![[REVIEW] Dreadmoor](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCk-JbF3JuMVnqLkMw9J9yWbZjcvijuX2ZVn3Hwww9Zq3u_kOiIq-DOXNoWwRYDXEn8igNdPKyzVui3UCeD_shM7015CiE1KQDha0PsewhNLA4K8wmxwdUpbYHCVPHPG8yIyoyO_shc-phDcQgO26vKs9M5zcThStQQRnzpmDF0Dm_qrjXT676GMM4IZg/s1600/image.png "[REVIEW] Dreadmoor")
An in-depth look at Dreadmoor's first-person fishing, survival mechanics, atmosphere, and early access controversies.
Dreadmoor Early Access Review
DREADMOOR is a newly launched Early Access first-person fishing and survival adventure developed by Dream Dock (also known as Dreamock) and published by Digital Vortex Entertainment on Steam for approximately $20. Pitching itself essentially as a "first-person Dredge," the title places players aboard a rusting fishing trawler in the Submerged Lands—a drowned, post-apocalyptic world infested with grotesque mutated marine life.
Despite generating substantial pre-release momentum—accumulating between 200,000 and 400,000 Steam wishlists—the game's Early Access debut has drawn a divided response. While its eerie atmospheric design and tactile, hands-on boat maintenance have earned praise from indie survival enthusiasts, early impressions are hindered by stiff combat mechanics, technical optimization hurdles, and severe community backlash regarding review botting and alleged AI assets.
The Submerged Lands
Set in a coastal region swallowed by the ocean following a catastrophic humanmade disaster and experiment, DREADMOOR explores a world ruined by "sea blight"—a toxic substance mutating marine life into horrors. Players control Malcolm, whose journey opens with a trip toward an exploding church as the surrounding waters turn to blood. Infected during these harrowing events, Malcolm must continuously purchase expensive medication from local traders to stave off a painful transformation, establishing constant economic pressure on your survival runs.
The game excels at cultivating Lovecraftian environmental tension rather than relying solely on cheap jump scares. Traversing "The Slooh"—a drowned wetland rendered with murky waters, amber lighting, colossal animal bones, decaying architecture, and dense fog—evokes a palpable sense of dread. Nighttime voyages escalate this atmospheric friction dramatically, as low visibility and unseen shapes moving beneath your vessel turn routine fishing routes into nerve-wracking expeditions.
Fishing & Boat Care
Core gameplay hinges on a distinct split between fishing mechanics and boat management. Standard catches require managing line tension by steering the rod against a fish's movements to avoid snapping the line, whereas predatory species demand specific lure retrieval speeds—pulling too fast causes predators to lose chase, while pulling too slowly loses their interest. Storage logistics add further friction, as carnivorous catches kept in your trawler's hold will actively consume other fish before you reach port. Crucially, the fishing loop feeds directly into vessel progression, requiring players to trade specific fish carcasses to traders for critical hardware like engine carburetors.
Where DREADMOOR truly distinguishes itself from conventional menu-heavy survival games is its commitment to tactile interaction. Vessels require active physical maintenance in dry dock rather than simple UI clicks:
- Manual refueling by physically holding jerry cans or operating fuel pumps instead of navigating menus.
- Hull cleaning, pressure washing accumulated grime, and patching structural damage.
- Installing structural upgrades, including improved engines, propellers, hull plating, afterburners, and spotlights.
Scavenging & Crafting
To support trawler upgrades and satisfy survival needs, players must periodically disembark from their boat to explore abandoned ruins, sunken shipwrecks, and flooded caves on foot. These terrestrial excursions interrupt the maritime travel loop, challenging players to navigate hazardous environments to secure the raw components required for character and vessel progression.
Scavenged materials—such as scrap metal, blueprints, coral fibers, bug slime, and torn skill-tree pages—feed directly into workstation crafting. At workbenches, these resources are processed into harpoons, specialized bait mixtures, essential infection medication, and improved tools, ensuring that every scavenging run directly impacts your operational capabilities.
Combat & Usability Issues
Despite its compelling atmosphere, DREADMOOR exhibits significant design friction during combat and navigation. Hostile encounters on land and sea suffer from unpolished melee mechanics, featuring slow attack windups, restrictive weapon ranges, and awkward enemy positioning that frequently traps players against environmental geometry. Usability is further hampered by disappearing tutorial text that leaves players stranded during critical initial quest steps, alongside a convoluted workbench UI burdened by microscopic text and nested filtering menus.
From a technical standpoint, the Unreal Engine 5 build suffers from notable performance instability. Initial game launches are plagued by heavy shader compilation stutter, while frametime consistency degrades sharply near asset-heavy hubs like the Trading Post, requiring players to manually adjust DLSS settings to achieve acceptable framerates. Additionally, the constant physical rocking of the trawler deck has triggered motion sickness for several players, highlighting the need for deck-stabilization comfort toggles.
Early Access & Reviews
Launching on November 9 at a ~$20 price point (£18 with a 10% launch discount), DREADMOOR currently offers one major explorable region representing the foundation of a planned 6-to-12-month Early Access roadmap. However, community sentiment on Steam and Reddit has been heavily impacted by two major launch controversies.
First, players accused the game of utilizing AI voice acting due to unnatural, robotic delivery. Publisher Digital Vortex Entertainment explicitly denied using AI across voice, text, or art assets, attributing the disjointed delivery to poor edit timing and missing audio gaps between recorded dialogue lines. Second, severe backlash erupted over review botting after users identified suspicious positive Steam reviews from single-game accounts showing exactly 3.7 hours of playtime, VAC bans, or exclusive review histories on Digital Vortex Entertainment titles—accounts that notably switched their profile privacy to private simultaneously when exposed by the community.
Bottom Line
DREADMOOR offers a promising, atmospheric blend of hands-on boat maintenance and Lovecraftian survival for players willing to endure Early Access technical debt and report bugs. However, those seeking fluid combat, polished interface design, non-rocking decks, or a complete sandbox should wait for future patches before diving into the Submerged Lands.
What are your thoughts on DREADMOOR's hands-on fishing loop and the ongoing controversies surrounding its launch reviews? Share your take in the comments section below, and don't forget to share this article with your fellow indie gaming enthusiasts!
About the Writer
Jenny, the tech wiz behind Jenny's Online Blog, loves diving deep into the latest technology trends, uncovering hidden gems in the gaming world, and analyzing the newest movies and personal finance. When she's not glued to her screen, you might find her tinkering with gadgets or obsessing over the latest sci-fi release.What do you think of this blog? Write down at the COMMENT section below.
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