I’m now addicted to Dredge and Balatro
I have Dredge and Balatro on my iPad and frankly, they might be causing a productivity problem. I brought this on myself but am actually pretty happy about it.
I have a pretty addictive personality and can go all in on something if I find I like it. I’m not talking about things like beer or weed (mostly for legal reasons) – I’m talking games. I play everything from AAA Playstation games to seemingly repetitive and simple games on the iPad. I once spent 12 hours playing Monopoly on an old pre-smartphone phone.
I remember back in the day reading about how World of Warcraft was so addictive that it was leading to divorces and people crapping in bins. It sounded great! But then I found you are supposed to talk with people and interact, and I gave up on it. I am happy to brutally murder a virtual stranger, but am not so keen on talking to them.
Dredge and Balatro are utterly different games but are both ludicrously addictive. I have them both on my iPad, which is happily portable, so I don’t need to crap in the bin. Good times.
Dredge is now on the iPad
Dredge came out in 2023 and at first glance, I thought it seemed like an indie fishing simulator and dismissed it. But then I read a load of rave reviews which talked about a Lovecraft element and I immediately added it to my wish list on PS5 and waited till it went on sale.
I finally bought and played it a couple of months ago.
You are a fisherman who wakes up after a shipwreck in a small seaside town. You are given a ship (which you must pay off) and go out to fish. Fishing is thankfully pretty fun, but it is the story and overall mood that draws you in.
Something odd is going on in the area, and nearly everyone acts like they have a secret to hide. People are smuggling strange mutated fish, odd reclusive characters make strange demands, and you are warned not to go out fishing at night. When you do, it is soon apparent that some Lovecraftian horrors lie in the deep. Also, in true Lovecraftian style, you might also be going insane.
It is a lot of fun. During the day, you have more normal fisherman issues, such as a lack of space in the hold, avoiding rocks, etc. But as it gets dark, there is a growing sense of unease that I loved. It isn’t horror as such, but a kind of nervous dread. As the story develops, things get weirder.
Dredge is a lot of fun, and a recurring thought kept popping into my head—this would be awesome on the iPad. Sadly, it wasn’t on the iPad then. However, as of the end of February, it is now, and I am replaying the whole game again. It’s a lot of fun, and now there is DLC as well. Good, slightly terrifying times.
Dredge is available on PS5, XBOX, Steam, iOS, and so forth. Give it a try…
Balatro is a card-based poker-related addiction-generating game
I first heard about Balatro when it was nominated for the game of the year (and some other categories) at the Game Awards. I had heard of all the other games, so when I looked into it, I was shocked to see that it was a kind of deck-building rogue-like game.
How the hell can something that looks like online poker be the game of the year.
So I bought it and played it and as the title says – I am addicted to it.
At first, I was dubious. It seemed pretty simple and was kind of fun. You basically try and get the best poker hand you can and then have to hit a minimum score. But then I started to realise how deep and involved it could be. The fact that each game is random, adds to the addictiveness. Add in random jokers, vouchers, hand boosters and so on, and you slowly realise how genius the whole thing is.
It is also ludicrously fun. I have completed the main game several times, but now I am unlocking decks, stakes and challenges.
You can also get Balatro on the Steam Deck, XBOX, and PS5, but my addiction lives on the iPad.
So, why are they so addictive?
Sure the games are both superb and really good fun. But for me, the fact that you can play them both for short, fixed periods makes them truly compulsive.
With Dredge, the gameplay is split into daytime and nighttime, and the temptation is to play just one more day. A bit of fishing and exploration, sell stuff at the shop, repair, and then sleep. Then repeat. Just one more day…
With Balatro, you convince yourself you will just play one hand. Then you think, maybe just one ante. Then you get a cool joker and want to try that out. And then one more hand…
I don’t think these games are actually impeding my productivity all that much. (Although writing this article was pretty tough. My iPad is right there.) I separate my work time from my playtime. But at the moment, the first thing I do come play-time is to grab the iPad. Just for a bit.
