The Entropy Centre, released November 3, 2022, is Stubby Games’ debut installment, bringing players a unique interstellar experience of puzzle solving. Reminiscent of the Portal games, The Entropy Centre follows Aria Adams, a solo Puzzle Operative on the space station of the Entropy Centre. Accompanied by your trusty companion ASTRA, as part of the entropy device you use to rewind time on objects. Tasked with the mission to rewind the Earth before its current cataclysmic event. Solve puzzles and build up your entropy energy, rewind Earth and save humanity from extinction.
Biggest Takeaways
Pros
- Creative puzzle mechanics.
- Well-thought-out puzzles with satisfying results.
- Great attention to detail.
- Refreshing introductory/tutorial 01 puzzles.
- No bugs/glitches on release.
- Puzzle difficulty variation within one Act.
- Great voice acting and dialogue.
Cons
- Repetitive lockdown sequences (evade the bots and find switches to lift lockdown).
- Mediocre run sequences (get from A to B whilst the Centre collapses around you).
- I did not feel inclined or curious enough to find all 76 notes.
Final Rating: 7.5/10
Intentionality and Creativity in Modern Video Games
Every Act and their puzzles felt intentional. Nothing was boring or repetitive. It was refreshing to have various difficulties within a single Act. This gave me the chance to recharge my puzzle-solving brain juices, meaning I never felt the need to come off the game to wind down.
Some puzzles were a lot easier than others. Even at the much later, challenging stages in the game. Prior to Act 7, the puzzles for me were not overly complicated or challenging. But once Act 7 hit, everything prior felt like a mental build-up towards the boss fight of Act 7. Where suddenly the game changed into something that required you to really sit and think about the solution. It was not until I reached this Act that I started to pause the screen and wonder if I could actually beat this game without looking up guides.
But when Act 10 hit all hope was lost. My average puzzle-solving time of 3 minutes was extended to 11 minutes and then 15. I was devastated. Feeling tricked by Acts 1-6, making me think that I am good at puzzle games. It was a necessary reality check.
The introduction of every mechanic was very smart, creative, and well-executed. Using objects such as conveyor belts, transformers, and extendable platforms worked perfectly with the rewinding capabilities of the entropy device. For modern video games or more specifically in recent AAA games, creativity is rarely seen or executed correctly. The Entropy Centre provides players with puzzles that are well thought out and brilliantly executed. Every solution makes sense and the eureka moment of the solution hitting you is one of the greatest feelings that a puzzle game can offer to its player base.
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The Melancholy Loneliness of Aria Adams
The storyline of Aria Adams and her relationship with ASTRA highlights the loneliness and isolation of our protagonist. Although the character interaction is sweet, with ASTRA often mocking Aria’s puzzle-solving abilities and distracting her with weird pointless trivial facts. I cannot help but feel sad for our protagonist, as her only way of having social interactions and demonstrating humility is through the communication with an AI. The Entropy Centre feels dystopian this way, outside of the main plot point of a sole Operative tasked with the impossible job of rewinding the Earth to a pre-cataclysmic event. Aria grows fond of her AI allies and develops an attachment to them.
Aria’s humility, heroism, and charm are similar to Alien Isolation’s Amanda Ripley.
A Dystopian Friendship and the Lack of Alignment Towards ASTRA
The idea of players caring about ASTRA (the AI within the entropy device) is really weird to me. It is not because I cannot align myself to a robot/artificial intelligence but more on the lines that ASTRA could theoretically live forever as part of the entropy device. Whether or not ASTRA solely exists within the device Aria is using throughout the game is debatable. But I find it hard to feel attached to a character who in theory should be able to live on forever through its coding. It was even weirder when ASTRA claimed to feel pain, as she is part of the entropy gun’s mainframe.
Although this is not at the forefront of the game, there is a scene that stands out to me. The scene emphasizes the loneliness and fears of Aria in a moment where she may truly become alone on the station. It is an important scene for us to watch as it brings Aria’s feelings to the forefront where we might not have noticed these feelings prior to this moment. But for me, this scene was still weird as nothing particularly big or important happened with ASTRA to warrant the care we should feel for her.
The Unseen Heroes or Cowards? of The Entropy Centre’s Past
We get hints of a time in the Centre before us playing as Aria Adams through the reading of Intel found on the PCs scattered throughout the story of The Entropy Centre. The Intel provides a brief overview of what life was like on the Centre for the however many that were tasked to solve puzzles and rewind important devastating events on Earth before the cataclysmic event. However, as these are simply notes, I was unable to align myself to the words describing the unseen characters of The Entropy Centre. Because of this, I rarely felt inclined or curious enough to seek the Intel out. Very often, I was instead looking forward to the upcoming puzzles and focussing on getting good times on solving them.
Leave it to Puzzles and Storytelling
The story of The Entropy Centre is great. Though the storytelling is something we have seen time and time again, especially in a dystopian, sci-fi setting. The mystery of the previous Centre employees, where did they go? How did Aria get on the station? And how will Aria rewind the Earth to stop the cataclysmic event? These are all great plot points to accompany the many puzzles of The Entropy Centre.
As this is a puzzle game, I would like to voice my opinion on including unnecessary gameplay sequences such as the run and lockdown sequences. For me, these took away from the brilliant and inventive puzzles, feeling like an afterthought on how to conclude each Act. The fetch quests for locating the power supplies were fine and I understand that most games nowadays include these types of quests in levels.
But the lockdown sequences were mediocre and felt pointless, feeling like their intention was to increase the overall runtime of the game. I am not a fan of the run sequences either. This is when you have a linear path to go to whilst the area around you is falling apart. Although each time these sequences were done in a slightly different way, they still felt repetitive. Similar to a linear chase sequence in a Horror game, The Entropy Centre run sequences could not spark any panic or stress in me. This is because it was clear from the second the sequence started that you simply need to make it to the end by rewinding everything you see, ergo all stress, panic and fear was gone.
Concluding Thoughts
The Entropy Centre is a fantastic entry to the puzzle game subgenre. For their debut game, Stubby Games really did a great job executing challenging, creative and intelligence puzzles. With a great sci-fi storyline to strengthen the brilliance of the puzzles. Perfectly encapsulated in a 15 Act game with an average run time of 5 hours depending on how quickly you can solve the Centre’s puzzles. It is a stimulating experience and well worth the time. Come for the puzzles, stay for the mystery of The Entropy Centre. Can you save The Earth?
Just getting started on The Entropy Centre? See our guide on how to solve all Act 1 Puzzles: All Puzzle Solutions in Act 1 The Entropy Centre.
Published: Nov 7, 2022 08:09 am