In October 2022, the classic “Portal” celebrated its 10th anniversary. Perhaps to commemorate this, there are also big movements such as the free DLC “Portal with RTX” being released this month. The puzzle gimmicks and storyline are all great and still deeply loved.
And it was precisely because of this work that the genre of puzzle FPS blossomed. Fifteen years after its release, puzzle FPS is still alive and well! Day and night, gamers are tackling puzzles with super-tech sci-fi guns in hand. So, “PC Game Goku☆Michi” introduces the world of PC games that you may not know yet. This time, we will introduce the new puzzle FPS “The Entropy Centre”.
The Entropy Centre is a game developed by Stubby Games, an indie developer based in England, England, and released on November 2022, 11. If you look at the trailer above, it has a pretty rich game screen and you may wonder if it is the work of a fairly large game development company, but this Stubby Games is a solo development. There are several development partners and a publisher called Playstack, so strictly speaking, it is not a one-person development, but it is still amazing.
This may have a lot to do with the background of Daniel Stubbington, also known as Stubby. His previous job was as a video creator and was the cinematic lead for The TrailerFarm, which is famous for producing game trailers. If you refer to an interview with him when he was working at the company, you can see that he worked on cinematic trailers for famous films such as Borderlands 3. The experience of creating such rich and cool images using a game engine is also utilized in this work. Well, the graphics of this game should be cool too.
Thanks to the publisher, Japanese localization has been implemented since launch, so I would like everyone in Japan to experience the visual beauty that I don’t think is a solo.
Arya Adams woke up in a strange room. This seems to be a facility called the Entropy Center, and he works here as a junior puzzle operator. But I don’t remember what happened. Even my name is vague. Moreover, this facility is shabby, as if it had been abandoned for many years, and there was no one but me. What is this place and who am I?
This game, which starts with such a start, is an FPS puzzle with the theme of “time retrograde”.
In the entropy center, which is also the title, it seems that they were collecting the mysterious energy entropy energy obtained by having the puzzle operator think and solve the puzzle, and there are many puzzles waiting for the player. Naturally, the puzzle to extract entropy energy is not an ordinary puzzle, but uses paranormal science and technology using entropy energy.
That is this entropy device. Entropy devices have the power to stop and reverse time of an object. To put it simply, when the beam from this gun hits, the object’s time stops, and if you keep hitting it, it will gradually return to where the substance existed before. Using this, you will be able to accurately manipulate the puzzle objects such as switches and entropy cubes to break through the puzzle room. It is a system that strongly feels the influence of the “Portal” series, which challenged the puzzle chamber as an experiment. It’s similar to the fact that there are no people in the facility.
By the way, it is a little interesting that this work attaches the word “entropy” to everything. Entropy Museum, Entropy Control Room, Entropy Robot… I’m sure this facility sells entropy buns and entropy cookies as souvenirs. There is no doubt that a gift shop also appeared on the way.
However, the memory is also vague and the player Aria is. In the first place, I don’t know how the puzzle works or this facility. But don’t worry. This sci-fi super science gun is equipped with an AI assistant! That’s Astra! She can tell you about this facility, explain puzzle objects, and even make appointments at the hospital. This makes both the player and the unremembered aria safe.
Yes, this game is also a sci-fi ruin exploration adventure with Siri! …… Oh my God.
Well, the player can’t actively ask her questions, so Astra is actually just an NPC in the game. It’s just so nice that her presence allows me to feel before the entropy center is destroyed! The AI assistants we use every day, such as Siri and Alexa, are often used in our daily lives. Atlas also speaks lines that make you feel like life in such an entropy center. There have been many buddy works with AI installed in machines before, but they don’t have a hospital appointment function. Also, there is a scene where the user’s aria gets frustrated when the BGM starts to be played at a timing that does not make sense, and there are moves that are like AI assistants that we know.
With the AI assistant function that has become familiar to us, you can feel the world view. It has been 15 years since GLaDOS, an advanced AI that appeared as a watchdog and boss in “Portal”. Maybe it means that our perception of AI has also changed… Is that too much to say?