Review of The Entropy Center – Portal with games over time

Valve’s Portal is a game that has made history for its playfulness, humor, and many other aspects that define the gaming experience as a whole. At first glance, The Entropy Center seems to be the spiritual heir to a well-known brand, with the only difference being that it doesn’t travel through walls, but plays with time. Our review will tell you how his bet on this aspect paid off.

• Platform: PC (Verified Version), PS5, PS4, X1, XSX/S,
• Publication date: November 3, 2022
• Developer: Stubby Games
  
• Publisher: Game stack
• Genre: Logic adventure game
• Czech localization: Not
• Multiplayer: Not
• Game time: 6 – 9 hours
• Price: about 612 CZK (couples)

infamous start

The history of the Entropy Center begins relatively negatively. You are standing on a strange bridge, and your home planet is right in front of you. It’s a beautiful sight, that is, until the moment when it explodes. Yes, you read it right. The plot of this work begins with an explosion, which at least at first you consider just a bad dream. However, the reality is even worse. Enough potential spoilers though. After a terrifying scene, you find yourself in a research center. The place is beautiful, but time takes its toll. The corridors are empty. Grass grows everywhere, just the perfect place to test your skills and evoke fond memories of Valve’s Portal.

At first it’s just you and your gun. Just like in Cyberpunk 2077, you will find a colt that can talk to you. But unlike the queer who offer you a bleak future, this one is relatively friendly and basically doesn’t want to kill people. In addition, it does not contain ammunition. This is because it is the tool with which you work with time. Although he cannot move it forward, he can move objects pointed at him from moments long forgotten. Thanks to this, it will become your faithful companion on most of your trips here.

The story and the associated ASTRA talking rifle are strong elements of The Entropy Centre, which not only rely heavily on the format in which the story is written, but also work effectively with the tool that accompanies you. Sometimes he makes jokes. In other cases, the main character will try to give advice on how to solve her problem. Most of the time, this is a very pleasant companion, essentially reminiscent of GLaDOS. However, unlike a deadly computer, it does not want to kill you, but most of the time it will move items from the past out of your way. Lest I forget, there is still a backstory, but it awaits first of all those who decide to explore an outdated technique full of information.

Puzzles are everywhere at The Entropy Center

The world around you here is rapidly changing, or rather, falling apart as you travel through it. Thus, at the Entropy Center, you often find yourself in a situation where your life will literally be at stake. Your only salvation will be your trusty time-rotating rifle, which when used properly will keep your hair from bending, as you will see for yourself shortly after you find it in one of the test rooms. As already mentioned, the station is not the most stable, so you will use a rifle, for example, to get rid of falling pillars, or to restore slowly collapsing bridges to a depth.

There is a lot of action in the Entropy Center, but it is not the main element of the work. Prim plays puzzles here, which is largely based on everything. There are always rundown test rooms that are long past their best days. However, their poor condition does not prevent the game from forcing you to perform various tasks in them. And I must say that most of them will give your brain a good workout. Here you are not playing with moving objects through portals, but with time, which is a slightly different discipline. To be honest, I don’t know which was harder.

The basic idea of ​​working with time is simple. When you move an object, you automatically activate a switch with a well-defined range. It counts the seconds you spend with the box. Therefore, you should always think very carefully about how long it will be in your hands, or what exactly you will do with it. Every second counts, and when you lose track of time, you may not be able to get it back the way you need it at the moment. The further you are in the Entropy Center, the greater the variety of elements on which the puzzles are based, you have to solve. Sometimes it’s an endless bridge, sometimes it’s a laser or a conveyor.

Personally, I got excited at the Entropy Center, for example, playing on the trampolines. At first glance, they look like something that cannot be manipulated too much. But the reality is different. With the ability to bring them back in time, they can perform some really mind-blowing tricks that almost compare to a game of portals, or various elements from The Talos Principle, whose puzzles I find unforgettable. It must be said that the difficulty of the puzzles was not always fully accessible, but I see this as less of a gameplay flaw than my occasional inability to adapt.

The Entropy Center can compete with both the Portal and the Talos Principle.

I thought long and hard about how I would actually evaluate this degree. At first, I did not expect anything from this indie game. But the first scene completely captivated me. The explosion of the Earth was a spectacular moment, followed by a number of other moments at the Entropy Center that I have imprinted in my memory. Despite its qualities, the talking gun story was only a minor element.

Like most logic adventure games, this one is primarily focused on puzzles, and I have to say, at least for myself, that it was a bet on the right card, because this aspect is handled perfectly. The creators managed to make the most of the potential offered by the idea of ​​returning to the past, so here we have really good puzzles that can sometimes decently torture the mind. The only thing I would criticize The Entropy Center for is the design of the action passages, which do not quite fit into the overall concept.