About ten years ago, Valve came up with a special puzzle game, Portal. Teleporting through the holes that you could shoot with the Portal Gun yielded unique puzzles in a world that distinguished itself by a tight and distinct color palette. The presence of the sadistic robot GLaDOS made it complete with the result that Portal is still widely known as the best puzzle game of this millennium. Portal 2 was his successor and then it became silent until Bridge Constructor Portal is about to appear.
Build it
The concept of Portal is undoubtedly known to many. Somewhere in a level you shoot a portal and when you go through it, you end up at the other portal elsewhere in the level. The Valve games enabled players to shoot portals themselves to solve puzzles. This game is slightly different in design and although Valve is not the developer, it breathes that typical atmosphere. In this game it is again a matter of solving puzzles, but this time with the help of complicated bridge constructions to bring forklifts to the end of a level. You as a new employee are appointed to bring this challenging task to a good end.
When you start, you apply for a job as an employee and once you are hired - on the basis of a curious job interview - you can get started. In each level, the intention is to build constructions with minimal resources, so that one or more forklift trucks can reach the end of a level. These limited resources consist of bars that you can attach to certain points in levels. From there you can then build a construction and it is important that the construction is well put together, because otherwise it collapses. These beams can be used for the basic construction, but also for the reinforcement of a construction and you can also convert them into mobile platforms, so that the forklift truck can drive over them.
In addition to that you still have access to ropes, which you can use to strengthen certain constructions or to keep them somewhat flexible. With these resources you have to do it and although that sounds simple, in practice that will cause a big challenge at a given moment. The game also rises fairly quickly in difficulty, but the puzzles never become impossible. The challenge is also how the levels work together. Driving a forklift from left to right over a poisonous pool of liquid is so piqued. Just building a bridge that supports itself by placing diagonal beams is the solution. Later in the game, however, that becomes increasingly difficult.
Thinking, trying and correcting
The level of difficulty is mainly in how the levels are structured. Everything you know from the Portal games comes back in this 2.5D game. Think of orbs flying around and having to send a direction to open certain shutters. Or the blue spread that makes you breathe the air, the orange spread to make speed, snaps, turrets, falling cubes and more. It is a Portal as you know it, but in a different way. As already indicated, you do not have to shoot portals yourself, because they are already there. Your goal now is to send the lift trucks through the portals in the right way so that they end up at the end.
That means that you mainly spend time building constructions. These constructions work according to the laws of gravity, so thinking carefully about the structure is important. Your only point of reference here are orange points in the levels that function as a coupling point. So you can start building from those points. However, this is predetermined and it is up to you to build up the structure on the basis of these points, which sometimes results in very complicated situations or constructions. As you progress, building will take more and more time because you do not only have to devise your construction well, the routes in the levels must be right so that you can reach the end at all.
Even more difficult
The game has 60 different levels and every time you complete 10 levels, you will be promoted by GLaDOS. GLaDOS will also comment regularly on starting new levels and try to demotivate you, which creates a funny - but typical - undertone. The color of the levels fits well with what you know from Portal and in that respect the developer succeeds in its objective. Your primary issue is solving the puzzles and the whole around it is perfectly reproduced. Incidentally, that is not the only challenge, because the game has a second objective in each level. It is important to bring one or more forklifts to the end of a level. If you succeed, you can move to the next level, but there is more than that.
In every level there are many more forklifts that you also have to bring successfully from A to B. Once you have brought the first forklift (s) to the other side, you will be given the option to send a convoy. This is in fact every forklift that is ready at point A to point B. These forklifts all take the intended route, but because the weight increases with more forklift trucks the construction can collapse. It is therefore important to make every construction so that it can not keep one or the first forklifts, but they also all. If that works, however, it is a great face, because there are levels between where you see 16 forklifts all flying past each other. If you reach the end with the whole convoy, that gives a lot of satisfaction.
Fast forward...
The game may not have been extended with 60 puzzles, but do not be mistaken. When you pass level 30, each level will last for half an hour and towards the end it can take even an hour before you have built the construction you need to finish the level. This makes this game good for hours of fun and that makes it worthwhile for every puss fan. In terms of atmosphere and style it is also all fine, but unfortunately the developer does drop some stitches on two points. So later levels are so complex that testing is very important to get a forklift truck or convoy at the end point.
If you just want to test the last piece of your construction on the other side of the level, it sometimes takes quite some time before the forklift (s) is there. With very complex constructions it may even be that you are correcting for half an hour before it works. However, it is not possible to advance the speed of the fork-lift trucks, which at a certain point makes it a nuisance that you have to wait so long for the vehicles to be at the destination for your test. An option to move forward would not have been out of place. Another point is that at times the game may suddenly end up in slow-motion because so much is happening on the screen, making the game suddenly unable to cope well. Everything slows down tremendously which can be a bit annoying, because that's how it takes longer.
Conclusion
Bridge Constructor Portal is an incredibly fun puzzle game that has incorporated the Portal theme in an excellent way. The game offers 60 puzzles that will become real brain teasers towards the end. That the game can be very slow at times is a bit sloppy and also a fast forward option would not have been out of place, otherwise some levels can become a long session. Apart from that, solving each puzzle is enormously satisfying, especially when an entire convoy reaches the end point. The gameplay is incredibly simple, but offers a lot of challenge due to the many possible constructions and the variation in the levels. That GLaDOS is present makes it complete, because that creates a nice undertone. Lovers of puzzle games and Portal, who have a good job!
Pros
➕ Varied and challenging puzzles
➕ GLaDOS
➕ Dry humor
➕ Extra challenge with convoys
➕ Recognizable style
Cons
➖ In many events it can suddenly slow down tremendously
➖ Fast forward option to test did not go wrong
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