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1 I’m playing The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication, although this is the second game from Softstar Entertainment, you don’t need to play the first. The game is out now and is available is on Steam for £20.99. I haven’t played the previous entry, but this game caught my eye with their Steam page saying it was also based on a popular movie. For the movie enthusiast out there, the two movies I found are The Bridge Curse (2020) and The Bridge Curse: Ritual (2023).
There can’t be darkness without light.
Gameplay
In The Bridge Curse 2, you will play from the perspective of four individuals, starting with the young reporter Sue Lian. Sue gets offered to interview the members of the film club at Wen Hua University. Like most horror games, things aren’t that simple, and she gets pulled into a nightmare filled with folklore and local ghost stories.
The game isn’t combat heavy and at specific points in the game, you will have the Anima Lantern. This lantern allows you to dispel spiritual barriers and defend against evil spirits. You will, however, have to wait after fending off a spirit attack for the Anima Lantern to recharge. The lantern will also uncover hidden interaction such as bloody foot prints or story related items.
The spirits
You will encounter various evil spirits from the university legends and each mixes up the gameplay, which kept the game feeling fresh. My favourite spirit was the Ballerina. I won’t go into detail, but her last encounter had me on the edge of my seat.
Some spirits you will have to hide away from, as you can’t fight back. The game offers you to turn off the notification that alerts the ghost has spotted you to make the game more challenging, but for this review I kept it on.
Graphics & Audio
The graphics for The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication were decent, but nothing that jumped out to me. Ghost designs were creepy, but nothing I hadn’t seen before. One particular ghost you meet late-game was the best-looking one, but besides that, most of them didn’t stand out. Character designs were okay, but the textures on the character models didn’t look well-shaded. The environment textures and lighting were good, and I didn’t struggle to see, unlike many horror games I’ve played.
Sometimes the cinematics are awkward. Characters make hand gestures which didn’t seem to fit the scene, and overall cinematic animations were a little janky. The lip-synching was off, but since I know they originally voiced the game in Chinese and dubbed it over in English, this doesn’t bother me too much. However, there were a lot of delays in the audio and many instances of audio and voice lines and sound effects playing too loud. Sometimes, the voice lines would start too soon or overlap with others. I enjoyed the English voice acting, particularly the and Doc’s lines, bringing their personalities and energy across perfectly and making me laugh a few times.
Longevity
The Bridge Curse 2 isn’t particularly long. I beat the game in a little over five hours. There are two endings in the game and I admit I only replayed the ending chapter to get the second one.
The collectables in the game are fun to find, with some adding to the story and others just little jokes like the Skelly Squad.
Final Thoughts
I would say that The Bridge Curse 2 is a bit more on the comedy side. But that shouldn’t deter you from the interesting story, as even with the not so great voice acting, it does well to get the point across. While playing, I had no major issues apart from the aforementioned audio delay and the game ran really well.
The characters were fun, and the spirits had amazing designs. I heard the first game is a little scarier, so I’ll be checking that after playing this. I’m gonna award The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication, the Thumb Culture Gold Award. It would have been a platinum if there was a little more scares and the minor bugs get pressed out.
If you enjoy reading this review, then why not check out Tom’s review for the multiplayer deception game Deceit 2.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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