If you haven't played the Portal edition of Bridge Constructor, play that one first, it's way better. For The Walking Dead, the writing is actually quite bad. I dont know the TV series, but I guess if you do, it's even worse. Luckily you can skip the intros, there is a summary of the mission to accomplish in the end. The "bridge building" is decent and mostly works well. I managed to finish all but one mission with the gold badge, so there are no critical bugs. You can control the characters, which was new to me. However, it is not really well integrated and does not add much to the gameplay. It's not Frozen Synapse meets Bridge Constructor for sure. Based on the theme there are zombies or people to kill in some of the missions, which makes this probably the most brutal Bridge Constructor there is. However it's never crazy nor funny. Get the Portal edition.
Cardaclysm is a solid deck-builder game. It has a huge variety of cards and great visuals. However the concept is somewhat flawed, which is most apparent mid-game. 1. As you always have initiative, it's a winning strategy to go for maximum alpha damage. This way you get rid of most enemies before they even have their first turn. This is especially true after you defeated the last boss hunt. You get better and better cards, so nearly all of the early cards you won't use ever again. Etherlords was much more complex in that aspect. Only the final boss sequence is different and challenging, as you need to build completly different decks here, that are not optimized for alpha damage. 2. The deck building is also a bit annoying. While you can save mutliple deck configurations, they dont work well. You can merge cards to upgraded versions, but the decks contain identical cards. Merging a card in the current deck might destroy another deck. Because of 1. this isn't a big problem for gameplay. Also, when you die, your deck modifications are not saved, which is super annoying in the last boss fight sequence, as you need to reconfigure your deck several times (and start from scratch after each death). There are also a bunch of clumsy UI decisions, but they aren't critical. Overall it is a solid deck builder which provides plenty of content. It is not as complex nor difficult as it looks, only the very ending really shines for me.
When you never played this game before you will probably feel quite confused and lost, and you might give up before the beauty of this game unfolds in front of you. I think that's why this game isn't a classic. This game is a very fresh approach to the RTS genre. There are so many new ideas, from energy management (which allows you to take over large chunks of the enemy defence) to terraforming (digging trenches to stop the enemy advance) to underground combat, force fields and unit transformation. Oh, and you can (and have to) move your headquarter over the map, while you should make sure that your energy network is still working with the energy source moving. The problem is, that there is no tutorial or tooltips. You have something like 30 unit types, but you have no idea what's the difference between them. For example the "Unseen" unit can't attack, but it's also not invisible. I always use the same 3 units, and the underground ones are uber anyway when it comes to demolishing the enemy base. Often you see the AI doing something like digging a trench in your island, and then you figure out, that you can do that too. The missions are nice and address different aspects of the game mechanics. However the AI is stupid. I mean, I don't need the AI to throw units at me left right and center. But in this game the AI is just not using mobile units at all, or just in some very, very limited way. So in the end this game is not so much an RTS but more a base-building puzzle game. It could be a fantastic, hardcore RTS with a strong AI or in Multiplayer, however. By the way, spoiler alert, in that early mission where you have to protect the Mechanical Spirit until he is built: instead of rage quitting simply do nothing and wait for your builders to built him. The more you do, the less energy will be used to built him and the more you get bbq'ed by the super strong enemies.
I cannot understand the very negative reviews this game receives. The game itself is a solid building game with focus on transport, somewhat a mix of Wiggles/Diggles and The Settlers 2, with some new ideas, too. There is no proper tutorial, but the game mechanics are not too hard. Regarding some issues/reviews: - to move your soldiers you have to build an Army Post, then move that building. - dwellings are only used by the vikings that work in range. But they also enjoy to sleep outside. - the colors marking good/bad spots on the ground are not based on resource, but obviously on building costs! - I did not have any game breaking bugs, and just one minor bug (fisherman not catching anything) in several hours of gameplay Overall this game does many things right. Your folk do not annoy you all the time, for example. There often is enough food growing at bushes for the early game. They pick up tools and work, where there is a need. There are no skills your Vikings gain, so there is no micromanaging them. You can assign carriers to buildings to improve their productivity or building speed, which is neat. The economy is quite complex and intertwined, compared to The Settlers 2. Having just finished S2:DNG Vikings Addon I have to say this game also offers more gameplay variety. Where in S2 you search for gold and then bbq the enemy in Valhalla Hills you can also zerg the portal, try to improve weapons supply, build outposts with courier networks and so on. There are different types of enemies, that sometimes require some swift action. But overall this is a very relaxing game and controls not designed for fast paced action. The random maps add variety, too. This game would be much more popular with a good campaign, but the unlocks system isn't bad. Compared to Wiggles it lacks heart quite badly, your Vikings do not grow on you. The camera position is somewhere between fancy and annoying, especially when the portal is behind a mountain top. Not perfect, but pretty good!
