Out Fishing is a horror fishing-sim with only one goal: “reel in the one thing that was never meant to be found”

Fishing, I think, is the truest of all video game power fantasies. Action hero combat, romance wish fulfilment, god like abilities, all of that sort of thing pales in comparison to the act of fishing in a game. Just you, your rod, and a whole load of open water. I love to fish in video games, despite not being someone that has a strong desire to 100% genres like collectathons, I do love getting as many fish as I can, and I love a twist on the format. Enter Out Fishing, a mysterious sounding horror fishing game.

Where Dredge sees you setting out into the open ocean on a boat to get the eldritch catch of the day, Out Fishing almost takes a calmer, more laid back approach. You have your own little camp near a lake, you can improve things like your rod strength and your reeling speed. Classic gamey kind of things, things you’d expect from a cosier game than this one, but then there’s the fact that if you stay past sunset, you’re greeted with… something, in the forest. Don’t know what, but I hate the woods at night, so I’m already just a little bit anxious thinking about it.

I also really like one of the key features listed over on the game’s Steam page: “A single, horrifying goal: reel in the one thing that was never meant to be found.” That could literally mean anything. A dead body? A really weird fish? Repressed memories of a traumatic event? That last one sounds likely given that the devs cited Silent Hill as an influence (alongside Alan Wake and Mundaun).

What I am curious about is how connected the horror elements will actually feel to the fishing side of things. I’m hoping the two will tie into each other rather than feeling like separate games. I won’t find out for a while though, as there’s no release date. I’ll stick to the slightly less scary Sega Bass Fishing in the meantime.