The Bridge Curse Road to Salvation – Nintendo Switch Review

Overview – developed by SOFTSTAR Entertainment and published by Eastasiasoft, The Bridge Curse Road to Salvation is an atmospheric horror based on Taiwanese urban legends. Adapted from the horror film of the same name, the Bridge Curse puts players in the position of those being haunted, experiencing it all in first person. This title is available on all console platforms, with a link to each version of the game available at the bottom of this review.

Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank Eastasiasoft for providing the copy of The Bridge Curse Road to Salvation that was used for this piece. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.

Mature Content Warning: please be aware, this title contains themes and depictions of self harm, suicide and mature, violent themes throughout. As this is a horror game, there will also be intense frightening content, so if any of the content listed here is offensive to you or you find it uncomfortable, please proceed at your own discretion.

Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review, starting off with the story for The Bridge Curse Road to Salvation.

Story – in Taiwan, there are many urban legends that have stayed alive in Tunghu University. The most prominent being the story of the bridge curse, a lingering female ghost who haunts the nearby bridge. One night, six college students set up a test of courage to challenge the curse, accidentally unleashing the spirits that haunt the University. Now the students must uncover the mysteries of this curse, but who will survive the night?

Gameplay – this title is a first-person horror title, with a tense atmosphere, puzzle solving and stealth focused gameplay. The player must control each of the six students, moving them around the different locations of the university, solving puzzles and finding clues about the mystery. Players must move with caution through the campus, exploring the areas highlighted within each of the chapters.

As the player makes it through the chapters for each character, they will encounter spirits that have been awakened by the curse. These spirits will pursue the player, attempting to kill them and potentially warping reality around them. There will be mazes that need to be traversed, while the spirits roam and try to hunt them down. When moving through areas, if there are spirits present the player must avoid being seen in order to survive.

If the malevolent spirits see the player, they will hunt them down with the only ways to survive being to hide or escape. This is where the main stealth elements of the game come into play. The player will make noise when moving, with running being the loudest, walking in the middle and moving while crouched is the quietest. This can alert spirits to the player location, but in most areas, the player can hide in cabinets or under/behind objects.

These are not the only encounters that the player will have, as there are events where players must perform tasks in order to survive. The challenges include activating crying dolls and navigating hazards to locate an item, which must be completed as quickly as possible. If these encounters aren’t completed quickly, or if the player is careless then a swift death will occur. But there are generous checkpoints during encounters.

Running away from the malevolent spirits isn’t the only thing that players will need to deal with. There are puzzles that will require the player to explore, investigate items and find the clues needed for the objective. The puzzles can be complex requiring items to be put in set orders, added to another or taken from point A to point B. The items that players find will have information about what they are, as well as the ability to rotate and investigate them.

When investigating the items that are found, they will be added to a record which can be used to track all of the discoveries and story that have been made. There is a record for each character and all of the details together. The characters each have phones that will convey story details during play, this is where the current objective, item record and other details are kept. This is a handy resource that will come in handy throughout the narrative.

The last thing to talk about is the collectables. Each of the chapters have a set of items that can be found, acting as secrets for players to discover during exploration of the campus. These items are optional for players to find, but they may just provide something special if all of them have been found. All of the items are tied to the character for that chapter, so they can be missed during play. However, there is a chapter select to collect missing items.

Now with the gameplay covered, it is time to discuss the other aspects of this release, starting with the controls.

Controls – the control system for this title is comfortable to play, with the first-person style using the traditional FPS approach, with left stick for movement and the right for turn/look. All of the features are laid out comfortably, with the key functions laid out in a way that is easy to pick up and get adapted to quickly. The game is comfortable to play in all game modes, but it is recommended to play with a pro-controller rather than the Joy-Cons.

Difficulty – the difficulty of the game is tough to gauge, as there is only one set experience in terms of challenge. There is a lot of trial and error that will need to be done, as players need to learn enemy movement paths, hiding spots and item locations. This has the potential to get frustrating for some players, but it is satisfying when a challenging section is cleared. Luckily, the game has quite a forgiving checkpoint system, which doesn’t punish the player too much.

Presentation – visually this game looks very good for the Nintendo switch, with character models that are well detailed and expressive during play. The environments of the game have an atmospheric and haunting feel, with the darkness permeating the game mode to good effect. There is no issue with the performance during play, with a solid resolution in both handheld and docked modes, but the textures are a little rough at times.

There are cinematic scenes throughout, which add to the atmosphere and horror of the experience. The use of pre rendered death scenes and event scenes works extremely well, with smooth transitions that feel natural. The sound for the game is equally as haunting as the visuals, with atmospheric noise that adds to the tension of each scene. All dialogue is fully voiced in English, but some of the dialogue can end abruptly due to minor scripting/timing errors.

Final Thoughts – I quite enjoy horror based on urban legends, ghost stories and folklore, so I was quite interested in this title, unaware that it was a film adaptation. The story has a lot of depth and intrigue, with the atmosphere adding as much tension as the ghosts. The horror I felt from the game was the unease of everything around me, the darkened halls, the ghostly whispers and the eerie fog that shrouded areas in darkness.

The jumpscares became less effective when repeated, but the first instance of each worked well as a punishment for failure. The cinematic scares that were tied to events were more impactful, as they caught me off guard adding to the anxiety I felt during play. I am happy to recommend this title to everyone, it is a little rough around the edges, as well as tackling some rather tricky material as mentioned in the content warning, but if you can handle them this is for you.

In the end, I give The Bridge Curse Road to Salvation a final score of 4.5/5. This is a haunting and unsettling cinematic horror title, mixing an eerie atmosphere and sound with effective scares, creating a cohesive experience told through a first person perspective. If you want to check this title out for yourself, a link to each version of the game will be below.

Link to Nintendo Switch version (HERE)

Link to PlayStation version (HERE)

Link to Xbox version (HERE)