The Entropy Centre Spiel
The Entropy Centre is filled with homage to the brim, tributes to its predecessor. This needs to be set in stone, otherwise the review will be flooded with asterisks. Most of the puzzle elements are nearly identical to Portal, meaning cubes, buttons, weighted buttons, energy ball, laser, laser bridge, jump plate, panels, and even turrets are all back, only without Aperture Science branding. Playing as a test subject trying to escape, deteriorating mad scientists’ lab are all back, again overrun with AI as well. Had the game been a fan-made Portal spinoff, I would have graciously taken them all in without a second thought. But this game is not about a Portal Gun, it’s about a gun that reverts back time. Not all puzzle elements are going to bond so well with a new mechanic.
One of the most immediate problem is how limited Entropy Gun can do in the world. We are given arbitrary limitation on what it can do, reverting a relatively smaller object back in time up to 30 seconds. But realistically speaking, in a puzzle room, nothing but cubes fit the bill of Entropy Gun. Out in the wild, Entropy Gun can only do one thing quite literally. It’s always one column or one staircase. At best, the game decides to roll out a cube to spice things up. This goes against the premise of what Portal dearly tried to achieve —creating an immersive environment for a player to fully exert the power of the Portal Gun. On the other hand, having an Entropy Gun gives the vibe of carrying a keycard than a handy tool for all occasions.
The root of all problems behind an Entropy Gun is its lore, the specs. We don’t have a consistent specification throughout the game. For example, laser cubes still work even if it’s frozen in time, whereas the others don’t necessarily do. Jump cubes and bridge cubes just won’t work while affected by the gun. In the game’s defense, it does make solving the puzzles so much easier without needing to cut off the gun before laser cubes can get to work. The inconsistency itself isn’t mind boggling yet. That’s reserved for what comes next.
The Entropy Centre, not the game but the in-game lunar colony, is a colony dedicated for big Entropy Gun pointed at Earth —this much is revealed on trailers. However the game is unclear on what the guns are capable of. We are told the handheld version doesn’t have the capacity big enough to be used outside of the puzzle rooms, but these fine prints seem to be lost for the convenience of the story once in a while. The creative license given to the gun does make some great moments, and the inconsistency is explicit to the player; it acts not only as a core plot point, but also as a puzzle element.
The design and justification of the centre itself lacks an in-game reason to be alive. In Portal, Aperture was already designed to be controlled by an AI, and it was destroyed and rebuilt by AI as well. It made sense for the players to see why only the puzzle rooms are maintained and manufacturing lines for puzzle elements were functional. The very idea that the rooms are just configured on the fly also encouraged players to always realign themselves of the supposed real world the protagonist is hoping to reach, not just solving puzzles to proceed to a next room. The Entropy Centre, at its core, is not hinted to be run autonomously. There is no in-game reasons why the puzzle rooms are still functional, nor why nooks and crannies we find lead to the next puzzle chamber. In fact, the random layouts seen in the game often begs more questions than answers. It’s a ruin not meant to be explored or studied, yet we are told answers lie within, but how? What is The Entropy Centre’s excuse to build offices inside puzzle rooms? Also, if a single puzzle operative can power the big gun alone, why does the center need so many employees?
Portal caricatured its characters, settings, and themes around the Aperture Science for comedic purposes, like an old-timey cartoon. Crazy AIs just can’t stop doing weird experiments for purposes that are long forgotten. And those reasons didn’t matter to us. Our nemesis has a goal, so do we. What truly matters is it’s maintained and deployed before our eyes; it is a living place. The Entropy Centre has neither the nemesis nor the living environment. The only antagonist we can speak of would be the catastrophe back on Earth, and we don’t even know how the robots are driven to hostility. The Centre is in utter chaos with most of its rooms lying in ruins, but it’s somehow marginally maintained and barely functional with no one in control. To credit all this for the character development of the protagonist seems unwieldy.
Conclusions: Scratch that Puzzle Itch, But Too many Bells and Whistles
It’s almost impossible to tell whether the developers have included some of the items in-game just for the sake of tributes. It is a troubling sight when the game can’t make up its mind on what it will focus on: will it be tributary to its predecessor, or will it be the puzzle with the new tool, or will it be sci-fi narrative walking simulator. The game is played in one continuous flow, but it is one patched work of experience, especially when the game in question is divided into many rooms, many themes, and many goals. The Entropy Centre scratches the itches of shooter puzzle platformer genre, but it won’t be Portal-like franchise on its first try.