I missed The Bridge when it was initially released. The game originally landed on the Xbox 360 and PC clear back in 2013 and garnered a decent dose of critical praise and awards in the process. Now here we are two years later, and if you missed the game on its first go-around like me you are now being given a second chance on next-gen consoles.
The Bridge is a 2D puzzle “platformer” influenced extensively by the works of the famous mind-bending graphic artist, M.C. Escher. You’ll be tasked with guiding the main character (who the story indicates is actually Escher himself) through four chapters-worth of mind bending levels.
Your objective in each level is simple, find the exit door and walk on through. Of course that’s often easier said than done, sometimes you’ll be dealing with tracking down keys for locked doors or avoiding some frightening looking spheres that will kill on contact. Levels are laid out in such a fashion that they can be rotated 360 degrees by pressing either the right or left bumper. Most of your limits lie with your character himself, there won’t be any sprinting or jumping to be had. Instead if you want Escher to pick up the pace you’re going to have to rotate the level and pull the ground out from under him.
Screenshots don’t quite do the game’s art justice.
In my opinion the puzzles in The Bridge are just about perfect. They are just tough enough that they require some extra thought and offer a sense of pride after completing a level, but not so challenging that you wind up resorting to guides or walkthroughs to figure things out. I’d say the challenge is comparative to Monument Valley, perhaps just a little trickier.
There is something of a difficulty spike around the game’s third chapter when it introduces the game’s “inversion” mechanic. There are hints towards how to activate inversion but the game never says it flat out. It’s really a design choice more than it is a flaw or mistake but nonetheless I would have preferred to save some time with a simple controller prompt. Chapter four introduces a final mechanic that also isn’t clearly explained but I had much less trouble adapting to it as it doesn’t actually require new control inputs like inversion does.
The game’s story is relayed almost entirely through text snippets, the largest of which appear after finishing each chapter. Players are told a story of Escher and his mysterious relationship with his former partner. I won’t say anything further to avoid spoiling things but I will say that overall the story is fairly light on detail and not really required to enjoy the game. The scarcity of explanation puts the onus on the player to figure out what’s going on but even so it’s not a major detraction, this game is put together well enough it didn’t really need a story to begin with.
The Bridge offers a somewhat brief experience, clocking in just around four hours for a simple playthrough. Playing through the game’s mirror levels and netting all the achievements can add some time and value but even without the extras I think the game is fairly priced at $9.99 on all platforms.
There are a few small flaws here and there but for the most part The Bridge truly is a remarkably designed puzzle game and an easy recommendation. If you missed this on its first go around I’m not sure there’s an excuse now, you should absolutely check this one out. The game is available now on just about every major console as well as on Steam.
This review was done on pre-release code provided by the game’s developer.
