Entropy is a 3D physics puzzle from Autotivity Entertainment where the player has no idea who he is, where he is or how he got there, so it’s time to figure out the answer to those questions as well as.. who or what is that pink ball of light that is guiding you around this strange place, and why is it helping you?
I’m sure you’re more than likely thinking it right now, after looking at the screenshot at the top of this article, so let’s get it out of the way and move on: Yes, Entropy is in fact inspired by the likes of Portal, even though there is nothing that even resembles a portal gun in this game. In its place, manipulation of gravity, water, and fire among other things, are on today’s menu, along with rolling big rocks around and tipping the scales in your favour.
We all know what can happen if you mess with fire and to get through it all, you’re gonna have to start a few minor forest fires, so chances are you’ll accidentally catch on fire at some point, which means a greeting from the ‘game over’ screen, and there are no checkpoints! Thankfully in its place is a clever mechanic that lets you travel back in time at any point, so dying is never going to set you back more than a few seconds. This is also going to come in handy should you need to reset part of a puzzle, instead of manually setting everything up from scratch.
It’s not all about setting the world on fire, however, as both water and electricity (often in tandem) also play a big role in getting past obstacles in your path; water has other uses than putting fires out, after all. Just in case Entropy wasn’t confusing enough already, the developer decided to include temperature as a puzzle piece on top of everything else, so be sure to keep a cool/hot head, when the situation calls for it.
Even though there is no actual interaction between you and the pink ball, at least its presence means that you’re not alone in this strange world and as the game progresses, you’ll meet other creatures who are all important one way or another; how? why? You see.. nope, not gonna tell ya. What I will tell you, however, is that there are more than a handful of secrets and hidden rooms to discover, some of which will even help make more sense of it all; so you better examine the environments carefully, in order to unravel the mystery that is Entropy.
It is currently only available on Xbox Live Indie Games ($1/80MSP), but a PC port is in the making with a release window of “late 2012” and a demo on the way (source: official website). In the meantime, why not check out their Greenlight page? They can also be found on both Facebook and Twitter (@Autotivity).
