I will give praise first: This is the best game in this genre I've played. The Portal elements added to the bridge construction mechanics are easy to understand, but make for interesting level design. The game decision to not restrict you to an arbitrary amount of money is a good one that helps you to learn and experiment. The game also gives a much, much better explanation of its mechanics and how to succeed in it than others in the genre which generally have a few tutorial levels and then throw you in the deep end with "Good luck, figure it out yourself!"

Unfortunately, it still has all the same problems of other games in the genre. Past the initial levels you get little to no hints on what very specific solution the level designer had in mind, leading to trial and error gameplay. Anchor points are placed in ways that seem pathological, requiring solutions you've never seen or used before, or crazily abstracted variants on things you've seen. The game tells you how to build sturdy bridges, then never gives you a level where that advice would be applicable - how often do you actually have the space to build a raised arch bridge? How often do you have anchor points positioned to allow you to redirect tension with wires? The answer: Almost never.

But, to the game's credit, I got halfway through this one before giving up. That's more than I can say for Bridge Constructor, World of Goo, or When Ski Lifts Go Wrong, each of which I bounced off of very fast because of the exact same problems.

I will give praise first: This is the best game in this genre I've played. The Portal elements added to the bridge construction mechanics are easy to understand, but make for interesting level design. The game decision to not restrict you to an arbitrary amount of money is a good one that helps you to learn and experiment. The game also gives a much, much better explanation of its mechanics and how to succeed in it than others in the genre which generally have a few tutorial levels and then throw you in the deep end with "Good luck, figure it out yourself!" Unfortunately, it still has all the same problems of other games in the genre. Past the initial levels you get little to no hints on what very specific solution the level designer had in mind, leading to trial and error gameplay. Anchor points are placed in ways that seem pathological, requiring solutions you've never seen or used before, or crazily abstracted variants on things you've seen. The game tells you how to build sturdy bridges, then never gives you a level where that advice would be applicable - how often do you actually have the space to build a raised arch bridge? How often do you have anchor points positioned to allow you to redirect tension with wires? The answer: Almost never. But, to the game's credit, I got halfway through this one before giving up. That's more than I can say for Bridge Constructor, World of Goo, or When Ski Lifts Go Wrong, each of which I bounced off of very fast because of the exact same problems.