Interface

Interface

Building bridges doesn't exactly take too much effort with the intuitive command interface. If you are familiar with the WASD configuration you should be right at home. Moving sideways, and in and out of the screen is about as easy as it gets. To change the viewing angle all you have to do is move the mouse to the side of the screen and right click - boom new side angle. Two more keys let you zoom in and out of the screen, in order to get a better look at an area or to get an overall picture of your creation. Two more buttons let you change the active construction plane, thus allowing you to move from one z-plane to the next.

Looks like trouble

My own funky map creation

Not too good.

Building on a different z-plane is probably one of the more complex things you have to do. Once you get the hang of it, it isn't terribly difficult. I just wish more of the maps required more complex z-plane usage in order to complete them. As it is, the majority of them can be completed without having to fiddle with the z-plane too much.

Our only complaint is that you aren't able to change the controls if you don't like them.

Making new maps

If Pontifex gathers as great a community as Bridge Builder, more bridge packs should be on the way. Should Pontifex take a little while to catch on, you can even make your own levels to muck about on. Trade them amongst friends and see who can make the best bridge. Sure it sounds dopey; but it will happen people; it's already happening in this office. With the files sizes so small, even our destitute buddies on 56k modems will have a chance to get in on the fun.

Maps are made in very much the same way as bridges are created. The interface is the same as the one used for bridge creation, except the materials are exchanged out for level creation materials: land, water, anchor points, and train start points. You can actually make your own map in a matter of a few minutes.

This isn't starting out strong

Oh that looks bad

Mommy

Graphics and sound

The visuals and sounds are pretty much the only place we can, in truth, dog on the game. The graphics won't push your video card to the max, nor will the single texture in the game utilize all the whiz-bang features of your GeForce or Radeon. In case you didn't look at the pictures or thumbnails, you might have missed that they consist primarily of lines, and a train. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, with the portability and low system requirements of this game, you could feasibly play it anywhere you have time to kill, provided you have a laptop or access to a computer (i.e. work, not that we would suggest such a flagrant waste of company time).

The noises that this game makes are pretty basic. The usual fare of trains clickety-clacking, and bridges crumbling. There are some rather annoying sounds, but they don't happen too often for us to care. Most of the time the sounds were drowned out by whatever MP3 was blaring through WinAmp, as there isn't any in-game music. What were you expecting for a game this small? MIDI?