Poly Bridge reminded me most of Bridge Constructor, but it seemed to be styled as more of an arcady game, as Bridge Constructor has more of a simulation feeling to it. The unrealistic and childish graphics and OK physics engine made me confused. Why should I buy this game when there are much better and more realistic bridge building games out in the wild? That’s not the point. Poly Bridge is more aimed towards fun rather than realism.
When I look at a little game like Poly Bridge, I expect to have tons of fun with it. That was definitely not my initial impression. I was bombarded by tooltips and the tutorial locked you so far in, I contemplated leaving it there and never playing again. The frustration overcame me as I worked through a couple of the first levels, bombarded with even more tooltips that halt the gameplay each time. If the developers actually let me play the game without constantly being interrupted by a man in a cowboy hat and an ugly flannel shirt, that would be awesome. How this game ended up with many positive reviews on Steam is beyond my knowledge.
Straying away from the negatives, I jumped into the Poly Bridge review with a smile, expecting fun due to the extremely positive reviews. While that wasn’t the case, I still had boat loads of fun going through the initial levels, before going through each world, and seeing how each level was tailored to its world. For instance, 80s Fun Land has 1980s themed levels. I marvelled at how incredibly simple it was to switch between building materials. You are equipped with Road, Wood, Steel, Cable, and more. I wish Poly Bridge had a stone material, or a stronger road material. As I had bridges collapse multiple times with the standard wooden road material.
With each level comes a budget for your bridge. Each different material costs its respective amount, which will be taken out of your budget. I noticed that the harder the level, the higher your budget tends to be. This is probably because you require more materials for longer and more complex bridges. Construction is superb, except for the fact that hydraulics are a nightmare to configure.
That was really the only good I had to say about the game. I wish there was more, but the only redeeming features didn’t make up for the graphics or the relentless tool tips. Admittedly, the graphics were not meant to match those of other games. While these aren’t very major issues, they still took away from my overall experience.
Overall, Poly Bridge is a frustrating yet fun game, perfect for when you’re bored or too happy. I truly did have high hopes for this game. I do recommend it if you can look past the flaws. If you can’t, there are many other bridge building games out there.
Ali is a games journalist, Mobile and Tech Reporter at Wccftech. They contributed 51 articles to ICXM between 2015–2016, focused on game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: covers mobile hardware, telecoms, and consumer-tech news for Wccftech.