Pontifex
reviewed by Ben Parrish
So it is with Pontifex, a new shareware bridge building game which was sent to me by an old friend because for some reason he thought I would like it. As loathe as I am to admit it, he was very, very right, and I can't pass a bridge anymore without looking at the design and taking mental notes for the next time I load up the game.
Pontifex presents you with a fairly simple playing field: a river stretching off into the distance as far as the monitor can see. It then presents you with a fairly simple goal: take four types of material -- light steel, heavy steel, cables, and bridge deck -- and over that river, build a bridge that can withstand the weight of a train. The challenges presented are twofold. The first fold is that you are given only a limited budget with which to purchase the building materials (with heavy steel being more expensive than light, light more than cable, etc.) The second fold is what makes this game one of the most impressive, addictive, astounding little toys that have ever graced my hard drive: Reality.
The physics engine in Pontifex is so persuasive, so robust, that I can only think of three words which come close to accurately describing it: really, REALLY cool. From gravity to the way the steel segments pull and push each other, to the cables stretching and waving about, the Pontifex environment (as sparse as it is) is as convincing a slice of real life as you're likely to see on a computer any time soon. Makes Flight Simulator look like a moldy can of pus.
Once you're done building the bridge, it's time to put the physics engine to the test. So you click "test". You admire your creation as it takes a moment to let gravity settle the bridge into position. Then you click "Run train". Here comes the train.
It's at this point that you stop admiring the physics engine and start cursing it, sometimes so loudly that the people who are walking by your window in the hallway stop and look in at you funny. This is because your bridge sucks, and once the weight of the train hits the first section of deck, the rivets are pulled and bent past their breaking point, pieces begin to fall off, then more pieces, then your beautiful big tower in the middle comes crashing down, and the train settles to a watery grave at the bottom of the river. All of this is still being done with an astounding level of versimilitude (with gratuitous crashing and splashing sounds accompanying the destruction), making failure almost as much fun to watch as success.
And you'll have plenty of chances to enjoy watching those failures as you battle your way through sixteen "simple" levels, sixteen "complex" levels, and then whatever additional map packs people create with the level editor (also included). To keep your motivation up (as if you could even think of pulling yourself away from the game without getting past just one more level) there are some fun easter eggs at the end of each of these sixteen levels, most of which deal with fun ways to reduce your bridges to rubble after the train's long gone.
The game is remarkably small (the self-extracting .exe file is under 1 meg) and everything in the game tastes of efficiency. Other than the slick graphic representation of the bridges themselves, everything is as spartan as can be. Menus are little more than white letters on a black screen. The river and land are plain blue and plain green respectively. And while you can move the camera all around (including a POV shot from the front of the train, which is fun), eye candy is all but absent. You won't miss it, either. You'll be too busy apologizing to your neighbors.
Pontifex is the coolest game I've seen in a long time. Highly recommended. I give it 23 1/2 stars. Go download the demo and try it out. Then let me know what you think.
Some games have the power to make you look at life and the world around you in a completely different way. What SimCity junkie can walk through a large metropolitan area without subconsciously noticing that they're in a residential zone, or a commercial zone, or that a giant metal alien spider is flying above them shooting death rays down at them? What Rollercoaster Tycoon fanatic can look at a coaster anymore without trying to calculate the G-force ratings on sight? What former sufferer of Pac Man fever can come across a flashing white dot without getting just a little hungry?
COPYRIGHT 2001 BY BEN PARRISH