The Bridge is Built on Pillars of Awesome

Back at PAX in August, 2012, Nukezilla got our hands on many a game, but one in particular from the PAX 10 – a collection of indie games chosen to be showcased in the exhibit hall of the convention – caught our eye.

Well, it caught my eye, anyway.

The game I’m referring to is made by indie developers Ty Taylor and Mario Castañeda and is called The Bridge. It’s a 2D puzzle platformer with mystifying stages reminiscent of M. C. Escher‘s work. You control an old man (also reminiscent of Escher) who seems to be going back through his own journals (or writing them as you progress?) and trying to figure something out – presumably, how to cross “The Bridge”, whatever that is.

The Bridge‘s mind-bending puzzles – which range from “That’s super easy!” to “THAT’S FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE!” – involve manipulating gravity, using portals, and various other disorienting things to make you think outside the box. In each puzzle, you have to figure out how to reach a door in one piece so you can move onto the next one. Sometimes you have to reach a key first to unlock the door. You may have to reach a key by flipping gravity and catching it in mid air as it flies past you, and then reverse gravity back to reach the door. In between, you may need to rotate the structure to traverse it or to avoid being crushed by giant evil balls.

The whole game is pretty weird and the protagonist might actually be insane, but it’s fun to play and really satisfying to finally figure out that puzzle you’ve been stuck on for the past thirty minutes because you didn’t remember/ were too stubborn to check the Hints.

Er, not that I did that. I’m just speaking hypothetically.

The only major thing I had issues with were the controls feeling sluggish. It seems that’s on purpose to some degree, but sometimes it’s really frustrating, especially when you’re really trying to time something correctly. Getting to each “chapter” – the designations used to break up the puzzles into thematic groups – is a bit tedious as well, because the menu itself is a puzzle. It’s new and interesting at first, but after about the tenth time, not so much. However, I can overlook minor complaints when the rest of the game is as good as it is.

As chance would have it, The Bridge just launched on Steam. If you’d like to download it you can do so by going to the game’s official website. Although the $15 price tag may seem a bit much, your purchase will support a great indie developer who deserves it.

And here’s the trailer in all its simplistic beauty: