Publisher: Digital Vortex Entertainment
Platform(s): PC (Steam)
Release Date: Q4 2026
DREADMOOR bills itself as a post-apocalyptic, first-person fishing game, and it succeeded on both fronts when I demoed it at GDC 2026. I played roughly 30 minutes of the game, starting from the beginning, and I found myself in a bayou fit for exploration. There is a simple but fun gameplay loop at the heart of my DREADMOOR demo: get a story task to catch fish, get or craft the items needed to catch said fish, go catch the fish, and then return the fish to the quest giver. If you’ve played a story-based fishing game before, then this should not be anything new for you.
Where DREADMOOR really shines though is the atmosphere. It is set in a world where Lovecraftian horrors exist, society looks like it has decayed away, and monsters run bait shops. As I was piloting my fishing trawler across the water (slowly, very slowly…), I marveled at the fireflies and at the dark, yet gorgeous, landscape around me. When I then ran into a monster at the shop who gave me a story request to catch a particular fish, I had to stop and take in the detailed character modeling while also absorbing the little bits of optional worldbuilding dialogue that DREADMOOR kept offering to give me if I wanted it. This is a world I wanted to see more of, and find out more about, and the dialogue just kept drawing me in.
The crafting and fishing systems are what DREADMOOR is really about, though. Each fish you have to catch responds better to certain types of lures, and you can craft them at a workbench from materials that you find laying around or from fish that you turn into crafting parts. The crafting system is fairly straight forward with (at least in my demo) recipes provided for me, but I found myself wishing I could just pick the recipe, and if I have enough needed parts available to me to work with, craft the recipe automatically instead of dragging and dropping each one down onto the worktable.
Fishing, however, works on a fairly traditional system in DREADMOOR. First, you pull your boat into a giant visible ring on the water you can fish from. You then equip your rod and lure, and cast it out towards where you see a ring ripple across the water by holding down a trigger and then letting it go when you want. Then, you wait until the bob ducks down in the water. Once you do, you set the line and begin to reel the fish in. As the fish goes one way and then another, you have to use either your mouse or the keyboard keys to go the opposite direction to wear the fish out and reel it in. You have to keep in mind both the fish’s stamina and the strength of your fishing line while you do it, and there are helpful gauges on the screen to show you where you’re at with both. When you reel enough fish in, you can then turn it in for your quest.
The fishing system, once I figured it out, was fine. I found myself trying to draw the line across the water as I slowly reeled it in to see if I could lure any other fish in, but it appears that the only fish I could catch in this DREADMOOR demo were the ones that appeared in the circle. To the game’s credit: I didn’t have to spend too long waiting for a fish to latch on once I got it within the targeting circle. I just wish there was a bit more variety in how the fish are caught.
By the time my DREADMOOR demo was over, I caught several types of fish, I had completed one story quest, and I was well on my way to finishing a second one. I think if you enjoy fishing games, and you enjoy post-apocalyptic storytelling, then DREADMOOR is a game that could appeal to you. I am excited to see what more fish, and what more worldbuilding, there is in store in the game when it comes out later this year!
What kind of fish do you want to catch in DREADMOOR?
How do you feel about fishing in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere?
Let us know in the comments below!