There’s nothing quite like a puzzle game where you see the big picture and suddenly find the solution for the entire stage. And a clever challenge at the Entropy Center provided me with a regular supply of those “Eureka!” moment. Its time-consuming first-person brain teasers weren’t usually as hard as I’d have liked, but finding a solution was always satisfying. , wrapped in a bittersweet story.
Get out of the way right away.yes this game many Like Valve’s Portal series. You wake up in a suspicious abandoned corporate complex. I found a strange science gun to solve the physics puzzle of placing cubes on switches. And all the while, a triumphant AI companion chats to add levity to the situation. The Entropy Center proudly wears its inspiration. And I’m fully on board with more games inspired by the genre’s biggest hits.
The main point of branching is that Portal’s puzzles are primarily spatial, while The Entropy Center’s puzzles are a matter of time. You can use your trusty entropy device to rewind items, projectiles, and even certain world objects. Well, at least the first half of the 10 hour journey. Most of the dozens of chambers I experienced felt kind of the same once you figured out the underlying logic they were designed for.
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Eventually, once I got the hang of analyzing each room from the end and mentally working backwards to come up with a solution, it got a little less difficult. There were only a handful of puzzles that took more than 10 minutes, and two in particular he came to mind as very challenging. Difficulty didn’t ramp up again until later interesting new puzzle elements were introduced, such as transformation fields that allowed blocks to be changed into other block types. But other things weren’t as interesting. Magically rewinding time and moving his conveyor belt is no different than pressing a button to reverse direction. This is definitely a case of an over-engineered solution to the problem.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think entropy centers are too easy overall. The challenge level is somewhere between casual and punishing. On the contrary, we cannot fully explore all the opportunities that seem possible with clever tools. I was always thinking of ways to combine all of these elements to create even more elaborate and diabolical puzzles, but it seems like the level design leaves a lot to be desired. , is even more disappointed that there are currently no level editing tools that allow the community to push them to their limits.
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However, Entropy Center goes to interesting places with its story, combining a series of puzzle chambers with a tense and imaginative sci-fi tale. Please change if you have the chance to try again. The Center itself gets worse as it progresses, but the impending disaster was a little too stretched to really inspire a sense of urgency. , I don’t think it fully explores the fascinating metaphysics of its premise. And this is never a bad thing. It’s not super amazing or revolutionary.
But the voice acting lifts the story, bringing determined “puzzle operative” protagonist Arya and her spiteful AI companion, Astra, to life in captivating and heartfelt performances. The humor is pretty haphazard, riffing on the tired theme of mechanical, corporate indifference to human emotions. It’s not on the same level as Portal’s sharp, laugh-out-loud writing. Especially no match for the awesome Portal 2. day, and there is something to be said about it.
