Physics

Physics

Truly amazing is the in-game physics engine. With some of our inferior bridge designs the bridge never really fell apart in the same manner every time. Different things would go wrong sometimes. We actually even had some bridges that would survive half of the time. Just like in real life, failures rarely occur in the same manner every time, there are simply too many variables that must be the same for the exact same pathway.

Check out the multiple z-planes.

So festive don't you think?

The drab greys.

Difficulty

In the original Bridge Builder, all you had to do to pass a level was build a bridge that held the train long enough for it to get to the other side. I don't know how many bridges I saw that would fall apart as the train sped across on its maiden, and only, voyage. But hey, everybody was building janky bridges, why not me too? This time around the makers of Pontifex decided they had seen enough of these flim-flam bridges, now most of the levels require the train to cross in both directions a total of four times.

If that wasn't enough, you can even make it harder on yourself. There are various levels of difficulty that can be set in the options. With each subsequent difficulty setting, the weight of the train increases by a factor of two. While most of our bridges passed on all difficulty settings, a few required totally different designs for them to function with the increased weight.

And over the top.

Check it from the bottom yo.

Mystical anchor points.

Pontifex comes with thirty-two levels; half of them are in Normal mode, the other half are in Complex. Our minds were sufficiently taxed on quite a few of the maps. The normal maps shouldn't prove much of an obstacle if you're a veteran of the original. A few of the Complex maps are sure to throw you for a loop, especially if you adhere to the zero broken segments policy.

Depending on the beefiness of your brain, this game can chew up a considerable amount of time. I think all told, Pontifex gave quite a few days of gaming pleasure in just getting through the levels the first time around. Then came the ego feeding. It was all about who could do make it across with no broken links and a minimal amount of cost.