Poly Bridge is a game that I am extremely fond of. Not because I played it for hundreds of hours, though I have spent more than my fair share of time with the game. No, I remember it because I have watched, and re-watched, various YouTubers and streamers attempt to master each level, fail, get frustrated, and nearly quit. However, just like every Dark Souls player, after a day or so, these people came back and finished the level, and the rush of joy at seeing this process was something that I became hooked on.
Now, developer Dry Cactus has announced that the sequel, Poly Bridge 2, is launching on the Epic Games Store on May 28, and you need to play it.
If you’ve never played the game, Poly Bridge is a very simple concept, taken to the extreme. You are presented with a space between to pieces of land, a budget, and a building menu. You need to build a bridge that will support the cars, vans, or whatever else is going to move across it, sticking within said budget. You need to learn how bridges work in real life, analysing where the vehicles put pressure on your construction, and reworking it accordingly until it finally works, and comes in under budget. With each level having a scoring system, you can easily spend a few hours on just one.
Later down the line, levels become more complex. Sometimes you’ll have a platform in the middle of the gap to built to and from, and other times you’ll need to incorporate movements for boats or planes. It may not be the most realistic bridge building simulator of all time, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
Later missions will also present you with multiple vehicles, including boats, all of which move at different times and speeds. This is where you need to start having moving parts to the bridge that allow for specific timings, or work as they’re driven over. It all becomes extremely complicated, and that’s why it gets so frustrating. But like I said, the feeling of completing a frustrating level is second to none. It might not look like a soulslike, but Poly Bridge 2 is going to be the best game in the genre that you’ll play in May.
