Bridge to Another World 1: Burnt Dreams

Bridge to Another World: Burnt Dreams
by 4 Friends Games - March, 2014

Series links: Bridge to Another World 1: Burnt Dreams, Bridge to Another World 2: The Others, Bridge to Another World 3: Alice in Shadowland, Bridge to Another World 4: Escape From Oz

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition



You’ll never forget the day the monstrous mist rose up and snatched away your little brother – while you watched helplessly from the bridge. But now, after twenty years, the mist has returned – and so has your determination to free him. But first you must confront the evil Countess, who keeps him painting creatures she has learned to burn into reality! Can you face your fears and help your brother finally escape the mysterious island where his dreams come to life - or will the whole world enter the mist? Enter a world where art and reality join hands, in this heart-stopping, hidden-object adventure!

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Gripping bonus gameplay
  
• Exciting new quests
  
• Unlockable collectibles and achievements
  
• Stunning wallpapers and concept art
  
• Integrated strategy guide
  

For the Standard Edition

• Strategy Guide
  
• Walkthrough (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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Dark Fantasy – Imaginative Critter Sightings!***

BASED ON DEMO

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
From the start this game pulls at the heart strings. Our adorably cute little brother is sketching fairies, when an evil mist grabs him and takes him away. The intro graphics are great, and the tension and sense of adventure is immediate. You also get a good taste, even in those few minutes, of what the game will be like. There are large dollops of both cute and creepy right from the start.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The graphics are excellent. Darkish, but still easily seen, nice artwork, and imaginative rendering of the many critters and creations in the world of the mist. The sounds are also good. I enjoyed the early voiceovers, but they do not extend much past the introduction. They crop up again near the end of the demo. For cinematic effect. The ambient noise is good too, although dominated by the ceaseless rain. I also liked the music.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
It’s 20 years since Bro was dragged into the mist, and you now work on solving inexplicable phenomena, while you await your chance to enter the mist. Yes, it was long ago, but if you can just find a way in, maybe you can save him from whatever fate has kept him away for so long. The time comes, the omens and augers or whatever say that now is the time to enter the mist’s world. With the help of a fairy and a scientist, you finally get inside. There you meet many cute critters, and a lot of not-so-cute creatures. There are also 21 more critters hiding (morphing) in the mist, if you can find them.

In the mist world, ‘drawings burnt in the mist become real’. And it is for his artistic talent that your brother has been imprisoned and enslaved in this world. Obviously, you must rescue him. But how?

GAMEPLAY
There is a good mix of HOPs, puzzles and adventure gameplay. The HOPs are interactive lists, or progressive silhouettes. The puzzles are original and charming, and not really difficult. There is also a journal with objectives, notes and replayable movies with any clues on them.
I had no problems getting around and figuring out what to do next, but I did have the benefit of an interactive jump map that indicates available tasks (on lowest of 3 difficulty levels plus a custom level). The map shows 5 localities, and the demo covered only the first, which is a promising indicator of a long game – hopefully!

An added feature is a cardboard-like picture tube where rolled up pictures are carried. You find pieces of the drawings that make up the world around you, and piece them together using jigsaw-like puzzles. At which point you can burn them to replace the twisted image/creation with the original. A feature I kinda like, just for the info it provides, is a game timer. Not a timed game, you understand, just a keeping track of how long it takes to play the game.

CE BLING!
As mentioned, there are 21 morphing creatures hiding in the mist. There are also a large number of achievements, both performance and story based. The rest is unknown so far.

COMBINED IMPACT
Quite a pleasant game. Dark, combined with so much cuteness, may not appeal to everyone. And I don’t think it’s an award-winning production, but it is an enjoyable and involving game – and I love the critters!

I recommend this game!

Bridge to Another World 1: Burnt Dreams (IHOG)

Options include separate sliders for Music, Sound and Voice, Custom Cursor, Full-screen and Widescreen.  Choice of three preset difficulties, or you can go with Custom mode.  Can be changed at any time.

Story:

We watched our brother get dragged into a mysterious mist and disappear, never to be seen again.  No one believed your story, save one man - a scientist who studies the paranormal.  Now, after exhaustive research and twenty years' time, the mist has reappeared at last, and you finally have a chance to find out what happened to your brother.

The "Burnt" part of the title is very fitting, as the mist has a special power:  Any painting you burn will transform into reality; its powers limited only by the imagination of the painter.

Our Journal gives us a brief overview of what's going on, but doesn't offer any extra story.  Here you can also find puzzle clues, view your objectives and rewatch cutscenes.

Gameplay:

Keep an eye out for morphing Creatures of the Mist.  They are NOT on every scene, but you'll unlock a "special surprise" if you collect them all.

We very quickly manage to get ourselves not just one, but two helpers!  One functions as our hint button, and the other can do some basic tasks and set fire to things - very helpful since we need to burn things a lot!

The MAP can be interactive, and has insta-transport, which is a very good thing, because there is a LOT of backtracking.  Having the active areas on the map was incredibly useful, since sometimes the places you need to go to are on a different section of the map!

Using a HINT during the adventure portion of the game will either pinpoint something or give you a directional hint.

Hidden Object Scenes vary between lightly-interactive find-by-list scenes and highly-interactive find-by-silhouette puzzles.  Each scene will be visited twice, but actions you took/items you found previously will remain done/gone.

Puzzles vary widely and some are quite interesting.

Logic-wise, the tasks mostly made perfect sense, but this game contains the #1 most-ridiculous-task I've ever seen in a casual game, hands down.  I won't mention specifics in case you don't catch it yourself, but will say that it has something to do with water... lol~

Sights and Sounds:

There is some really beautiful artwork in this game, and I absolutely loved the design of the characters.  The voices are pretty good - about what you'd expect for a casual game.  The music and ambients felt very natural, although one of the sfx was really annoying, so I turned down that slider a bit. ;)

CE Content:

• Integrated Strategy Guide
  
• Bonus Chapter
  
• 21 Collectible Creatures-of-the-Mist (I missed ONE, so I'm not sure what the surprise is!)
  
• 31 in-game Achievements
  
• 10 Wallpapers
  
• 21 Concept Art (mouse-over for final images)
  
• 4 Music Tracks (can be saved)
  
• 40 Rewatchable Cutscenes
  
• 21 Puzzles
  
• 9 Hidden Object Scenes (the find-by-list HOS only)
  

Bonus Chapter:

The extra chapter takes place right before the last scene in the main story, and covers your trials trying to get to the portal that can take you back to the normal world.  There are 14 all-new locations to visit.  The gameplay is the same, but there are no find-by-silhouette puzzles, just your standard find-by-list HOS.  It was a nice addition to the game, and gives you better closure to the story than the standard game does.

Verdict:

This is a very pretty game that feels heavy on the adventure and has a lot of to-ing and fro-ing.  I really enjoyed the silhouette puzzles, and think that any IHOG fan will enjoy this.  Recommended!