SGR Reviews – Bridge Constructor (PSV)

Stress test dummies

Have you ever wondered how big of a disaster it would be if someone who’s not an architect tried to build a large scale bridge? Well thanks to Head Up Games you can now experience it for yourself in the console port of the 2012 iOS game of the same name, Bridge Constructor.

The game starts with a brief introduction where you’re informed that the fictional island of Camatuga has been struck by a massive earthquake that, somehow, only seems to have destroyed bridges. As such it’s your task to rebuild every bridge in the most economic and safe way possible.

The core concept is very simple; build bridges that are sturdy enough to secure the safe passage of light, medium and heavy vehicles while keeping in mind the maximum budget. There are four different types of materials at your disposal; wood is the most basic and cheapest material but it’s not very sturdy, cable is also pretty inexpensive and works great as a support for wood and steel structures, steel is a sturdier and more expensive version of wood and finally concrete is indestructible and will have you spending big bucks but you can only set it at specific points of the map (these are usually located on each side of the chasm you’re meant to bridge). While at first these options seem rather limiting you’re still given a lot of freedom to come up with your own way to solve a puzzle.

I just wished that they’d ease you in on the new materials a bit better. Learning how wood and concrete worked was straightforward but both cable and steel are introduced in a super simple scenario and after that the game just expects you to solve a much harder puzzle, this ended up leading to some trial and error which wasn’t fun.

The user interface does the job, you’re able to navigate the menus and place tiles with ease but I find it a bit strange that despite being able to use the Vita touchscreen to select which stage you want to play you’re still forced to use traditional controls to plot your bridge.

The problems kicked in when I came across game-breaking glitches (happened a handful of times during my time with the game) that made me lose dozens of minutes of work each time, this occurrences seemed to happen completely at random and were quite frustrating. Adding to this frustration was the truly uninspired music and the other minor technical hiccups such as frequent framerate drops, and the occasional muddy textures.

Despite these issues the game was still quite fun. The 40+ levels will keep you busy for a while, especially if you aim to clear each of them with the heaviest truck. On top of this it features a full trophy list with a platinum and as an added bonus it’s also a cross-buy game.

Bridge Constructor ends up being a decent physics based puzzler that is packed with a hefty amount of content and is perfect for short gaming sessions, the subpar presentation and technical issues on the Vita keep it from being a real hit.

SGR SCORE: 7/10

Review code kindly provided by HeadUp Games