Dread Nautical (Switch) Review
Release Date: April 29, 2020
Publisher/Developer: Zen Studios
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Price: $19.99
A simple cruise goes inexplicably awry as it drifts into a mysterious rift. Monsters take over, passengers mutate into disgusting thralls hell-bent on destroying any normal humans in their path. As one of four survivors, it’s up to you to scavenge the ship for supplies for survival, weaponry to take down the enemy, and fellow survivors to help you discover the mystery behind the strange events.
Dread Nautical feels like that unique niche of “teen horror” in that it’s dark, spooky, but also cartoony and animated. There’s vicious and grotesque enemies, but the cel-shaded structure means nothing will be popping up in your nightmares. Dread Nautical is wonderfully lit, and character models are simple but they fit the theme. I wish there was a little more expression on character faces, particularly mouth movements, but overall any screenshot could feel like a stylized comic book.
While feeling very action packed, Dread Nautical is actually a tactical RPG filled with crafting and item management subsystems. Players choose from one of four survivors who have to go out and scrounge for supplies and weapons, but can’t just pick up everything they see. Weapons deteriorate and become unusable, so the balance is deciding whether to pick up another weapon and dropping a more powerful one that you could instead hold onto and repair in between levels. Item management has been my biggest complaint during my playtime as I would run across many things I simply could not take with me back to the hideout. You at least have the ability to use healing items you find in the field immediately instead of having to swap, use and pick up the old.
There are some roguelike elements to Dread Nautical’s 20 floors. Players are tasked with searching each floor for goods, and the occasional item to progress the story. Certain tomes or keys will decipher mysterious glyphs on the (annoyingly long) load screens to shape some more of the story. You are allowed to move freely outside of battle, but once you enter battle you go to a turn-based and action point heavy battle scheme, where you can have more attacks if you move less and vice versa. Leveling characters can increase movement radius or attack patterns. As you progress you will run across other survivors, but you have to win them to your side instead of just expecting them to bow down and join your ragtag group. More recruits means more survivors to join your team as you go through higher floors, meaning more item slots, attacks, and damage. This really fleshes out gameplay, but those first few floors (which I suppose could be considered tutorial) feel very restrictive. Once you even get a second person gameplay really opens up.
Controls are a bit convoluted for me. You have to do a two-button combination just to bring up a map or do a camera tilt. The cursor and camera feel like they both move different speeds, and both move rather sluggish on top of that. I wish you could have free run until you got into a battle and just walk around with the analog stick, snapping to the grid when necessary, but instead you are still regulated to cursor movement, and trying to traverse a long distance could lead the AI to take the shortest route right through a ground trap, which got annoying after a while. Luckily the Switch edition offers touchscreen support that seems to take away 90 percent of the control issues I have with the game (the title is also on Apple Arcade, giving me the feeling that it was originally designed with touchscreen in mind, and on my second run I had a much easier time realizing I could pinch, twist, zoom, and use on-screen icons to manipulate the environment. Of all the console versions that exist, this pushes the Switch edition into the top spot. A strength of the game is how it looks good without being a graphic powerhouse, so you won’t lose out on anything on the lower-powered system.
Overall, Dread Nautical is unique: it combines a usually action-packed genre of horror with a tactical strategy for a fresh take. The “scary” is presented in a unique, eerie fashion that shows what it needs without being over the top. Between levels, the home base allows you to tend to upgrading your equipment as well as the needs of your survivors, who you have to recruit diplomatically and adds a whole different facet to the game. Dread Nautical offers a creepy-vibed tactical RPG with plenty of mysteries to unravel. Once the (natural) limitations relax, the gameplay (particularly when using the touchscreen) make for a fun, bite sized adventure in each fifteen-ish minute level perfect for grab-and-go play.
Pros:
-Cool “teen horror” style feel
-Switch touchscreen overrides control scheme issues
-Horror conservation and rationing combined with Tactical RPG strategy
Cons:
-Long load times (on Switch at least)
-Controller setup could be a lot simpler
-Initial inventory and movement limitations can be frustrating.
Special thanks to Zen Studios for providing a code for review!