The Entropy Centre

No major spoilers included ! About half into the game. Basically, this game breaks up in 3 setups: === The puzzle === This is where it excels. Some innovative (time)-rewinding. A reasonable learning curve. Many WTF-How-Do-I-Do-this-Moments, but in the end, you'll figure out. This game teaches you thinking in reverse. In a satisfying way. Story is well setup, and has this just-one-puzzle-more touch to it. Music adds to it too. Four stars here. Feels very Portal-ish. No shame in being compared with the reference. === The chase === On occasion you'll have to run. Something is collapsing, flooding with water, something is after you. Adds a bit of stress. But the game is fair, you may catch you breath for a second without getting insta-killed. Three stars. Not my type of game. I'm into the slow approach. === The lockdown === I HATE LOCKDOWNS! You have to solve puzzles while being swarmed with enemies. With homing projectiles. Yeeess... there *is* a way to deal with these. But if i wanted to play *this* type of game I'd bought Doom. Gnarling my teeth into the keyboard right now. One star. Abolutely unnecessary. === Summa summarum === I'd really recommend if it would stick to what it can do best: Puzzles. But these Action-wannabe-passages spoil it for me.

This game is just great. I wasn't expecting it at all (I hadn't really heard of it before). But as soon as it came out on gog and I watched the trailer and the description. It immediately reminded me of the good memories I had of the games "Portal" and "The Talos Principle". Considering how few "quality" games there are in the genre. I mean, games that focus on puzzles, story, atmosphere, humor etc... I let myself be tempted by this game by giving it a chance. Good for me. This game has nothing to be ashamed of with the other great games mentioned above. The difficulty is really gradual. The game takes its time with simple puzzles that become more and more difficult. Each time the game unveils a new mechanic, it takes its time to make us discover the possibilities. The story is nice. We discover it notably through messages left on the computer's mailboxes. (Small mention to the easter egg to discover in hidden places that are not bad for some). The soundtrack is correct. It participates in the immersion of the game. The life span is very good. At the time I leave this review (more than 10 hours of play), I still have fun. Always something to discover. Since it's a small game, I was a bit afraid that the life span would be low compared to the price, but finally I'm not disappointed. In summary. A little wonder that I recommend to all.

Is this Portal 3? interesting plot with hilarious characters. Very ingenious puzzles and the ability to rewind objects to solve puzzles is very original and fun. This game was made by only one developer. A hidden gem.

The game has a very strong start: Mysterious abandoned facility, huge stakes, interesting story ideas that make you think, innovative puzzle mechanic. I thought this had a chance to be one of the best first-person puzzle games on GOG, based on having both a strong story and the potential to build some very cool puzzles. But as the game progresses you begin to realize that the developer didn't have enough content to fill out the game's ~10 hour runtime. Every puzzle feels very "same-y" and the new elements that are introduced are almost all things people have seen 1000x before in puzzle games (conveyor belts, launchpads, lasers, etc.) The biggest flaw with the puzzles is that they never really use the "time" mechanic to it's fullest - while in theory anything could be affected by time, you basically only ever rewind boxes in puzzles. Even FPS games like TimeShift had puzzles in them that used time manipulation more effectively! The puzzles are mostly fairly easy, meaning they must be quick to beat, right? Well, no, largely because of bugs and poor design decisions. Numerous times I had almost reached the end of the puzzle and took one step off the platform, causing instant death and having to restart the puzzle. There was one puzzle which required the user to create a mental model of how physics works, except that when you try to execute the "intended" solution you'd get stuck on a tiny (virtually invisible) outcropping on the wall and fall too early, making you think the solution was wrong. And in terms of the story - I don't want to spoil anything but there aren't a ton of story developments throughout the game. I think most people (even people open to unconventional endings) will end the game disappointed and feeling like developer really dropped the ball on the story side of things. While I had fun with this, I paid full price ($25) which I slightly regret. Other better puzzle games on GOG include Relicta, Talos Principle, and Magrunner.