DREADLINE REVIEW: FISHING, FRIENDS, AND A WHOLE LOT OF FUCKING PANIC
Ever wondered what would happen if Sea of Thieves had a drunken one-night stand with H.P. Lovecraft, and their baby was a janky, hilarious, panic-inducing fishing trip? Well, grab five friends you don't mind screaming at, because Dreadline: Net Quota Disclosure is here, and it's a glorious goddamn mess.
The Perfect Storm of Spooky and Stupid
The vibe of this game is its secret weapon. You’re sailing on a dark, oppressive sea where you can’t see what’s swimming five feet below you, and the atmosphere is genuinely spooky. Then you look over at your friend who is wearing a ridiculous top hat, and the whole mood shatters in the best way possible. It’s a brilliant clash of tones. The world wants you to be terrified, but the cartoonish props and the sheer stupidity of the situation make it impossible not to laugh. The concept alone—a co-op horror game where your objective is to meet a fishing quota for some unseen corporate overlord—is just fantastic.
My Crew is Incompetent and I Love It
Let me paint you a picture of a typical voyage in Dreadline. The engine sputters and dies. As one friend tries to repair it, a giant sea monster the size of a school bus—let's call him the Codfather—starts ramming the boat. Another friend, trying to steer us away from certain death, accidentally casts his fishing line into the abyss because "interact" and "fish" are the same fucking button. Meanwhile, I'm frantically trying to scoop up the three fish we actually caught before they breakdance their way out of the cargo hold and back into the sea.
This is not a game about efficient fishing. This is a chaos simulator. It's a sandbox for generating hilarious stories of failure and panic. The best moments have nothing to do with meeting your quota and everything to do with screaming, laughing, and trying not to drown while your boat splinters around you. Playing this game solo would be a miserable, lonely affair. Playing with friends is peak comedy.
Let's Talk About the Jank
Let's be clear: this game is held together with duct tape and wishful thinking. It is unapologetically Early Access. The fish you catch have mastered physics-defying acrobatics, often launching themselves out of your boat's cargo hold like tiny, scaly escape artists. The movement controls feel like you're wading through invisible molasses. And binding "steer the boat away from the monster that is actively eating our hull" to the same button as "casually cast a fishing line" is a stroke of evil game design I can't help but respect on some level. It’s frustrating as hell, but it absolutely contributes to the chaos.
A Bare Bones Ocean with Big Potential
Right now, the ocean feels about as deep as a puddle. There just isn't much content here yet. You’ll see the handful of fish, the few threats, and the core gameplay loop within your first couple of hours. It gets repetitive, fast. This is the part where you have to understand what you're buying. You aren't buying a finished game. You're buying a ticket to the ground floor of something that could be great. The price is low, the devs are active as hell on Discord, and they're pushing out patches at a respectable clip. You’re paying for the potential, and for the promise of more chaos to come.
The Verdict
Dreadline is not a good game, not in the traditional sense. It's buggy, it's shallow, and it's mechanically questionable. But it is a hell of a lot of fun. It's a cheap, janky sandbox for creating incredible, panicked memories with your friends. Do not buy this to play solo. Do not buy this expecting a polished experience. Buy this with a few friends and a few beers on a Friday night when you all want to scream-laugh for a couple of hours. It's less of a game and more of a story generator, and the stories it generates are fucking hilarious.
Score: 7.0/10 - For the chaos alone. Bring friends or don't bother.
We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn't impact our review in any way.