year Awards. And now, for the first time ever, you can pick it up for free from the Epic Games Store.

Along with being great, Dredge is also a wee bit deceptive, at least at first glance. A cute little fishing boat, a lovely sunset, a quaint seaside village—the octopus is a little weird, yeah, but fish, right? They're weird by nature. But things take an odd turn in a real hurry, and I'm not talking about wind in the wire making tattletale sounds here: There's something decidedly not good happening in the depths.

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"Dredge has the most immaculate vibes of any game I've played this year," PC Gamer's Mollie Taylor wrote about Dredge in 2023. "By day it's a relaxing and serene fishing game, but once the sun sets it turns into an unsettling realisation of how isolated your tiny boat is on those big dark waters. Dredge plays to that polarity wonderfully, crafting a delightfully spooky world that has my usual horror-averse self desperate to dig deeper into its mysteries."

And if "nyctophobia horrors" aren't your thing, Dredge also offers a "passive mode" that maintains the creepy atmosphere but tones down the outright awfulness. ("Awfulness" used here entirely in a complimentary fashion, to be clear.)

So Dredge is really good, and it's now really free—but only for the day. The Epic Games Store is in the midst of its not-quite-daily giveaways for the holidays (15 games over a three-week stretch) so you've only got until 11 am ET on December 25 to grab it.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.