DREADMOOR, a first-person fishing gam with more than enough bait on hooks, is a highlight of PAX East 2026. Taking place in a flooded post-apocalyptic world, players are tasked with surviving in this creepy and dangerous environment by sailing off on a small fishing rig; hoping to find signs of life that aren’t giant mutated fish monsters.

DREADMOOR “Dredges” up a twist on horror fishing.

With a bleak and eerie setting, rich skill trees, and upgradable and customizable boat, it is easy to compare DREADMOOR to Dredge, the wildly successful 2023 release. That game also involved fishing in a dark world. Though instead by dredging mutated aquatic creatures to pay off a debt while trying to avoid the nighttime horrors. While that game had a cartoonish, abstract art style that contrasted the tone of a Lovecraftian psychological thriller, DREADMOOR instead leans into a dystopian, ruined-world side of horror.

The atmosphere of fog and murky waters that make up “The Submerged Land,” the overgrown swamp that the game takes place in creates spooky ambience. But the most obvious feature that makes DREADMOOR stand out from its blatantly obvious influence adds even more creepy layers: the first-person perspective.

Raising the tension through perspective.

Dredge has moments of panic and tension; but it is more of a methodical puzzle game than anything that sets players on the edge of their seat. DREADMOOR, on the other hand, makes that tension unavoidable by putting players directly behind the eyes of a survivor trying to fend off an increasingly hostile world. A world that will unsettle, whether it comes from the massive fish-monsters jumping out of the water right in front of the player or the gritty gore that splatters everywhere when grinding lesser catches into chum.

The feeling of horror permeates throughout the entire experience of the demo I experienced. The gameplay itself is very satisfying – with the fishing elements intuitive and weighty. Meanwhile, the RPG elements already fleshed out enough to keep players satisfied with the catch, sell, upgrade loop of gameplay long enough to reach the credits.

With a tantalizing promise that getting further into the game brings with it more upgrades and customizations, bigger and scarier fish to harpoon and catch, and narrative surprises, DREADMOOR has more than enough meat on its bones to keep it at the the top of the must-play list when it arrives late this year.

DREADMOOR will release in 2026 on Steam.

Featured images via Dream Dock/Digital Vortex