Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk
Intruder on the bridge is an adult, visual novel, but it does go a bit further than the usual visual novel in that it actually has a few mini games, the main one of interest being a Galaga like minigame.
Let's start with the story.
"Intruder on the Bridge tells the story of Captain Dyce, a Galactic Union officer in command of the largest spaceship ever built: the Ventura. He will have to face a mysterious conspiracy that caused his brother's death. Unfortunately, all leaders of the Union seem to be involved in the conspiracy. "
As with all visual novels, there will be a lot of reading and watching, so the story often needs to be very good to keep your attention, the advantage that adult visual novels have, is that they are adult in nature, so you will have nudity and sex scenes, and that adds an element of interest, since you will want to unlock all the scenes you can.
Now the game is not just about sex, in fact that is not even the main interest of the main character. So if you think you will just start up the game and see "action" straight away, you will be disappointed, you need to play through the story to get to the good bits!
You play as Captain Dyce, his twin brother has been killed, and you take his place, to try and solve the murder, you will need to talk to all the crew of The Ventura as well as cover up the fact you have switched places with your deceased brother. Along the way you will be faced with choices to make, different questions to ask, each in themselves will affect the story moving forward, this instantly gives the game that all important replayability factor. Especially if you want to unlock all the animations and scenes.
The game as a whole is very "Star Trek" like, the look of the aliens, the characters, the machinery, the space ship's interior. You can tell that there is a lot of inspiration from Star Trek from almost the first moment you start playing. You could argue that Captain Dyce even looks a bit like William Riker! As well as having his interest in the ladies!
There are a few minigames, the previously mentioned Galaga like shoot-em-up, this comes into play when your ship encounters an enemy, the mini game loads up, and you control the ship with your mouse, while shooting at waves of enemies, and eventually a boss. There are various weapon upgrades to collect as well as special weapons that last for a short period of time, rockets, lasers etc. You can of course skip the mini game, but where is the fun in that. Complete the level and you go back to the main game and the story continues. There is also a mini game which is literally a first person shooter, run around an alien planet, kill the aliens, rescue some crew.
There is also a very simple combat mini game, whereby you are face to face with someone, and have to choose basic moves to fight with, this mini game is not the best, and you will get through it very quickly.
The game boasts 3000 HD images, that really are incredibly rendered, full HD, and very impressive. There are also 50 separate animations, these are mainly part of the story, but also include various scenes that are adult in nature.
I did read some complaints about the dialog from people saying the translations were poor. And as far as I can figure out, the developers "Space Samurai Studio" are Italian, however I thought the dialog although far from perfect, was fine, and nothing seemed particularly off for me. If you are playing an adult visual novel, and you are moaning about the grammar used, then you really are taking life too seriously.
The Good
The rendered images and animations are of a very high quality, everything looks incredible. The story is decent, and the mini game is a lot of fun.
The Bad
There is no voice acting as such, other than a few groans, so everything needs to be read, the sounds in general across the game are quite poor, and although I understand the reasons for not having voice acting, (Keeps the costs down), it can make a big difference in a game of this nature.
Overall
If adult visual novels are your thing, then I honestly don't think you can go far wrong with this game, the story is decent, the graphics, animations etc all look great, perhaps a little expensive at just under £12, but I am sure there will be a sale at some point.
I score Intruder on the bridge a solid 7.5/10 with the total understanding of the context and genre that this game sits in.
Out now on Steam (Over 18s only please)
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