Entropy Center, puzzle game review for those who can’t wait for Portal 3 anymore

If the Mountain does not exit Portal 3, a team of indie developers will create their own version of Portal 3. That wasn’t quite the word, but that’s practically what happened with The Entropy Center, a new puzzle game coming November 3rd. , 2022 PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | On S and PC.

stump gamesIn its first test, a new team managed to get as close as possible to the beloved Valve saga, offering a first-person puzzle game immediately reminiscent of Portal without having to defend itself from lawsuits.

But taking inspiration from a few very popular titles isn’t enough to create a quality piece: Stubby Games has caught our attention since its announcement, but on the occasion of its release, we had the opportunity to experience firsthand how much is going on. good has been achieved.

To find out if the final result satisfies us, just keep reading ours. Review by the Entropy Center.

space and time

The Entropy Center does not try to hide itself in any way. inspiration. A science center abandoned for years? We have it. A weapon used to manipulate space, not to shoot? I am her. An easy-going artificial intelligence? It’s not lost.

The first difference is ours hero it is not silent, rather it has a fundamental role in the narrative. That’s her name, Aria wakes up with no memory at the Entropy Center, a space station created by humans with a “simple” purpose: to reverse Earth’s time on the occasion of catastrophic events. The structure is essentially a recovery system that analyzes our planet and, in case of trouble, delays time, sending data on what happens next and how to prevent it.

Apart from that, in our time the center is abandoned and only Aria is with her entropic weapon. Attached AI named Astra, is found. What happened? Where is everybody? Questions arise when we discover that the Earth is about to explode and we are the only ones who can save it by activating the entropic beam.

There complo It is governed by both the beautiful dialogues between Aria and Astra (characterized by, among other things, excellent dubbing) and a collection of about seventy narratives that can be found in the game, further deepening the life at the center and gradually making one think about what really happened. Agree, the end is easy to predict, but that didn’t make the journey any less interesting. The plot is well paced, offers some disturbing overtones, and in some cases we’re pushed to think about the ethical issues involved in what happened. In short, The Entropy Center manages to present a valid narrative component that isn’t always easy with a puzzle game.

Puzzles but also action

But the heart of the Entropy Center is its fun component, namely puzzles. The build is exactly what you’d expect from a Portal analogue: a series of rooms with an exit door to reach and unlock, and more action segments that break the rhythm.

Second, it helps to make the experience a little more diverse and is a good way to create tension and put pressure on the player who needs to flee, for example when some structures around them collapse or destroy robots that become aggressive. In some cases these action stages it is a bit annoying as it is possible to die and you have to repeat some steps. These are a few areas scattered throughout the game, but it is undeniably the weakest point of the experience: they are necessary, but in a few cases some improvements could have helped make them more enjoyable.

Most ten hours of play (a similar length to the second Portal, remember) is passed by solving puzzles. The game is divided into chapters, and a new design element is added each time you advance to the next chapter. We will have classic cubes to be positioned to press buttons on the ground, as well as platforms for jumping, cubes that form light bridges, laser beams (non-lethal) to activate sensors and more.

Many of the items used by the Entropy Center are immediately reminiscent of Portal 2. not very originalbut on the other hand, it makes us think that we are really in a new Valve game: From our point of view, this last feeling is more than positive.

But let’s get to the main point: how entropy gun? In practice, every time an object is moved, the movement is recorded and our weapon lets it bounce back. So the whole game relies on understanding how to move objects to create a path and have them move from afar to position them exactly where we need them as we move around the room and reach the exit.

Entropy Center takes the field many ever-expanding ideas and interestingly reused in subsequent rooms, gradually mixing in various newly unlocked design elements. The quality is averagely high: one of the most satisfying puzzle games in recent years, offering challenging but always clear and legible puzzles.

Difficulty

this difficulty level it’s never too high, because the game accompanies us with simple puzzles that allow us to familiarize ourselves with new types of solutions before encountering more detailed chapters towards each new rule. How easy it is obviously depends on the individual player and level of experience, but trying to give you a point of comparison is slightly easier from our point of view than Talos Principle and Portal 2.

We would personally appreciate some “brain-breaking” riddle ready to block us even for half an hour, but on average we are satisfied with the level of commitment required: nothing is taken for granted, and if you think you have found the solution right away, you realize there is one more detail. missed it, but at the same time, you never stay too long in an episode.

Small technical limits

Where Entropy Hub can’t compete with a Valve product, technical side. Let’s be frank, the game doesn’t have major flaws but it’s still indie. In some cases the lighting system leaves something to be desired and the level of detail isn’t top of the line, but it at least manages to change the minimal stylistic level by presenting slightly different environments.

There are also some small insectsit will freeze the character in place, but it comes a few times just before autosave in the whole game – we also believe that the first updates will fix this.