Scale the Depths review

I’ve always had a odd relationship with incremental games. I rarely jump into a new one without hesitation, knowing how easily they can consume my attention. But once I’m invested, it can be really hard to put the game down (which is great for long flights). But that kind of addictive play also shapes how I view new entries in the genre, and Scale the Depths is no exception to this cycle.

At first glance, Glass Gecko Games’ effort looks like a simple fishing-themed incremental game. But its complements it’s lure-and line casting with gutting mini-games that break up the tedium. Know that Scale the Depths is going to hook you. It might not revolutionize the genre, but the lure of landing bigger catches can be hard to resist.

The Catch of the Day

The title is built around two interconnected activities. The first is fishing, which is straightforward and easy to understand. You cast your line, steer it around freely, and catch fish by touching them with your lure. While it’s not a very accurate simulation of the sport, it’s fun, fast, and more importantly instantly accessible.

Expectedly, early casts will be rather restrictive. You don’t have enough line to reach deeper waters, and your catch bucket can only hold a few fish. But like its genre peers, you’ll soon unlock new perks and upgrades, making many of those limitations and frustrations start to disappear. Seeing new things is one of the enticements on an incremental game, and Scale the Depths offers some attractive depictions of hand-drawn fish (both real and mythical) and new venues that offer a way to catch these new species.

Knife To Meet You

The second half of the game is where it becomes more distinctive. Once you’ve caught your fish, you’ll need to process them by scaling and cleaning them. This portion can initially be a source of frustration, especially when you’re working with the basic knife. Actions like removing parasites or barnacles feel imprecise at first, as you slide your blade around ineffectually. I expected a fish market version of Trauma Center, but Scale the Depths’ responsiveness can be either too loose or too finicky.

Thankfully, this issue is largely temporary. Purchasing a better knife dramatically improves the experience, making the cleaning process faster, smoother, and more satisfying. With a better blade, the top bar that indicates your progress won’t get filled with a chastizing blood red color anymore. But here’s the thing: once you begin to plumb some of the deeper waters, the fish increase in both size and detail. often hanging over the size of your cutting board.

Grinding for Sashimi

Depths’ sense of progression can also become a double-edged blade when you start traveling to new fishing locations. While discovering fresh environments and species is exciting, each new area resets much of your momentum. Suddenly you’re dealing with shorter lines, smaller knives, and familiar upgrade grinds all over again. Largely, this undermines the satisfaction of steadily building an efficient fishing boat operation. Incremental games hinge on making you feel increasingly powerful, and having portions of that progress rolled back can occasionally make advancement feel less gratifying.

While the game’s fishing and cleaning mechanics are undoubtedly engaging for several hours, they lose their freshness pretty quickly (pun intended). New fish might introduce visual variety, but the tasks required to catch and process them remain the same. While the artwork helps to sustain interest, you may find yourself wishing for more substantial goals, deeper customization options, or more nuanced fishing. Scale the Depths makes for a fun few hours, but before long, the incremental play doesn’t evolve enough, contradicting the game’s title. Next time, let’s go a bit deeper.

Scale the Depths was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.