So I deleted that part of the bridge, rebuilt it with the exact same design and controls, and yet for some reason, now it worked. Even after zooming in to take a look at the settings, everything seemed fine. Sounded simple enough, right? Well, even after setting up the split junctions where the bridges would separate and properly placing and calibrating the hydraulics, I found one of the end sections of a drawbridge to keep snapping off every time it was raised, even though the other drawbridge worked fine. I opted to construct drawbridges at both ends to deal with the smaller boats, while leaving a standalone section in the middle with an overpass to deal with the larger boat. As you can see in the screenshot below, the goal was simple: Create a bridge with an overpass and a drawbridge in order to accommodate three boats passing through. In particular, I’d like to single out one puzzle I worked on. Not as easily dismiss-able, though, are the times when the game either feels like it has a bug or just screws up your design a bit. The cars also move awkward at times, with vehicles such as station wagons getting annoyingly stuck, and the controls to change the perspective in the 3D view failed at times.īut a lot of that can be dismissed as nitpicking.
![poly bridge split poly bridge split](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fmvc4otkifQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
It doesn’t exactly help when you’re creating more elaborate designs, and need to do some fine-tuning. For that matter, it also seems odd that you simply can’t just click on a component to select it, you have to highlight it no matter what. many times I accidentally jostled the screen around when I meant to select a section of parts to copy. For one, there’s the questionable decision to initially have the mouse controls mapped so that the left button moves the blueprint/area around and the right button used to drag and highlight objects, instead of the opposite like you may expect. In fact, while there aren’t any major deal-breakers in it, Poly Bridge is one of those games with a little crop of slight issues holding it back from greatness. If you need to jog your memory a bit, then you have to exit the level you’re currently on and access the tutorial again, which definitely feels like a pain after a while.
Poly bridge split manual#
usually in simulation games such as these, there’s a manual you can access to help provide some information about the different types of structures you can build, but Poly Bridge oddly seems to have skipped out on that part. Of course, it doesn’t really help that reminders and refresher courses are a bit awkward to access. The difficulty level is quite fine, though you can thankfully skip ahead to any level you like (or at least in the version I played, you could), but it quickly becomes obvious that without any way to prepare yourself for more complex scenarios, you won’t get too far.
![poly bridge split poly bridge split](http://hardcore-gamer.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/07/Poly_Bridge_2.jpg)
The challenge is in trying to keep things sturdy enough to withstand each crossing, not to mention making sure you stay under budget and having to account for several different types of vehicles, each shaped and weighing differently and thus having different reactions to and impacts on your bridge. The first round of puzzles naturally start off relatively simple, but as you progress, you find yourself with more outlandish scenarios and setups that require more outside-the-box solutions, ranging from splits to unorthodox drawbridges and full-on Evel Knievel-style jumps. Then with the push of a button, you switch to a 3D isometric view and see your plans play out, no doubt crashing and burning in several attempts.
![poly bridge split poly bridge split](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CvJQ82ie1NU/maxresdefault.jpg)
In each one, you first have to build your bridge as a 2D model by creating a blueprint, working with the materials you have on you in order to get each car to their designated end point while working around various obstacles. Although to be fair, that was more of a reminder than a lesson, but even if your approach to crafting bridges is similar to solutions found in Calvin and Hobbes strips, there’s still some fun to be had in Poly Bridge, albeit not without a few wrinkles.Īfter a short tutorial, you’re immediately thrust into Poly Bridge’s campaign, and it’s a rather lengthy one at that, spanning 105 different scenarios.
Poly bridge split simulator#
In this case, what I learned about myself from Dry Cactus’ physics-based bridge-building simulator Poly Bridge is this: I really stink at physics. Sometimes, you can learn a lot about yourself from playing video games, especially simulators.