The Iron Rig is the second and reportedly final premium downloadable content release for Dredge, the psychological horror fishing adventure videogame and one of my favorite indies of 2023. At first it is not clear if anything in the world has changed after the DLC is installed. Unlike with The Pale Reach, no new markers are added to the Fisherman’s map. Once he begins steering his ship around the ocean, the new addition becomes clear. 

The lighthouse on Greater Marrow at the map’s center is a comforting beacon, visible from anywhere in the island chain, guiding the Fisherman to safe harbor no matter how disturbed he has become by the horrors lurking beneath the ocean surface. The Iron Rig adds a second towering column of lights north of the lighthouse. The Fisherman is drawn to this new lightsource where he discovers agents of the Ironhaven Corporation setting up an oil drilling platform—the Iron Rig. All of their supply ships have mysteriously disappeared, so the Fisherman is recruited to gather the materials they need to complete their projects. The more structures the Fisherman helps build onto The Iron Rig, the more it disturbs the eldritch creatures that lurk in the ocean depths, bringing new and more horrific creatures to the surface.

The Iron Rig DLC is built around sending the Fisherman to all different corners of the map (except The Pale Reach from the previous DLC, which is ignored). When the Fisherman first visits The Iron Rig, he can do little more than dock at the small port at its foot and wait for the next day to dawn. A Foreman in a yellow hardhat approaches the Fisherman and asks for help retrieving the supplies needed to make The Iron Rig fully operational, marking his map with the last known locations of the supply ships. When the Fisherman travels to these markers, he finds the ships wrecked in shallow water. Using the machinery on his ship, he uses Dredge’s familiar circle-spinning minigame to pull up materials from the wrecks: an Ironhaven Crate.

Ironhaven Crates are the basis for all of the Fisherman’s interactions with the Iron Rig. Delivering two to the Foreman lets the Fisherman onto the Rig’s main deck where he meets the remainder of the Ironhaven Corporation’s crew. A Scientist needs an Ironhaven Crate to build their Science Lab. An Engineer needs one to build a Tech Lab. A Founder needs one to build their Foundry. All of these need still more Crates to upgrade their stations. The more Ironhaven Crates the Fisherman delivers, the more services he can access. The Iron Rig quickly develops from a featureless port to the most multi-faceted location in the island chain.

While the Fisherman helps the Ironhaven Corporation to build out the Iron Rig, he witnesses two ongoing narratives. The minor of the two sees an Executive come to check on the Iron Rig’s development. His contempt for his employees and disdain for the danger the drilling operation is putting them in would be more interesting if he stuck around for longer than to realize what a mistake he’s made then fly off like a coward in his helicopter. The character with a more involved narrative is the Scientist. 

After getting their oil drill operational, the Rig crew’s first attempt at drilling creates a crack in the ocean floor. Like the lighthouse and the Rig’s tower, this crack is visible everywhere in the ocean. Unlike those two beacons of hope, this crack glows with an ominous red light that fills me with dread. The appearance of the crack is accompanied by pools of viscous black ooze gathering on the surface of the ocean around Greater Marrow. It looks like an oil spill, but everything the Fisherman has learned about the oceans tells me that this ooze is something worse. The Scientist wants the Fisherman to deliver specimens gathered from the ooze.

The DLC’s new types of fish may be caught from pools recognizable by waves of black gunk that splash upward in the form of a clenched fist before crashing back down into the water. Capturing these new fish introduces a new fishing minigame. A cursor follows a spiraling pattern from its outer edges to its core, blocked on its way by several gates. To allow the cursor to reach the core and successfully pull up a fish, I must press a button as the cursor passes through green fields which will open the coming gates. If the cursor impacts a gate, it ricochets back to the start of the spiral. If I mistime the button press, a drop of ooze is added to the hold of the Fisherman’s boat, taking up valuable space until I take the time to toss it back overboard. This new minigame doesn’t stretch much beyond the ones which capture fish in the base campaign but it’s nice to see some new mechanics introduced here, especially after The Pale Reach didn’t add any new fishing mechanics at all.

The fishing rods, lines, and winches the Fisherman uses in the base campaign are not up to the task of fishing in these new ooze-contaminated pools. The Engineer at the Iron Rig’s Factory can upgrade all of the Fisherman’s regular equipment to function in the ooze in exchange for some Ironhaven Crates and some other, more disturbing components. 

The plus side here is the Fisherman upgrades almost all his equipment with new, better models that let him fish in almost every environment. The negative side is the newer, better models replace all the Fisherman’s old equipment so thoroughly that most of his magical artifacts get placed into storage. The main rewards for thoroughly exploring the five original islands and completing all of their sidequests are carelessly replaced by the advanced and mundane equipment the Ironhaven Corporation’s engineers can put together. It’s disappointing replacing the Sinew Spindle, a macabre length of “stretchy sinew […] grafted to a crude bone hook,” with a regular fishing rod with a plus sign drawn on it because it is statistically superior.

The Fisherman’s errands for the Iron Rig’s Scientist echoes his progress through the base game’s main campaign. The Scientist sends him to each island in the cluster to capture new species of fish then return them to his Lab on the Iron Rig. Each time he returns with the Scientists’ specimens, he must turn in more Ironhaven Crates and upgrade his rods with the newer models before he is sent to the next island. 

The whole process ends with disconcerting suddenness. The Fisherman returns with the final specimens from the fifth island, a brief story interlude with the Scientist plays, and the Fisherman returns to his boat. I spend a few minutes sending the Fisherman in circles around the Rig, looking for anything more to do. I look online to find out if there’s a conclusive beat to the Scientist’s or the Executive’s story. There is not. The only things remaining to do on The Iron Rig is purchase any remaining upgrades. Even these may not exist; it’s quite easy to finish decking out the Fisherman’s boat long before finishing the Scientist’s tasks.

Like The Pale Reach, I come to The Iron Rig on a Dredge save file that has already completed the main story. Also like The Pale Reach, I believe that I would enjoy The Iron Rig much more if I were playing it as part of a fresh save file. I follow its scenario like a celebratory circumnavigation of the game world, revisiting each of the major locations from the base story in turn. Its design works better when it is played as part of the Dredge campaign. When the Fisherman’s business around The Marrows, The Gale Cliffs, or The Twisted Strand are finished, he visits The Iron Rig to be given a few more tasks to complete in the area before moving on to the next. These tasks give him an extra bit of edge to complete any extra sidequests still hanging around in the area. By the time he is ready to move on, he is overprepared for the next obstacles he will face.

The Iron Rig DLC is, at least, a much more substantial addition to Dredge than The Pale Reach. The Pursuits Board, the menu that tracks all of the Fisherman’s tasks, contains almost twice as many goals as The Pale Reach’s. It still feels miniscule in comparison to the base game’s Board. 

If there’s a main reason to play The Iron Rig, it’s to gain access to the final and largest upgrade for the Fisherman’s boat. Its previously largest form was still quite small, leaving little room for the ocean’s largest catches once the hold was loaded down with all the needed equipment. The new hold leaves ample room to catch dozens of multiple kinds of sealife.

The Iron Rig is another adequate DLC addition to Dredge. Like The Pale Reach, players who will get the most out of it are those playing Dredge for the first time through its newly-released Complete Edition. Unlike The Pale Reach, The Iron Rig’s narrative components are its weakest parts. Its characters are unmemorable and its drama has no impactful climax. Beneath these shallow narrative additions, The Iron Rig DLC is almost totally focused on upgrades for the Fisherman’s ship. These feel nice to have but already proved unnecessary for completing the main story. Players who completed Dredge last year are once again given little reason to return for its second DLC course.