Bridge Constructor Médiéval Review

By , on May 1, 2014
Last modified 10 years, 5 months ago


Bridge Constructor Medieval
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Intuitive snap to interface
  • Story adds a nice range of challenges
  • Good feedback helps you 

CONS

  • Early challenge may put some people off
  • Trial and error mechanics can frustrate

 

VERDICT

Bridge Constructor Médiéval builds on a solid formula, adding a story mode that brings a couple of new challenges to the franchise. It doesn't ascend to dizzying heights, but it doesn't collapse under it's own weight either.


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Mechanically, Bridge Constructor Médiéval adds very little to the existing Bridge Constructor formula. As before, building your bridge to cross the game’s various chasms is a simple process of selecting the desired materials from the menu and then tracing them into existence within a virtual grid.

You have to work within a budget, making the construction process a little more tricky, especially if you want to achieve each stage’s more challenging secondary goal. 

To help with your machinations, each failure generates plenty of feedback. As travellers head across the bridge every cable, plank, and girder will change colour to indicate their relative strain. Its an effective way to communicate where flaws lie, though we often found that altering one element of our bridge would usually lead to unforeseen consequences further along the line.

The unfortunate upshot of this experimental approach is that it can undermine the desire to plan. If you are anything like us, you will quickly find yourself building quick and messy bridges to test theories in order to meet the level's most basic challenge, rather than investing effort in more elegant designs that could meet the secondary goals.

While all of this will be familiar to Bridge Constructor veterans, Médiéval does expand the original’s gameplay with a olde worlde story of a kingdom under siege.

Slowly, this story begins to have interesting effects on the goals and challenges. When the invaders see you mounting your defences they begin to bombard your creations with rocks, forcing you to construct more robust bridges to shepherd your troops to safety. The narrative even has you building booby traps - bridges that will fail at just the right moment to send the invading forces plummeting to their deaths. These fun twists change-up the gameplay just asyou start to tire of the core mechanics, keeping the action fresh.

Bridge Constructor Médiéval builds on an already solid foundation. It doesn't add a huge amount, and its steep learning curve may sour some, but the addition of a story and fun new challenges should keep series stalwarts satisfied for a while. 

Screenshots

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