DREDGE - The Pale Reach

The Pale Reach is a fully playable extension to the game similar to the various playable areas that constitute the main storyline. There are two things that are a bit of a drag with The Pale Reach initially. One is the lack of a map at the beginning that gets remedied rather late. The other is that before you unlock the inner parts of the Pale Reach you run into time problems - there are no initial anchor points besides the one at the entrance, so until you do you need to navigate the ice labyrinth back and forth before the usual night dangers make it harder. You could say that almost all challenge is contained at the beginning, and one unfair bit is that one of the unlocks you need to do suddenly forwards time, which might get you into trouble and require a reload, depending. Another, minor gripe is that even with a fast boat, going around the Pale Reach (instead of through) is impossible with regular game mode. An unusual lack of anchoring sites, again. (It makes sense given the theme, but it was unexpected given how the game handles this elsewhere.) Once you unlock the inner reach, this gets better. Still, the Pale Reach is themed unique enough to be definitely worth it, it comes with cool art and is almost as good as the main regions in the game. The winding and at times narrow passages definitely will provide some challenge even in casual mode, I bonked my boat a lot, comparable only to the late game Devil's Spine area. And the story... the story here is definitely on par with the rest. All in all I'm glad to have bought it.