Bridge Constructor: TWD & Ironcast Are Free On Epic

Monday, I spoke of Dan Houser’s next project and David chatted about MK 11‘s last gasps. Also, I got a bit excited about the System Shock remake gameplay, and Alexx spoke of another indie game’s console release. Tuesday, RimWorld is doing a Weird Al’ and getting real ideological. Wednesday, David spoke of the soon-to-end Blizzard summer sale, I talked of departures from Codemasters, and Taylor went on about a mobile game that would drag you outside. Thursday, I booked my flight to Hong Kong to become a playboy, not in that way, and Alexx once again spoke of an indie game releasing onto a console.

I don’t even think I am useful today, as the site already has a review of the only thing that is really worth mentioning. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the Epic Games Store is a weird and wonderful treasure trove of surprises, often better than Prime Gaming is monthly. However, over the course of the last few months or so, the games have shifted. I don’t want to say they have gotten worse, but I think it is fair to say this week’s offerings aren’t headline-grabbing. Though PC Gamer called them an “oddball [of] genre mashups.”

First up is Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead, the point where realizing you are jumping the shark is a little too late, and you’ve lost all my interest. I never had much interest in the Bridge Constructor thing in the first place though. It is that type of online browser game you played at school because being told how to use a computer by someone treating you like a pensioner is boring.

Anyway, back to gameplay that is practically Ctrl-C’d and Ctrl-V’d over. This time you have a story of all the dullards that bicker in that one show. I don’t mind the Walking Dead, I think seasons 1-3 are fine, but it keeps resetting and doing the same thing over. Ultimately it has more than run its course over the years. So when it comes to a Walking Dead game and when it comes to a Bridge Constructor game, I think there is just a lack of desire, at least in me. They are fine, but there might just be better games out there.

The second game this week is a match-three puzzler I’ve spoken about several times and I wish I hadn’t. Dreadbit’s Ironcast is a Rogue-lite RPG match-three puzzler on a steampunk backdrop, and has featured in Prime Gaming a few times since I started writing about it. I don’t mind it, it is a nice little thing for a couple of quid, but the question I have is who is dropping whatever else they are playing to play either of these? Some might mistake it as me saying “casual games aren’t worth playing.” No, they are fine but I don’t see why you’d switch.

All this week, you can pick up Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead and Ironcast for free on the Epic Games Store, until the morning of the 15th of July. Next week I get to say “from the creators of Myst” isn’t all that impressive in 2021, and the economies are as fragile as a person talking about Korean pop bands on the internet. Yes, next week it is Obduction and Offworld Trading Company, at least I like one of them.