Dredge is all about atmosphere. The simple yet detailed environments, poly graphics, deep fog, and diverse soundtrack really add to this mysterious experience where you don't really know what's lurking around the corner or what screwed up item you might unearth from the deep. The story doesn't really get too detailed, but I'm sure it's there if someone wanted to dissect every little comment someone makes. The gameplay itself is pretty straightforward - but navigating the challenges of each environment provide enough diversity where each main zone feels different. Other than its short length, the only downside for this game is the fact that when you die, there is no death animation of the ship sinking - you just cut to a black screen that says you capsized and you can immediately start back from the last time you docked. It almost ruins some of the challenge in avoiding all obstacles because the punishment is so small.

This game is incredibly charming and creative. Each level's theming and atmosphere felt so distincltly different and scratched my creative brain in just the right way, the platforming is also pretty fun. But honestly the standout of this game was the soundtrack. Each level's soundtrack fit perfectly and had an awesome mix of original music and old hits. Overall, this isn't a pretty long game and some of the platforming does end up getting repetitive (it's a pretty simple game). I wanted to try out some of the player made levels but it turns out the servers have been down for years now, so that's a huge piece of history and effort lost, bumping this game down significantly for me as I don't think the short story mode captures the whole of this game and I don't bother to engage in the level maker.

Snake Pass is a unique game, I don't think there is any other game where you have to carefully manage your long body and use its slithering capabilities to navigate a course and for that I will give it its flowers. The controls and technique does take a hot minute to get used to before things click and the game actually starts feeling doable, but that learning curve is definitely something. It's hard and frustrating and sometimes unforgiving at first, but once that click happened it felt like the rest of the game was a breeze. And yes, it is a unique game in its mechanics, but who was asking for something like this? I had fun and I'll give it some credit, but I'm ultimately glad it's over.