The Bridge Xbox One review

There are many thought-provoking titles on Xbox One, one of them being The Bridge, which formed off the back of a university project from Ty Taylor, who collaborated with artist Mario Castaneda. The title is largely formed by physics, in that you can alter gravity by rotating the world. You’ll need your wits about you with this one.

In order to solve the 48 puzzling levels, you’ll need to first grasp the concept of the game’s mechanics. By rotating the world everything moves with you, so a ball which instantly ends your life is something to be weary of. The most confusing thing of all will be when the ceiling becomes the floor and it’s this level of confusion which challenges players. I for one, love it when a game pushes my brain to think and I don’t think there were many levels which didn’t have me scratching my head.

The title’s 2D graphics are perfect enough for the genre of game and it’s hand drawn levels look beautiful in their noire appearance. I often wonder if a more colourful version was made during development, as I really think that might have worked well with The Bridge, but nonetheless, it has its own charm.

The controls are very minimal too, so there’s not much work for your controller here – other than using the triggers to rotate the world, A to interact with doors and B to rewind. That’s really all there is to it and the fact that the control scheme is so simple, makes it a joy to behold. You can dive straight into it and unlike a lot of puzzle games, you don’t have to learn any complex controls.

The game is also designed to be interesting, as well as challenging. So you’ll probably end up being frustrated whilst pleased with the level design at the same time. It’s an unusual relationship to have in a video game, but it works bizarrely well in this one. Even the levels presented before you, might not look like much, but then suddenly you realise the amount of work they require for you to get through the door. Just prepare to have your mind blown Isaac Newton.