Black Hole Fishing Review: A Charming Idea Undone by Its Own Grind

Suck fish into a singularity, build a career doing it

Black Hole Fishing, from SDG Games and published by Playsaurus (the studio behind Clicker Heroes and Idle Skilling), is exactly what it sounds like: an incremental game about catching fish, optimizing their traits, and eventually feeding them into a growing black hole to power further progress. It's a $5.99 single-player title available on Windows and Linux, built around a loop of stocking a pond, breeding better fish through "questionable fish science," and steadily automating the whole absurd process. It leans hard into a self-aware, silly tone, and that tone is one of the most consistently praised parts of the entire package.

A genuinely funny, satisfying opening

Reviewers are close to unanimous that the first several hours of Black Hole Fishing are a real highlight. The pond-management and breeding loop, catching fish, guiding them toward the black hole with stones, cross-breeding for better traits, is repeatedly described as relaxing, engaging, and full of small dopamine hits as new mechanics unlock. The writing and presentation earn consistent praise too, with reviewers calling out the game's specific brand of humor, unique upgrade systems, and charming art style as standing out from a crowded field of generic incremental clones. Several reviewers who don't normally enjoy the genre say the premise alone was enough to pull them in.

The prestige grind that wears players down

The single most repeated criticism, appearing across a large share of both English and non-English reviews, is that progression slows dramatically once players reach the mid-game prestige systems. Reviewers describe having to reset, or "ascend," many times over to unlock the upgrades that actually make later stretches of the game fun, turning what started as an active, engaging loop into repetitive busywork. One detailed review put a rough score on it directly: "Good idea, bad execution... Fast-early, relatively fun gameplay (1-2 hours) > Slow-middle, repetitive gameplay." A Korean-language review goes further, describing the ascension grind as disproportionate to the actual content gained from it, and several English reviews independently arrive at the same conclusion using different words, calling later hours "tedious," "a slog," or simply "boring."

Bugs, save issues, and a UI that doesn't explain itself

Beyond pacing, a meaningful number of reviewers report real technical problems. Multiple reviews describe significant performance drops in the late game, with one player reporting the game turning into "a slideshow ranging from 20fps to 5" during later stretches. Others report more serious issues: at least two reviewers describe losing all of their save progress, including one report of repeated file corruption specifically on Steam Deck, and one player reported the game's cash variable overflowing into negative numbers. The UI draws its own share of complaints, with reviewers describing purchases that give no visible feedback, making it unclear whether an upgrade was actually bought, and a "brochure" style upgrade layout that several found more confusing than helpful.

A shorter ride than some Playsaurus fans expected

A smaller thread of criticism concerns overall length and value. Several reviewers who came in as fans of Playsaurus's earlier games say they expected a longer, more substantial experience, with one noting they beat the entire game within a weekend and "expected something that wasn't the current fad of incremental games that are this short." This isn't a universal complaint, plenty of reviewers are satisfied with a shorter, tighter incremental experience, but it's a recurring enough theme to be worth flagging for buyers weighing the price against expected playtime.

What separates it from the incremental crowd

Even reviewers frustrated with the pacing tend to agree the underlying idea sets Black Hole Fishing apart from the flood of similar games on Steam. Most incremental titles lean on abstract numbers going up, clicking, crafting, or fighting through generic themes, but the fish-breeding and gene-splicing systems here give players something more tactile to engage with: a roster of specific, individually named fish whose traits can be compared, spliced, and shown off. Reviewers who enjoyed the min-maxing side of the game in particular describe getting pulled into "its own separate game" chasing the perfect fish build, well beyond what the core prestige loop technically required. That sense of a hidden, optional depth is part of why so many otherwise critical reviews still stop short of an outright negative verdict, pointing to a strong foundation rather than a fundamentally broken idea.

What would fix it, according to players

Reading across the full spread of critical reviews, a fairly consistent wish list emerges. Reviewers most often ask for: faster or more meaningful prestige currency gains so ascending doesn't feel like pure downtime, clearer purchase and upgrade feedback so the UI actually communicates what changed, and continued bug fixes for the performance and save issues reported in the late game. Several reviewers explicitly frame their negative review as conditional, saying they'd happily revise their opinion upward once the developer addresses balance and polish, which is a meaningfully different signal than reviewers who dislike the core concept outright. Given that the game only recently launched, that kind of post-release support could resolve a large share of the current complaints without touching what already works.

Verdict: a strong hook that needs a stronger back half

Black Hole Fishing has real charm, a distinctive premise, funny writing, and an opening loop that most players genuinely enjoy. Where it consistently loses reviewers is in its second half: a prestige grind that overstays its welcome, technical rough edges including performance issues and save problems, and a UI that doesn't always tell players what's happening. It's an easy recommendation for incremental fans who can push through a rough middle stretch for a satisfying setup, but players who want consistent polish from start to finish may want to wait for a patch or two.