Is How to Fish Worth $4.95? A No-BS Review

TL;DR

• How to Fish launched August 20, 2026 on Steam for $7.99 (or $4.95 on intro discount) by two-person Swedish studio Dazed Games.
• It’s a physics-based co-op game for 1–4 players — you crash on an island and fish, shoot, and brawl your way home through 5 islands.
• The main story takes 5–6 hours to beat casually. A speedrun can clear it in under an hour.
• It holds a 95% “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam across thousands of reviews.
• Best with friends. Solo is playable, but bosses are noticeably harder without a group.
• Verdict: Yes — at this price, it’s one of the easiest calls on Steam right now.

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How to Fish is the co-op game everyone seems to be talking about right now. It came out of nowhere on August 20, 2026, hit 341,000 concurrent players within its first week on Steam, and sold over a million copies in 48 hours. That kind of launch makes you wonder — is it actually good, or is this just another hype train you’ll regret buying into?

This is a no-fluff, honest review. We’ll cover what you actually do in the game, what works, what doesn’t, who should buy it, and who should skip it. You can also check out How to Fish hitting 1 million sales on Steam to understand how big the launch really was before diving into this review.

What Is How to Fish?

How to Fish is a first-person, physics-based fishing simulator made by Dazed Games — a two-person Swedish studio backed by Evil Landfall, the publishing arm of Landfall Games. The premise is deliberately ridiculous: you and up to three friends were out drinking on a boat, crashed into a remote island, and now you have to fish your way back home.

That’s it. That’s the story. And honestly, it doesn’t need to be anything more than that.

The game runs across five islands — Lighthouse, Forest, Desert, Rocks, and Volcano. Each island has quests, a boss, and a gate you need to pass through to reach the next one. You catch fish, kill them, sell them, and use that money to buy better rods, weapons, and gear. Then you do it all again on a bigger, weirder island with meaner creatures.

How to Fish Gameplay — The Full Breakdown

Fishing is only the beginning here. The loop works like this: cast your line, pull something out of the water, kill it, sell it. Simple. But Dazed Games layers a lot of chaos on top of that foundation.

Early on you’re punching fish with your bare hands or slashing them with a knife. That gets old fast — but it’s designed to. Within a short while, you have a pistol. Then a shotgun. Then a sniper rifle. Then dynamite. The escalation of weaponry is one of the best parts of the game because it always feels earned. You worked to afford that gun. Using it for the first time on a big aggressive pufferfish feels satisfying.

The trick shot system is where things get genuinely fun. Killing fish in creative or stylish ways — like shooting them mid-air after a 360-degree spin, or blasting a seagull out of the sky — earns you bonus cash on top of the normal sale price. It rewards experimentation and keeps fights interesting long after you’ve gotten comfortable with the basics.

Between islands, there’s a hidden tavern boat with a roulette table and slot machine. You can gamble your money there. Rare colored fish can be fed into the slot machine for cosmetic weapon skins. It’s all optional, but it adds texture to the world and gives completionists something extra to chase.

There are also 28 Steam achievements — ranging from easy pickups to genuinely tricky challenges, including one called “Bean” that requires you to beat the entire game in under an hour.

How Long Is How to Fish?

This is probably the most important question for anyone deciding whether to buy.

The honest answer: the main story takes around 5–6 hours on a relaxed casual playthrough. If you know exactly where you’re going, you can speed through it in under two hours. Completionists chasing all 28 achievements will spend significantly longer — the rare fish collection and drip cosmetic hunts are where most of that extra time goes.

For a $7.99 game (or $4.95 on launch discount), 5–6 hours is a fair exchange. But if you’re the type who needs 40+ hours from a single purchase, be honest with yourself about that before buying. The replay value mostly comes from playing with different groups of friends, not from a dramatically different experience on a second run.

Co-Op vs. Solo — Which Is Better?

Co-op is clearly where How to Fish shines brightest. The game has built-in proximity voice chat, which means when your friend gets picked up and carried off by a giant angry seagull, their screaming voice literally fades into the distance. Those moments can’t be replicated solo, and they’re what people keep posting about on TikTok and Twitch.

Playing with four people also distributes roles naturally. One person fishes while another lines up a trick shot. Someone keeps an eye on the quest giver while someone else scouts the next island. The chaos is shared, and shared chaos is funnier.

Solo play is totally viable. The core progression, quests, island unlocks, and achievements all work without a co-op partner. But the bosses are balanced around group play. Multiple solo players have flagged that the first boss in particular can feel punishing when you’re managing everything alone — you’re trying to fish, dodge attacks, and land shots all at the same time. It’s doable, but it requires more patience than the co-op experience suggests.

If you have three friends who play PC games, this is an easy buy. If you’re a solo player primarily, it’s still worth it — just go in knowing the boss fights will test you more.

What Works Well

• The physics feel great. Every cast, every kill, every ragdoll reaction from a fish getting launched into the air — it all feels satisfying in a way that makes you want to keep going.
• The escalating weapons are genuinely fun. Going from fists to a sniper rifle over the course of a few islands is one of the cleanest progression hooks in the genre.
• The trick shot system rewards creativity. You’re never just mashing the same button. The game constantly tempts you to try something dumb just to see if it earns more cash.
• The price is nearly impossible to argue with. Even at full price ($7.99), this is one of the cheapest games with this much energy on Steam right now.
• It runs well on modest hardware. Steam Deck players report 60 FPS at max quality settings and solid battery drain. Linux users on Proton 11 reported a smooth experience with minimal issues.
• No Early Access padding. The game launched complete. You get a finished product from day one.

What Doesn’t Work as Well

• Aiming feels loose during boss fights. Some players find the gun handling imprecise at key moments, especially during fast-moving boss encounters. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s a genuine irritant.
• Solo boss balance is rough. The bosses are clearly designed for groups. Going it alone is possible but not as elegantly balanced as the rest of the experience.
• The early pacing is a little slow. The Lighthouse Island start — where you’re scraping together clams just to afford a basic rod — can feel sluggish before the game opens up. Push through it. The game improves sharply once you hit the second island.
• Some minor technical complaints at launch. A handful of players reported mouse-related stutter and controller menu navigation issues. The developers have committed to fixing bugs, so this should improve over time.
• No console or Mac version yet. It’s PC-only right now. No official console or Mac port has been announced.

How to Fish Review Score — What Steam Players Are Saying

As of August 2026, How to Fish holds an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam with 95% of over 6,000 English reviews recommending it. The most common themes across those reviews are: great co-op, fun weapons and trick shots, strong value for money, and some frustration with boss difficulty and launch bugs. The positive reviews outnumber the critical ones by a wide margin — this isn’t a case of early fans inflating the score.

The community is also active. Steam guides, walkthrough videos, and a dedicated wiki launched within days of release. That kind of community investment is usually a good sign about how long a game will hold people’s attention.

Should You Buy How to Fish?

Here’s the honest breakdown by player type:

Buy it if: You have friends who play PC games and you’re looking for a cheap game to mess around in together. You like chaotic physics-based co-op games like Lethal Company, PEAK, or Content Warning. You enjoy silly, unserious games that don’t ask too much of you. You play on Steam Deck or Linux.

Think twice if: You play exclusively solo and get frustrated by games that feel designed around co-op. You want a long, story-rich experience with 20+ hours of content. You need tight, responsive shooting controls.

Skip it if: You want a calm, realistic fishing simulator. This game is the opposite of that in almost every possible way.

At $4.95 on the intro discount — or even at the regular $7.99 — How to Fish is one of the strongest value purchases on Steam right now. It’s loud, it’s silly, it runs well, and it’s the kind of game that makes the people playing it laugh out loud. That counts for a lot.

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