The Bridge Review
An apple falling on your characters head, that’s how The Bridge, created by Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda, starts. Just like how Isaac Newton discovered gravity in the 17th century when an apple fell on his head, the player’s character discovers how to control gravity.
On the outside The Bridge looks like just another 2D platformer that requires you to get from point A to point B. Within minutes though I found myself having to use gravity to my advantage to solve puzzles to make sure I could actually get from A to B, while at the same time I was presented with an enjoyable story through the use of one line comments . Through the use of gravity I found myself walking on the ceiling and walls to venture through architectures, that would otherwise be impossible to do.
At the beginning of the game the puzzles that I met were simple to complete, that required minimal manipulation of gravity. However as I progressed through the many levels of the game I was faced with increasing difficult puzzles that required delicate use of gravity manipulation, and this was also how I came to appreciate the hint system put in place.
Though the game increased in difficulty as I progressed I always knew that if I made a simple mistake that led to the character’s death, or caused the loss of something else, I could simply rewind time to make sure I could prevent the mistake from occurring. This I thought was a good move on the developers part, as I know when I play puzzle games that every now and again I do press the wrong button that causes me to have to restart from the beginning but with The Bridge you only have to rewind a few seconds back, instead of starting again.
I found that The Bridge uses a control setup common to most 2D platformer titles. In addition both keyboard and 360 controller support are offered, and I found both worked perfectly fine. I did however find it took a while before I managed to get a hang of the controlling gravity concept.
Using hand drawn art in the style of a black and white lithograph, The Bridge is a beautiful game. From the main character and items to the environments and levels themselves everything is highly detailed and well presented. The game’s level designs are also well done, and at first glance for some of them I was simply flabbergasted at the complexity and simplicity they present at the same time. The game’s sound effects are also well done and I really enjoyed the quiet and simple music that played in the background as I progressed through the game.
The Bridge is a wonderful game that I enjoyed my time with. If you enjoy platformer titles I recommend you give the game a go when it is released on PC and Xbox 360 later this year. For the meantime however you can check out a demo of the title here.
Note: The PC version of the game was reviewed.
