I’ve long been a fan of using fictional post-apocalyptic settings as a way to explore deeper themes surrounding humanity, so even though we’re currently in the midst of a pandemic (a common cause leading to fictional post-apocalyptic universes), The Walking Dead universe setting of this game was guaranteed to immediately pique my interest. My interest was even more piqued when I realized it was a puzzle-solving game, because I thoroughly enjoy the mental stimulation that comes from wrestling with puzzles. This interest was paid off with a delightful experience provided by Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead, which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys physics-based simulation-puzzle games, regardless of the setting.

The Walking Dead universe provides a perfect framework for the challenges presented by the gameplay, although the story is not the game’s primary focus. Fans of AMC’s The Walking Dead will be pleased to see many familiar faces from the TV show, such as Eugene and Daryl. However, the game’s story doesn’t seem quite the same as the show’s, although I confess I’m not fully up-to-date with the television series. The dialogue is exquisitely humorous despite the slightly dark tone necessitated by the post-apocalyptic setting.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2297719679

The game consists of 5 chapters with 8 missions each, and there are three modes used in solving puzzles: Simulation Mode, Build Mode, and Commands Mode. Players can easily toggle between the modes at any time. Simulation Mode is basically to check whether a proposed solution works.

In the Build Mode, players design constructions using the provided materials. The first material provided is wood, with other materials like cable and steel being introduced later. The material type affects the weight, cost, friction for rolling objects, how much of an impact or load it can take, and more, so the same construction in wood might not produce the same result in steel. The provided grid lines in the outlined build area are very useful for making slight adjustments to angles and lengths when iterating.

Not all missions use the Commands Mode, but this mode is where the player can plan a logical sequence of orders for a character to perform at waypoints to get from their starting point to the safe zone. In addition to telling characters which direction to go and activating nearby objects, some characters have special skills. These special skills often make sense with the television background of the character. For example, Daryl shoots arrows with his crossbow. A limited number of uses for each skill is available to the player depending on the mission. While timing actions, it’s important to keep in mind the walkers in relation to your heroes. Heroes can only kill walkers when approaching head on, and they can’t fight when they’re climbing, stumbling, lying on the ground, etc. If too many walkers are still alive when a hero approaches, the hero will be overwhelmed and killed.

Some puzzles are real brain-benders in terms of orchestrating the timing between flexible/dynamic constructions, moving objects, and character commands. I also found it entertaining that some solutions were still considered successful. For example, getting a vehicle to the checkpoint, but it’s upside down and on fire. In reality that car would be totally useless, but the game still counts it as a success as long as it’s in the right location at the end.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2297720443

The game is designed to offer multiple levels of challenge to the player depending on how they want to play. At the base level, there is simply achieving the mission objective, regardless of how many resources are used. In order to challenge yourself further, there is also staying within resource constraints while achieving the mission objective or setting up a solution to kill as many walkers as possible along the way.

For those unfamiliar with the STEM acronym, it stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and this game explores those themes in a fun way. In order to solve the puzzles, players must use physics, engineering, and geometry. Certain geometric shapes are more stable than others, and some of the special abilities require you to estimate landing sites using a parabolic trajectory. Computational thinking and logic is necessary to plan the order for commands. The game design makes it fun to learn these concepts through experimentation and failure. Just as in the real-world, creativity is a must. Personally, however, I wouldn’t have minded more background education on some of the terms they used to inform me in making my strategic decisions. For example, they use the words tensile, compressive, strain, and stress, but the game never really explains what they mean. Even though players can Google those, it would be more fun to have them explained in the game universe.

The art style is more simple rather than realistic, but also doesn’t seem to hearken to the comic book origins of The Walking Dead universe. Colors are used skillfully to indicate key information. For example, yellow dots are anchor points and are more stable than just the blue dots. A reddish glow indicates a fragile, easily damaged area, and a silvery bluish shimmer indicates that an object is movable. When watching a solution play out, red indicates parts of your structure that are near to breaking, which can be very helpful in making improvements in successive iterations.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2297734143

The music on the loading screen is recognizable as a riff on the opening theme from the TV show, but the songs that play during the missions can actually be surprisingly beautiful. The soft Southern guitar and melodic piano sometimes belies the silly tone of the dialogue. There is only voice narration at the very beginning of the game; other than that the narration at the beginning of missions and the dialogue is only text. Maybe since I haven’t finished all of the chapters yet, the identity of the narrator at the beginning is unclear to me, although it feels like it’s not one of the characters we’ve encountered yet. Most of the sound effects perfectly complement the action that is going on (rolling objects, explosions, etc.). I find the squishing sounds that occur when walkers are killed particularly satisfying.

There are 13 achievements total. Some are unmissable as you progress through the chapters, while others involve challenging yourself to manage resources efficiently or kill a certain number of walkers.

Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead is an excellent physics-based simulation-puzzle game well-worth buying at full price ($9.99 at the time of review). I find its use of STEM concepts in its approach to problem-solving delightful. Although I haven’t finished all of the chapters yet, I fully intend to, and I’ve added other Bridge Constructor games to my wishlist to check out in the future.

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• STEM styled missions.
  
  
• A plot that only matches the Walking Dead series.
  
  
• A soundtrack that was truly matching with the setting.

• Mediocre controls which are usually unresponsive.
  
  
• Some levels are too easy, especially the final level against Viper.

Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead is a well-known game series where you build various constructions in order to reach your goal. You build each construction using simple strats and common knowledge of Physics, Maths, Geometry, etc. The Walking Dead is a famous TV show which means that this game will feature characters and settings / Situations of the Walking Dead universe. The game was developed by ClockStone and published by
Headup!

Release Date: 19th November 2020

Last known update: 1st December 2020

This was my first time playing a Bridge Constructor game on PC!

Smalltalk
Well, it sure as hell wasn’t my first BC game as I had played many titles made by ClockStone on Android when I was younger. The only question to me was how would a great mobile game feel on a desktop? To my surprise, it was actually a better experience compared to the first Clockstone developed game I played on my phone called simply “Bridge Constructor” which was released on Play Store in 2012. 8 years now I can assure you that this game feels and plays better.

Even by looking at the title of the series, you will kind of get an idea of what this game is all about. Bridge Constructor basically means that you will build various constructions in order to reach your goal. I think the name Bridge is a little metaphorical as the bridge is a structure that allows you to go from A to B. And lastly, the Walking Dead is a well-known TV series. So yeah, this is a game where you build stuff in order to reach your goals in the walking dead universe. Big Brain explanation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiCfxRB08nE&t=2s&ab_channel=Sermike%27sReviews

Construction:
You might think that this game is pretty easy and straight forward but I will have to disagree with you at that. The game will not explain much to you, a minor message before the start of the game will simply inform you that you will need to kill these walkers and reach point A for example. The game will not help you on how to build anything or even what each character has to do. It is all up to you. Now construction is pretty straight forward you will choose between 3 main resources which are the following ones: Wood which is pretty cheap and reliable but not as sturdy when it comes to heavyweights. Steel is the sturdiest and most reliable construction but the drawback is construction cost which can get iffy with the resource limits if you do want to 100% the game. Lastly, Steel Cables are the best combination with either one of the other resources. It is basically the most versatile material in the game but by itself it is useless. The constructions when finished do look pretty solid especially when these constructions barely hold up and you can see various areas being highlighted with red because of the extreme pressure.

Level difficulty:
Now the level difficulty is a hit or miss. Some levels are pretty challenging which is always a positive in my opinion. On the other hand, you do have some other levels or chapters sometimes that do feel a little rushed or way too easy. Especially the last level in the game was so easy to solve. Some levels are genuinely beautifully constructed with barrels rolling around and explosives going off but at the end of the day, you can simply build a half-assed pole and achieve victory with it? I really feel like this game should be a little more challenging as a baboon like me got into the Top 15 All-time as far as leaderboards go.

Other aspects:

• In order to hit the “400 walkers killed” achievement you should basically just kill every walker in every level after you have finished the game.
  
  
• I really hope they add workshop support as this will bring this game to the next level.
  
  
• When clicking on a bridge in order to extend it you do get some problems with it as sometimes you end up deleting some of the structure which can get frustrating. Perhaps some work on that aspect would make this a lot more relaxing.

The story section is spoiler free!

The Story features characters that do play a role in the main TV Show. Not all of them but the game does a pretty good job at matching the personalities of each character with the real thing with the real thing being the actual Walking Dead series. There is constant progress of the story as you constantly meet new characters that will help you throughout your missions in order to achieve your goals. What I really liked is that the characters all behaved like the team was always the first priority and everyone was working together which is something that instantly compliments the gameplay.Lastly there is a climax where something big happens for one of the characters. The game's climax is truly great in my opinion. Overall it is a very solid story that stays true to the Walking Dead name as well as the characters.



Graphics:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2385085983

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2386088241

Audio / Soundtrack:
There isn’t much voice acting going on outside of some cutscenes which should be used a lot more in my opinion. On the contrary the soundtrack was a treat to listen to. Calm yet matching melodies really gave me some type of The Last of Us vibe.



Let us be honest, every Unity game is a great performer.
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Bugs / Glitches / Crashes:
In 16 hours of being Daryl Dixon and slicing walkers up I experienced no bugs, glitches or even crashes at all!


BC-TWD is in my opinion the best Bridge Construction game to date! It offers nice artstyle, a good story and the well known construction physics and all of that in the Walking Dead universe. A great game for every fan of the BC series!


Date of the Review: 06.02.2021

If you’re a big fan of Daryl killing some walkers, follow our curator page Devils in the Detail.

Bridge Constructor always comes up with well-thought-out ideas and reasons for building bridges.
Then once in a medieval style, or with educational purposes, or simply combine with 'Portal' because it is fun.

This time we can enjoy a 'TWD' version where the bridge you will build will be decisive for your survival.
The walkers may be stupid, but they understand the functions of a bridge perfectly.
For this reason you will sometimes have to break the bridge you built with traps so that the walkers can also be disabled.
Painful if the bridge was complicated to build, but survival above all else.

The game then brings the pleasure of offering us a new story associated with TWD franchise.
As you play chapter after chapter, you will encounter several characters from the TV series and also have to operate them in the levels.
Not only building bridges or traps for the walkers are the main tasks of the game, but also operating the tasks of the characters and especially at the right times.
The first levels give us a clear and easy view of the functions and the 'how to's'.

Do you have the architectural insight required to survive? Prove it now.

Here's a short video with strategies for the entire first chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FFZMfgkxqk

Game is fun but very quickly becomes punishingly difficult. Acquiring the completion badge for each level requires extremely conservative use of materials and razor thin margins of error. Materials are frustratingly fragile and seeing my attempted constructions collapse like a house of cards over and over got depressing fast. Using lighter materials means your bridge simply won't bear the weight of anything trying to cross it, while heavier materials collapse immediately.

If you're reading this, you're interested in this kind of game, so I recommend you try it, because I can see the appeal here for extreme perfectionists who like to refine a thousand iterations of a design until it finally works. Personally, I don't have the patience or endurance required to keep coming back after being knocked down so many times.

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Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead is a fun indie game with a twist, set in a parallel universe to The Walking Dead. It tickled me to the bone thinking how will this play out in the world of The Walking Dead.

Well, you’ll build bridges while hordes of dead are coming for you!!! Unpractical and stupid, but the game’s pretty good and a good brain tickler as well.

Plot: The world came to an abrupt holt, something wasn’t right. People started getting sick. Falling sick so fast that they didn’t even have time to realize what was going on. People started dying at an unprecedented rate.

The media dismissed it and claimed that it was all a lie. But soon they were gone and it all came down crashing.

Suddenly the dead started to rise. Panic soon followed, the society pushed into disarray and anarchy.

The dead attacked without fear or remorse. Many fell; the few who did survive the initial wave started regrouping in order to survive.

Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead lets you experience a tactical side of the survival by building bridges to escape from and to kill the walking dead.

Gameplay: The base gameplay is simple and comes with a lot of pieces that need to be put into the right spot and put into motion.

The theme of the game is to construct time and situation-appropriate bridges, ramps, walkways, and contraptions, with the main goal being to ensure the survivors walk away untouched and kill the walking dead at the same time.

The game progresses through chapters and each chapter consists of multiple stages. At the beginning of every stage, you will be given a purpose and budget allocation of materials to construct bridges.

In the beginning, it seems there will be no shortage of materials to construct, but things soon become a lot more complex and technical. Therefore, keeping material usage to a minimum is necessary.

As you start the stage and understand your purpose for that stage, you will need to plan out how to put your bridge together. As you figure things out you can simply left-click and drag one of multiple starting points to construct your bridge.

As you’re working on it, a good thing to always keep in mind is that early wooden bridges need upper or lower support with wooden beams to support the structure.

And as you progress further, you will get to use and manage other materials, such as steel cables and such to construct and manage your bridges.

As you get more materials and larger construction areas, things get more complicated; further planning is required, and on top of that, you will need to adjust to the added complexity of dealing with the dead on each different stage with different scenarios and with different methods.

Some will let you crush the dead under containers and others might allow you to drop the whole bridge. Some will even let you use scenario-related items.

Whatever you do, the survivors need to be safe.

There are three main aspects of the gameplay –

1. Construction: By toggling the construction buttons, you will be allowed to use all the allocated materials for each stage and construct the necessary structures.

2. Command: By toggling, you will be able to interact with multiple terminals, which in turn convert into commands for the selected survivors. There maybe one or multiple survivors in each stage that you must interact with and each needs to perform various tasks to complete each stage; by using the command feature you can enable them to do so.

3. Execute: By hitting the execute button you will be able to let your survivors go and perform their intended commands. Things might go wrong as you make poor decisions, and for that reason the execute toggle also comes with a pause and rewind button, which allows you to pause your survivor's move or just rewind it all to gather.

The gameplay also comes with camera movement, zoom in and out, cancel construction, undo, redo, and most importantly, material change keys, (which are not changeable).

Puzzles: Not too complicated, but as you progress this gets a bit heated; since there are no time limits, you can take your time and figure things out with ease. The puzzles were a good balance of simple yet tricky; some took me no time at all and some several minutes (exact numbers of which I would hate to admit).

A negative that I must mention that you will soon encounter is the dialogue and the guide. The gameplay is simple, and the puzzles are simple enough, and so should be the guide and dialogues between survivors. But they just take way too long to explain things and they explain them in a complicated manner.

World design: Cartoonish art style world design which you wouldn’t expect from such the theme, but it looks and feels good.

The world is colorful yet dulled out to give it a post-apocalyptic feel, combined with empty streets, burning buildings, damaged and well-worn structures, etc.

Sound effects and music: A well put-together assortment of sound effects and background ambient noises. Doesn’t really portray a post-apocalyptic world but does give a feeling of emptiness and uncomfortable chills.

Background music was a pretty good implementation that fits the game's narrative just fine and created a good immersive experience.

Considering all aspects of the game Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead turned out to be a good one, after such titles as Bridge constructor: Portal from the devs at Clockstone.

It’s fun and casual and puts out a good assortment of puzzles with interesting headscratchers. Combined with its appropriately chilling background music selections, it was a enjoyable experience.

Positives:

+ Decent plot
+ Simple yet effective gameplay style
+ Fun puzzles, not too difficult
+ Decent assortment of sound effects
+ Enjoyable background score
+ Good amount of puzzles
+ Creative Puzzles and level design

Negative:

- Clicky and buggy controls
- Unresponsive Mouse Clicks
- Not much relation to The Walking Dead
- Poorly constructed script and guide

A fun puzzling game set in a post-apocalyptic environment with a tone of interesting content and level design.

7/10


Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Sure, the TWD story integration is cool and all, but the core game design is still so flawed. The physics act differently on multiple runs of the same build, meaning even if you build the correct way you still might fail. This, together with cost requirement is making the game really annoying. If you want to get all of the achievements this is painful unless you use a guide and hope your game doesn't act differently.

This is not a fun game. I played to the bitter end just to finish it, but it was sheer stubborn determination (and possibly masochism) that got me through a level or two a day, rather than any form of enjoyment.

Imagine building a bridge of line segments (keeping careful eye on the amount of supplies you use per bridge, so as to get the achievements for staying under a certain amount of building materials) that totally looks like it should pass engineering muster, or at least engineering muster in a VIDEO GAME that is supposed to be FUN. And it collapses so you have to start over. And it does it again. And you look at what you've built and you can't imagine why it keeps falling down, so you go online and look at some solutions. And they look JUST LIKE YOURS! So you alt-tab to a video and you painstakingly build your bridge as close to exactly 100% like the video's successful bridge as you can. And it still collapses.

Because, you see, some of the physics are bloody well random. That's right, something that should be based on logic and physics (video game physics, but still!) still has a random element built into it. Which is why sometimes you build something and it works and then a few seconds later the SAME bridge fails.

This is not fun. This is simply frustrating. This is absolutely not good game design.

Totally not recommended. This is the anti-fun, this is where fun goes to die, murdered slowly by unfunny clowns wielding cream pies filled with dingo dung and despair.

If you want to spend more time directing people and killing zombies, then actually building bridges, then this game is for you.

As a "Bridge Builder", its pathetic.

Obviously a low budget game, but the puzzles difficulty and variety are nicely balanced and thought.
A funny little game with a nice atmosphere, i ve just started playing but it looks like there s a lot of levels and fun to have with various materials, characters and their skills, and vehicles!

More like Bridge Constructor: Zombie Lemmings Vehicular Manslaughter
Seriously, this is an odd one, but somehow seems to work nevertheless. There is nothing as satisfying as summersaulting with a RV into a horde of zombies. Price is a bargain imho, the puzzles get very demanding & versatile fast and might keep you busy for a long time.