The Bridge review

by Piyoz on Jun 20th, 2014

The Bridge is an indie puzzle platformer released in 2013 on Steam and on the Xbox Live Arcade. It plays and looks like something along the same lines as Braid, but is made instead by a two guys named Ty Taylor and Mario Castañeda for the Quantum Astrophysicists Guild. I swear, these indie guys come up with the weirdest names for themselves.

In the Bridge, you play as an unnamed protagonist as he explores and black and white, hand-drawn 2D world and solves puzzles. I think the main character is supposed to be Isaac Newton because he wakes up when an apple falls on his head.

The puzzles in this game are a sequence of floating platforms and buildings which the player must turn with the arrow keys and traverse to reach keys and doors. All the puzzle areas are drawn to resemble the drawings of M.C. Escher. They’re all grayscale sketches with impossible structures and alternate levels of gravity. The player has to rotate the entire map to cause items to fall, reach new platforms, hit switches, et cetera. There are no enemies in this game, just angry spheres that will kill you on impact. There are no attacks, jumps, or special moves, either. Just moving left and right.

I’m in love with this pencil sketch aesthetic. These environments could honestly be taken right from the notebooks of Escher himself. Up close you can see loose pencil marks and gray smudges. Surreal visuals are their finest.

Honestly, I like this approach to a puzzle game. Unlike Braid, whose journal entries barely pass as a premise, the Bridge just tosses you in and doesn’t need to justify it. Each world that you enter introduces a new game play element. There’s a veil that lets you alter the gravity of the level. There are squares that let you switch colors and platforms. There are vortexes that consume everything that they touch. No tutorials or anything. The game makers intend for you to explore and experiment on your own.

None of the puzzles in the main play through of the Bridge will pose a serious challenge. A few are a little unclear, but never really difficult. You could easily clear it in about three hours. After that, there are the inverted challenges. This Hard Mode is where the real challenge lies. I didn’t play it very much, but I can tell you that headaches are inbound.

Another headache in the Bridge is the way that the main character controls. He doesn’t seem to have very good footing on any platform. He’s always slipping and sliding when the floor is anything but perfectly level. There are lots of times when I knew that I should be able to move let or right, but I couldn’t control him at all. It’s sort of frustrating losing control of your avatar. This doesn’t need to play like Super Mario Galaxy. Just a little more control of my guy would be nice.

I think this game would be amazing on the Wii U. You could turn the GamePad to tilt the level! How awesome would that be? Would someone at Nintendo pick up the phone and moshi-moshi the guys who made this?

The Bridge isn’t a very big game. It’s a good way to spend a few hours away from your giant robots, gun fire, or martial arts. The puzzle elements are highly unique and memorable, albeit a little easy for the first run. Assuming you don’t mind a few unclear solutions and a main character with vaseline on his soles, a ten dollar asking price is fair enough. It’s a must for people who like cerebral indie platformers, or anyone who is a fan of M. C. Escher’s trippy, mind-bending creations.

4/5

A Fine Concept

Categories: Reviews