The Entropy Centre — Hit the rewind

Matt Fuller, 20 November 2022

Let me set the scene, and stop me if you've heard this one before. You awaken inside a huge, mysterious scientific complex with no memory of why you're there, or how you got there in the first place. With the help of your trusty time-altering tool and an upbeat and quirky A.I. companion, you make your way through a series of logic and time-twisting puzzles whilst unraveling the events that left you alone in space in this first-person sci-fi adventure.

If you’re feeling a sense of deja vu, you aren't the only one. The Entropy Centre undoubtedly shares some similarities to Valves' hugely popular Portal series, and it makes no secret of that. But rather than come across as a cheap knock-off, it instead feels like a tasteful homage to the granddaddy of modern puzzle games, and it does a pretty good job all things considered. It also has some quirks that give the game its own identity. 

In both story and gameplay, time is both your worst enemy and biggest ally in The Entropy Centre. That became evident very early on in the game, as I found myself in the command deck, staring up into space as planet Earth explodes into fiery oblivion, and our protagonist Aria is left to watch. It sounds very gloomy, but it's all OK since, in this version of history, humanity has found a way to rewind time and has done so to avert disaster many times. Bees are dying out? Pop back and fix that. Need to prepare for a natural disaster? Travel back and give the earth a heads up – you get the idea. There isn't enough power to undo this world-ending event, and this is where you come in. Solving a puzzle in this world generates entropy, which in turn powers their time-rewinding technology, so as a Junior Puzzle Operative, it's your job to solve the station's puzzles and get the Entropy Centre charged up to rewind the oncoming cataclysm. Also, you have your A.I. helper Astra — she chats with you, is upbeat and bubbly, and is generally one of the best bits of the game.

The bulk of the game's time-twisting conundrums are separated into 15 different sectors within the Entropy Centre, each containing multiple separate and distinct puzzle rooms. Most of these puzzles skirted the line between casual brain teaser and hair-pulling frustration quite well, thanks in large part to the game's relatively simple rules and design. It has all of the classic first-person puzzle elements you’d expect — pressure-activated switches, cubes to pick up, moving platforms, the usual suspects, and it uses them well, having you explore and deduce how to use each element within the confines of the puzzle with relative ease. In that regard, Entropy Centre isn't breaking any new ground, which did worry me at first. However, the game quickly introduces its own twist to the old formula, and yes, it also involves time.

Enter the Entropy Device, a "gun" that has the ability to make objects, projectiles, and certain parts of the environment travel back in time. You simply point at an object and look for an orange outline, and zap away to watch a collapsed bridge or a recently launched block roll back in time, to be frozen and released when needed. That alone had me excited and pondering the possibilities that my new toy would bring with it. 

With this helpful tool, It quickly became second nature to view both objects and the puzzles differently, as it becomes just as important when you place objects somewhere as opposed to where you place them. A room may need a single object in multiple places, and in some cases, you need to think through a solution backwards to make sure you have the right pieces, in the right place, at the right time to find the solution... and in most cases, it works beautifully. It creates an interesting dynamic in how you view each space and the puzzle pieces. I also never felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle or being taken for a ride, it just came down to my own ability to think and solve the problem in front of me. It’s you, the room, and the things in the room — now figure it out.

Woven between all of this is a pretty intriguing story that progressively answers questions and raises others as you begin to discover what has happened to the base, usually through finding intel on computers scattered and hidden throughout the game. Dialogue between Aria (voiced by Chloe Taylor) and Astra (Voiced by Kasey Miracle) were easily my favourite moments, with both having a great rapport and complementing each other whilst pushing the plot forward and allowing some humour and relief to lighten the mood when needed. That all being said, it's not exactly ground-breaking storytelling, and similar plots have been done before. It was engaging and interesting enough to keep me playing, and I ultimately found it to be a thoughtful story, especially in the last few hours where I felt the plot really hit its stride for the final stretch.

The game also manages to keep you on your toes during its roughly 10-12 hour runtime, largely due to the constant influx of new ideas the game throws into the mix. With each new set of puzzles, a new element is introduced ranging from bridge cubes and bounce mats to laser cubes, to name a few. With each new piece, it expands the variety of puzzles and combinations of pieces you'll encounter, making new areas feel fresh and constantly keeping the game interesting. I only had a few later puzzles that proved to be a little too difficult for my taste, but they were few and far between. It helps that Astra will cheer you on and encourage you all the way, and her clapping sound effect and smiley emoticon face when you solve a puzzle is always a treat.

There are also a few moments that ramp up the intensity, both for gameplay and story purposes. Between puzzle rooms and sections, you may find yourself dashing through collapsing areas of the sci-fi complex, fixing bridges and walkways to avoid the angry bots chasing you down or to avoid getting crushed under rubble, and they turned out to work well in the context of the game, giving just a little more urgency in select areas to add some spice. When they come together — the interplay between time, your perspective on the puzzle elements, and the space surrounding them – they flow seamlessly together, the mixture of lateral and logical thinking needed giving a sense of discovery and plenty of “aha” moments that felt well earned. 

However, for all it does well, I can’t help but feel the game doesn't do much new with the genre aside from the time-rewinding mechanic. A lot of the components of puzzles are ones we have seen before, and in a way feels like it was playing it safe rather than going all in on its more unique elements and really breaking away from the genre's mainstays. There were also a couple of technical gripes I had, such as some frame rate drops, a couple of jittery load-ins as well as one hard crash when things got a bit hectic on screen, but these were nothing too disruptive.

Be that as it may, what the game does it does very well, and even if I would have liked to see it take its ideas further, the ones it does have are satisfying. It makes a great experience throughout that evolved, challenged me, and showcased an interesting dynamic of how you view, use, and operate the game’s well-crafted puzzles. Yes, Maybe it isn't a revolutionary leap for first-person puzzle games, but it's still a great one that I would recommend wholeheartedly, and it’s a damn good showcase of some of the best parts of the genre.