Southern Gothic aesthetic and a spooky atmosphere you say? Lovecraftian sea monsters and haunted swamp houses you say? I'm absolutely in! Waited for this little gem half an eternity and felt blessed when I noticed the first demo has finally arrived. It is unique, whimsical, and exceptionally beautiful . I love the art style – possibly the main reason why DREADMOOR caught my attention in the first place. Still, there are a few things that have to be mentioned. Normally I'd say: I don't get the reviews. Everyone's screaming "I expected Dredge!", "This isn't Dredge, downvote!", because nobody said it would be. But DREADMOOR kind of brought this on themselves, and I understand why many people are downvoting under the pretext of "this isn't Dredge". It's obvious that DREADMOOR was more than just "inspired" by it, and I am also just as suspicious of the original "developer studio", which started out as a team of three people whose studio usually provides outsourcing services for other companies. Granted, there is a publisher and legit dev team behind it now, but there's still some scepticism left. I also agree with many others that the voice acting sounds strongly like AI , even though the studio denies it. Still, to be fair, what I've seen in the demo looks and feels great. The demo ran smoothly on max settings even though I played on my laptop instead of my PC. I only noticed a few brief FPS drops while loading new chunks. The gameplay is innovative, varied and overall – entertaining. I had a lot of fun and sure, the gameplay might be repetitive for some , but overall, it's a game about fishing. So, most of the time..you're fishing. Another criticism I've read, was reviewers saying DREADMOOR is made for 'a younger audience'. I don't know what that's supposed to mean, honestly. I'm 28 and didn't find the demo childish or cringe in any way. It definitely has a unique sense of humor, but nothing you couldn't enjoy at an "older" age. It's charming, quirky, and humorous. The atmosphere is definitely the absolute carry for the game. Without the spooky mood and the southern gothic and haunted swamp vibes, I probably would never have added it to my wishlist, because fishing doesn't interest me at all. But even I am entertained by the gameplay – and that's what matters, right? Overall, I liked the demo and I'm excited to see if the full version lives up to expectations.
Review Map › Games › DREADMOOR Demo
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DREADMOOR Demo
The demo of DREADMOOR. Every figure here is from the demo’s own reviews.
One of the 25 demos in our October 2026 Next Fest report
77%Mostly Positive
of all 408 reviews on Steam74%▼ 3
recommend the game, last 7 days220▲ 214%
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What players talk about in the latest 200 reviews
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Praise
Complaints
Bars compare each theme with the one mentioned most. We don’t print counts: 200 recent reviews are a sample, not a measure of the game.
New Steam reviews each day
The last 7 days against the 7 before. Point atTap a day for its counts. Steam’s daily chart counts only copies bought on Steam.
Recommended, last 7 days163Not recommended, last 7 days57Recommend the game, last 7 days74%
| Day | Recommended | Not recommended | Recommending the game |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 October, 7 days before | 10 | 3 | 77% |
| 13 October, 7 days before | 14 | 1 | 93% |
| 14 October, 7 days before | 7 | 1 | too few |
| 15 October, 7 days before | 3 | 1 | too few |
| 16 October, 7 days before | 10 | 2 | 83% |
| 17 October, 7 days before | 5 | 3 | too few |
| 18 October, 7 days before | 8 | 2 | 80% |
| 19 October, last 7 days | 23 | 12 | 66% |
| 20 October, last 7 days | 33 | 10 | 77% |
| 21 October, last 7 days | 21 | 9 | 70% |
| 22 October, last 7 days | 18 | 11 | 62% |
| 23 October, last 7 days | 20 | 6 | 77% |
| 24 October, last 7 days | 24 | 5 | 83% |
| 25 October, last 7 days | 24 | 4 | 86% |
Most helpful reviews, 19 to 25 October
Steam’s top-ranked review for and against the game in these 7 days, in English. Votes as they stood when this map was made.
If you wanted more Dredge this isn't it. Voice work is terrible, it sounds like AI read out a lot of the lines and its constant, never getting time to relax without it in your ear. The world lacks horror and goes for a comical approach, music stingers in the game gave me flashbacks to Borderlands in all the wrong ways and the gameplay is the regular survival crafting tedium to be expected of early access games in the genre.
Recommended by playtime
This week’s reviews, split by hours played, and how many recommend the game.
About the same at every stage.
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Steam Deck
Valve’s Steam Deck rating.
UnknownReviews by language
How many of the game’s reviews are in its main languages, with the rest together, and how many in each recommend the game.
| Language | Reviews | Share | Players recommending the gameThe line marks all languages together, 77%. The chip shows how far each language is above or below it. |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 157 | 38% | 67%−10 |
| Russian | 117 | 29% | 91%+14 |
| Simplified Chinese | 51 | 13% | 51%−26 |
| French | 18 | 4% | 89%+12 |
| German | 17 | 4% | 94%+17 |
| Portuguese - Brazil | 12 | 3% | 92%+15 |
| Spanish | 9 | 2% | |
| Japanese | 4 | <1% | |
| Other languages | 23 | 6% |
All reviews ever, as Steam counts them. Each language named has its own Steam score; Other languages holds every other language together.