The horror genre has enjoyed a renaissance over the last two generations, particularly as indie and AA horror games have had their chance to shine on console and PC. As a result, there are many choices, many of which market themselves quite well, but the quality of each experience can vary drastically from one title to the next.
The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication falls into the AA horror category, with a lower budget and a lower price point to match. Despite this, the game makes some strong first impressions in its trailer and screenshots. It’s setting and characters are also unique compared to most other horror games, but are these aspects enough to make it stand out from the pack? Let’s find out.
Interesting Puzzles and Unique Mechanics Stand Out
As an avid horror gamer, I’m not afraid to say that many horror games over the years tend to blur together in my mind. Furthermore, the ones that rely solely on a defenseless protagonist and stealth mechanics quickly wear out their welcome as the terror gives way to repetition and frustration.
The true standouts manage to find ways to mix up the horror with puzzles, unique mechanics, some sort of combat, and, of course, a tense atmosphere throughout. In this respect, The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication makes a strong impression over the few hours, even if the pacing leaves much to be desired.
The concept is fairly unique: you play as several characters converging on Wen Hua University after the school has closed for the night. The characters include everything from students to a local reporter, so you get a nice mixture of perspectives.
The university’s Da Ren building has a long and dark history, which has led to several ghost stories and supernatural events over the years. The way the game layers these mysteries makes for a compelling story overall as you try to piece everything together.
In terms of the story itself, the writing is solid across the dialogue, in-game documents, and lore that you find. There’s no shortage of supporting materials, including an in-game phone for each character that updates with text messages.
By default, the game features English voice acting, which is a cut above the quality I normally hear in lower-budget horror games, but it leans a little too much into the B-movie feel for my taste. Granted, the writing is intentionally cheesy at times, but given the game’s more intense moments, I felt like the dialogue and writing undermined some of the horror, even if it did illicit a few chuckles from yours truly. ‘
The audio on the main menu can be adjusted to the original Chinese voiceovers, and I think these sound a lot better overall, but the writing can still inject that cheesy horror vibe from time to time. As I mentioned earlier, the pacing is less than ideal as well.
The beginning of the game takes a while to get moving, featuring a stealth tutorial with a security guard that drags on a little too long. Once you finally encounter your first supernatural enemy, though, it picks up pretty quick.
The first few chapters, in particular, showcase an excellent variety of puzzle solving, exploration, and horror set pieces. Without spoiling anything, I thought a particular scene involving a ballerina was truly inspired and incredibly tense.
Unfortunately, the game settles into more of the standard stealth or running and hiding mechanics you see in many horror titles. Thankfully, in The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication, does give you a lamp with a rechargeable attack that blocks one fatal attack at a time. This means that you can mess up once without immediately getting a game over.
Despite this, if you get stuck on a particular chase sequence or stealth section, you’ll quickly find the horror draining from the experience as the supernatural terrors become less terrifying the more you watch them send you to a game over screen.
It’s a careful balance between challenge and horror, and while The Bridge Curse 2 certainly has a lot of high notes, it tends to fall into that rut of using horror game tropes that can become more frustrating than fun pretty quickly. Of course, the consistent checkpoints here do balance things out a bit.
I would have liked more consistent pacing that balances puzzles with exploration, stealth, and unique mechanics like the ballerine scene. All the pieces are here for an exceptional horror experience, but the inconsistency in horror is where the overall experience suffers for me.
With multiple endings, the game’s plot does keep things interesting throughout, but I wished that the gameplay continued to innovate throughout the experience as much as it did in the first few chapters. It’s also worth noting that, as someone who never played the original title, I didn’t feel lost or confused in The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication.
Presentation That Punches Above its Weight
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication is the presentation. The game’s graphics, animation, and enemy designs are all top-notch. The main characters are animated well enough, but the supernatural entities you come across really steal the show. Some of them don’t hold up quite as well when you see them up close (I’m looking at you, headless consort), but the fear they strike into you is very real thanks to realistic graphics and animation.
The option to choose between language tracks is also appreciated, and the smooth performance on PS5 means that you’ll never lose due to frame rate issues or anything of the sort. The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication is one of those horror games that manages to rise above the sum of its parts with some truly standout elements that are held back by standard horror gaming tropes.
If you’re hungry for a fresh new horror experience this Halloween season, The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication is certainly worth a look.
Final Score: 7.5/10
Review code provided by the publisher
Article by – Bradley Ramsey
Insert date – 10/28/2024