Expiration caused by the invocation of magic refers to the concept of magic having a limited duration or lifespan. In many magical systems, spells and enchantments have a finite amount of time before they cease to exist or lose their efficacy. This expiration can occur due to various factors, such as the inherent nature of the spell, the skill of the caster, or the conditions under which the magic was invoked. **The main idea** behind expiration caused by the invocation of magic is that magical effects are not permanent and have a limited lifespan. This adds an element of impermanence and urgency to the use of magic, as practitioners must carefully consider the timing and duration of their spells. The duration of magical effects varies depending on the type of magic involved.

The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation

I’m not going to lie, when I saw that The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation was a first-person horror game based on a poorly-received Taiwanese movie about a bunch of kids on a school campus, my expectations were low. But what’s this? Much to my surprise, this is a shockingly effective fright fest full of compelling characters and a strong mystery. It’s a cinematic experience with some genuinely great scares and a ghost story that will haunt you for a long time to come. This is my review of The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation.

This is the story of a group of teenage students who are putting together what they hope will be a fun and enjoyable event celebrating one of the university’s most well-known urban legends. It involves the tale of the bridge curse, a tragic story where heartbreak leads to a vengeful ghost haunting the nearby lake and surrounding area. They have authentic face paint, spooky decorations and even a scary maze through the supposedly haunted park. Of course, what these students discover too late is that the stories are all true, revealing a night full of supernatural frights that these teenagers will never forget. Assuming they survive until morning, that is.

Instead of sticking with the same character throughout the whole game, we end up bouncing around between the six people in the friend group. This allows us to get to know each student individually and gives us a window into what everybody thinks of the group. We’re introduced to the typical horror game archetypes – like the skeptic, the prankster, the guy who is superstitious to a fault and so on – only to see a lot of those simple descriptions crumble away as we get to know the people behind those cliches. With all the in-fighting, complicated love triangles and teenage drama, this group had a lot going on even before the ghost shows up.

It won’t take long before things start to go horribly wrong, which is when the story really starts to pick up steam. This splits up the group, sending everybody on their own quests and leading to some interesting pairings between the different friends. Because we’re constantly bouncing from one character to the next, the writers are able to craft a genuinely compelling mystery where they drip feed us important clues, all while using certain characters to misdirect the player. There are a lot of times where we think we know what happened, only to have the game show us the same crucial event from another point of view, completely changing the context.

The unexpected benefit from jumping between the different students is that it allows the game to show that it can play more than one note. We never know what we’re going to get from one character to the next, as sometimes we’re being chased by a ghost, while other times we’re just walking around the dorms looking for the crying baby. There are moments where we’ll need to help somebody solve a puzzle, something that will be immediately interrupted when one of the teenagers starts hallucinating about an evil clogged toilet. Haunted bathrooms are the worst.

What I especially appreciate is that there’s some real care and craft put into the way the story unfolds. The Bridge Curse is good about balancing out the puzzles, the action and the scares. I love how the game will allow us enough time to catch our breath after supernatural encounters, and some of my favorite moments in the game are the little conversations the characters have about what just happened. But don’t get too comfortable in the quiet moments, because the best frights come when you’re least expecting them.

As somebody who consumes a lot of horror content, I was genuinely surprised by how effective the scares are in this game. Even though there’s nothing particularly new or unique about this ghost, the developer constantly finds ways to scare you. There are a few good jump scares along the way, but the best bits are the ones that force one of the characters to come to grips with their greatest fears. I especially love the way they are able to transform regular classrooms into something straight out of The Conjuring. There’s a real sense of dread running through this entire game.

Oddly enough, the game’s weakest moments all involve the actual ghost. These bits always play out the same way, with one of the students running away and looking for safety. Once you get away from the ghost, you’ll be able to sneak around the level, trying your hardest to avoid being spotted. But don’t worry, because even if the ghost sees you again, you can usually jump into a port-a-potty or locker to avoid detection. It was while hiding that I had flashbacks to all the worst parts of Metal Gear Solid.

Adding a stealth component to your horror game isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but it’s poorly executed here. A lot of these chases come down to trial and error and memorizing the right path, which means that you’re going to die over and over again. This isn’t so bad early on, but the final encounter will test both your stealth skills and your patience. It’s a fatal combination of being too long, having too many steps and not having enough checkpoints along the way. It’s also not scary. There’s something about being able to memorize the ghost’s pattern that sucks out all of the scariness. Once you realize that it’s nothing more than an A.I. guard walking back and forth, the horror is gone.

Thankfully, the creepy visuals and wonderfully-detailed stage designs help make up for the weaker stealth bits. Although we don’t get to see much of the university, the few places we visit are all genuinely atmospheric. You can tell that somebody went through each classroom and dorm adding fun little touches that go a long way to transport you into this haunted school. My only complaint about the visuals is the weird red glow when you’re walking from one building to the next. I know it’s meant to look eerie and otherworldly, but all it does is make navigating the streets a real pain. Am I going colorblind? Is my TV broken? Nope, it’s just the overpowering red glow filter that was added for no reason.

One thing I really liked about the presentation is how cinematic the experience was. There are a lot of cinemas throughout the game, and I love how we seamlessly go from gameplay to cut scene right back to gameplay. The character models look good and I like how expressive everybody is. And if you think the cinemas look good when it’s just a bunch of friends standing around talking, wait until the truly frightening moments go down. There are a few scares in this game that are going to stick with me for a long time to come.

Yes, the game flirts with a lot of ghost cliches and some of the English voice acting is questionable, but when The Bridge Curse is good, it’s real good. I like the cinematic approach to both the visuals and the storytelling, allowing us to experience the night from multiple perspectives. This is not only used to further the mystery, but it also heightens the suspense, leading to some truly memorable scares. I can’t vouch for the movie it’s based on, but as a game, The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation is an easy game to recommend.

The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation Review

The console horror market is a crowded one. There are narrative horror games, survival horror games, comedy horror games, and kid horror games. Scaring the life out of a gamer in their own living room is a big business in the gaming market, possibly so prolific because of the streaming of these games. People just love watching others get scared.

The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation first came to my attention through that streaming world, but there was something about the story and the premise that intrigued me. And now it’s here on console. Let’s take it to the bridge.

The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation is based on a famous Taiwanese urban legend. It’s about a ghost that haunts the bridge of Tunghu University. In the game, the developers put you in control of six university students who are planning to investigate, reconstructing a ritual to find the famous ghost. Of course, it doesn’t go well, and soon the students find themselves running from the ghost, trapped in a curse. They need to find a way out of this hell – as one by one, they get hunted by the vengeful spirit.

I’ll be honest with you, the first half an hour of the story didn’t grab me. I thought I was going to be playing another survival horror game, running through mazes and hiding. But there is much more to The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation than first meets the eye and the story as a whole is brilliant. In the end it had me completely hooked into playing to its six hour conclusion.

It’s helped by the fact that the characters are fun to get to know, all with varying personalities and traits. But it’s also the visual storytelling that does a fantastic job of telling the ghost story. There are tropes – of course – but there is also some original storytelling shining brightly throughout.

The gameplay takes place in the first person, running you between the different characters throughout the journey. You can run of course and there is the ability to pick up items to use in your inventory. Yet the main survival horror technique is that of legging it from the ghost. You weave in and out of rooms, down corridors and into hiding spots like a toilet cubicle or locker. These are my least favourite moments of the game and in the end sequences, you will be doing a lot of stealthing, all before running from the spirit from hell.

The best part of The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation is the exploration. That and the puzzle elements which are very clever and inventive. You might be stuck in one area of the university and have to match books to the right place by decoding a document and drawing on a blackboard. Or you may need to work out a code for a padlock, finding the right elements from a periodic chemistry table. The rest of the game has really good quest dynamics and the areas that you explore are tight and feel very atmospheric, ripe with jump scares.

The map and surrounding area of the university you explore is a massive one, but what has been done with the visuals is surprising. It looks very believable in reality terms, but when things head into the supernatural at full power it’s very impressive, especially in terms of scare and strange goings on. Character animation is fantastic and I loved spending time exploring the attention to detail in the world.

The soundtrack does a superb job amplifying that, working in scare scenes. This is especially true when you’re being chased; it really brings up the tension and fear stakes. The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation is fully voiced with an English dub which works well, however there are some issues with the voice-over; some sound balancing problems when characters can feel very softly spoken and then suddenly very loud. But overall, you should expect a great job in the sound department.

The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation delivers a chilling and superb bit of horror storytelling, complete with some fun jump scares. The tightness of the locations and settings work dazzlingly well across both the real world and the supernatural. Personally, the hiding away and stealth elements wouldn’t be missed and there are problems with the sound mix. But on the whole The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation should be well considered by any horror fan.

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)

The duration of magical effects varies depending on the type of magic involved. Some spells may last only a few seconds or minutes, such as illusions or temporary enhancements, while others may have a longer duration, lasting hours, days, or even years. The specific duration is often determined by the intricacy and complexity of the enchantment, as well as the skill of the caster.

In addition to the inherent nature of the spell itself, external factors can also influence the expiration of magic. For example, certain conditions or events may cause a spell to dissipate or lose its effectiveness prematurely. This could be anything from the caster's death or loss of concentration to external forces disrupting the magical energies. **The main idea** of expiration caused by the invocation of magic is that it adds a layer of complexity and strategy to the use of magic. Practitioners must carefully consider the timing and duration of their spells, as well as any external factors that may impact their effectiveness. This limitation can also create opportunities for creative problem-solving, as spellcasters may need to find ways to extend or renew the duration of their enchanted effects. Overall, expiration caused by the invocation of magic is an important concept in magical systems, adding a sense of impermanence and urgency to the use of magic. It requires practitioners to carefully consider the timing and duration of their spells, as well as any external factors that may impact their efficacy. This limitation can lead to creative problem-solving and strategic thinking in the use of magic..

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