The Bridge

I adore the artstyle and aesthetic (pencilled drawings of M.C. Escher), and its a reliable puzzle game - but it never quite clicked mentally for me, and solving the puzzles didn't just quite feel satisfying enough for me to ever finish it - despite all the neat mechanics in place that are featured. Check it out if you like the artstyle and some environmental storytelling/mechanic explanation, maybe you'll enjoy it more than me.

The Bridge is a puzzle game with a penciled, grey-scale art style. Aesthetically, it is a tribute to M.C Escher, and the puzzles utilise physics alongside Escher’s mind-bending take on perspective.

You begin the game asleep under an apple tree, and shake the tree using the Right and Left Trigger (which rotate the world) to drop an apple on his head to awake him (a nod to Newton). Then you walk to his house which acts as a hubworld to the 4 chapters.

In the levels, you will be moving your character, and rotating the world. Your character walks slowly and will struggle up inclines, and will slide down them. Your aim is to get to the door. On many levels, the door is locked, so you need to get the key first, or ensure a button-switch is pressed.

The first few levels have no hazards, but later you are introduced to The Menace which is an angry looking sphere. If you touch him, then you fail. The Menace moves according to gravity, so you rotate the level to move him as desired. Some levels feature multiple of these.

Some levels allow you to fall off the level, and the same applies to The Menace or Keys. The game has a rewind feature, so if you fail, or make a mistake like falling off a platform, you can just hold the B button to rewind. Tipping The Menace out of the world never seems to be the solution though because they are often required to hold down a switch.

You will rotate the levels to make other objects move, or to maneuver yourself through the level. Later in the game, you encounter objects that have a different gravity direction applied to them, which are marked with splotchy textures. When you have objects following different rules, it is even more mind-bending than the previous levels.

Much of the game has a trial-and-error approach to it as you need to rotate the levels and see what happens, rewinding as appropriate.

There are vortexes which hold objects and may be released again by hitting a corresponding switch. Sometimes you need to roll The Menace into the vortex to remove it, or sometimes you need to jump in them yourself, then rotate The Menace onto a switch to free yourself again.

There are levels with devices which change the shading of your character between grey and white. At this point, you need to look at what colour the door is, because you can only open it when you are a like-colour.

The final puzzle element is the Veil which looks like a shower curtain. When you are behind it, you are unaffected by gravity, but can rotate the level to change the gravity direction for the splotchy-textured objects. It’s a mechanic that is hard to understand. Firstly, the game doesn’t explain what it is for, so I completed a few levels without understanding exactly what it did. Secondly, when you enter the Veil, the screen rotates which throws your perspective off.

After completing the default set of levels, you have access to the Mirror versions. Not only are they flipped, but there are now more hazards; so it’s basically hard mode.

I do like games that make you think in a different way, but sometimes I think this game was a little too much. I think the first three chapters were actually really good, but the fourth chapter is too mind-bending for its own good. I ended up watching a walkthrough on YouTube, and then attempted it myself but struggled, so then had to rewatch and do it step by step. It will take around 2.5-3 hours to get through the main game, then there’s the Mirror levels to extend the playtime.