Entropy Rising

[i]A review key was provided by the developers free of charge, but this has not, and will not, affect this review in any way.[/i] Entropy Rising is a first person puzzle game. Playing through it you can tell it is heavily influenced by Portal and Braid, and possibly other puzzle games. I really enjoyed the puzzle aspect of this game, however I give it a cautious recommendation as it suffers from some presentation and pacing issues. [h1]Thoughts, game play wise:[/h1] [u]The good:[/u] This is a first person puzzle game with several very interesting mechanics, which the game does tie in nicely together. If gravity fields and time rewinding sound fun to you, this game has them, and more! One of the main items in the games are orbs with different properties - water orbs extinguishes fire/ lava, dirt balls can be used on scales that generate power to open doors, etc. One unique thing I enjoyed was the momentum - you can grab orbs (they're heavy feeling in the game!) and roll them like bowling balls! Which means practice makes perfect and sometimes you can miss completely. Really reminded me of bowling but with huge, heavier orbs. The time travel mechanic kind of serves as a rewind/ save myself from death mechanic, and actually works as intended in this game - I haven't noticed any discrepancies so far. There's also replay value in the form of: a 3-star rating system for time and the times you use rewind, as well as some secrets to find will be interesting to speedrunners and secret hunters. [u]The bad:[/u] Here are some reasons I didn't enjoy the game as much as I'd hoped, even with the interesting mechanics and combinations of these mechanics. The pacing was somewhat strange to me, and it felt like there was no particular ordering or progression. The game does introduce mechanics one by one, but apart from the rooms/ levels getting larger, I didn't particularly feel like the puzzle difficulty was making any meaningful progression. But the fact that I have this expectation may be due to the Portal games. Another problem I had was that for the gravity field gun, there was always a lag and it may or may not work even though I'm sure I shot the gun at a correct place theoretically. This led to me restarting some long parts of the levels from scratch, and felt like more of a chore. Also the gravity field made things so blurry sometimes. If this was improved I think I'd have a better experience. [h1]Conclusion:[/h1] Recommended if you are a fan of pure puzzle games and enjoy playing around in large puzzle chambers, with a variety of mechanics. However the puzzles get sluggish, making some parts of the game feel like a chore. I give this game a cautious recommendation. ~If you enjoyed this review, please check out the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/completingthebacklog#curation]Completing the Backlog[/url] curator page, for other nice reviews by me and others!~

Entropy Rising is a first-person puzzle game where your identity and purpose are unknown! At the beginning of the game, you descend from the heavens. It literally appears as so as you play as a pink, luminous orb that gently floats and guides you to your objective. It’s your job to jump from platform to platform without fail; even if mistakes were made, the game introduces a rewind mechanism which is activated by holding down the right mouse button. Despite having this option available, each level has a three-star challenge: one for simply completing the puzzle, two for completing it at the recommended set time, and finally by finishing the course without ever using the rewind ability (meaning not dying). So for those of you who are perfectionists or achievement hunters, this is will be more than enough of a challenge. The game slowly introduces players to more gimmicky items such as the “Grabber Gun”, which can grab and navigate elemental components such as water or concrete spheres to designated points. Shortly after, you receive an upgraded version of the gun called the “Gravi Gun”, which allows the player to form a gravity bubble around more hostile spheres. Hostile spheres includes those made of lava, in which you can hover them slowly to their rightful place. However, this can only be done in certain areas of a level so there are limitations. After learning the ropes, you’ll encounter strange machinery such as the Thermodynamic Machine, which requires a specific temperature before allowing you to move forward. That’s accomplished either by using the Gravi Gun to transport lava spheres to increase temperature level, or simply using the Grabber Gun on water spheres to cool down lava. These game elements and items all come together to make the the game not only entertaining but also to add a problem-solving aspect to the title that’s not hard to grasp for first-time players, yet adds a good amount of challenge for skilled platforming players. Entropy Rising is very good with providing tips and advice in the shape of computer monitors. Like all puzzle games, you must first learn to crawl before walking and this game instructs the player in a smooth manner. It doesn’t become too overwhelming but supplies enough challenge to make the player think. The visuals are simple and aren’t too extravagant, however, it isn’t an aspect that takes the entertainment out of the game. Below is a short preview video if you would rather see first hand than read. (I understand fully, trust me.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUz5zUhkn5Q

Entropy Rising is a first person indie puzzle game with a similar feel to Portal. It's set in a weird little world populated by flying spheres and oversized measurement devices. You follow a mysterious pink sphere through the levels and solve puzzles involving elements such as fire, water and rock (rock cools down fire, water extinguishes fire, etc) which have to be combined in the right ways and places. One unique and pretty cool feature is the ability to "rewind time" at any moment which saves you some frustration over having fallen to death or having dropped the wrong element as you can always go back really fast. Pros: + Graphics: Looks fabulous! Just check out the screenshots. + Difficulty: Creative and (moderately) challenging riddles + Controls: Well done jumping/platforming controls + Soundtrack: Nice and non-annoying background music Cons: - Story: Little of it - Length: Rather short (as you would expect from this kind of game)

I played the entire game and after considering it a while, I don't think that I can recommend it. It has a bit of a Portal feel, but without any story and none of the humor. What's important here though are the puzzles and the mechanics. The game looks pretty good but I found very few of the puzzles to be interesting from a problem solving perspective. I think I spent about 10 times as much time simply trying to nudge things into exactly the right spot than I did trying to figure out how the puzzles needed to be solved. Even that maybe wouldn't have bothered me too much if the mechanics weren't so terribly annoying. So you have the ability to move an acid ball from lets say 1 meter away. Guess exactly what distance you start taking damage from an acid ball at? You guessed it, exactly the same distance. So every single time you need to move one of these things you have to rush in, push it as fast as you can, and get out again. It's so annoying and serves no purpose that I can see. And it's not like this is something you have to do once or twice. It's more like this is how you spend most your time in the game. The one pretty cool mechanic of being able to go back in time whenever and as much as you want doesn't really serve any purpose except to fix mistakes. It's not as if you can cleverly do something, go back in time, and end up changing where things were. Everything goes back in time exactly how it was. So, if you were super careful you would never need this ability. Now with the crazy annoying mechanics it is super important, but then if you use it you won't get the achievment for not using it at the end of each level. It's kind of a slap in the face when you have to be so careful at every step to avoid the many game mechanic based pitfalls. I will say that I was happy with the final level and the ending. Still, I feel like I got much more frustration from this game than I got enjoyment.

Entropy Rising is a unique game. Sure it takes its inspiration from Braid and Portal, but it has taken the good parts of both those games and come up with a fresh idea. This game has a mixture of clever puzzles, interesting environments and it does a really good job of giving the world a sense if weight and gravity as you interact with it. I am enjoying my time with this game currently, it has a few minor negative points. Those points and my gameplay are featured below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDxUVJMGi7s

Entropy Rising ist einfach nur ein geniales Denkspiel! Ansehnliche Grafik, knifflige Rätsel mit einfachen physikalischen Elementen und die angenehme Hintergrundmusik machen dieses Spiel zu einem meiner absoluten Lieblingsspiele! Man braucht der englischen Sprache nicht mächtig zu sein, denn das Spiel ist selbsterklärend. Es ist eine Herausforderung an das eigene Ego die Rätsel zu lösen und braucht mitunter viel Geschicklichkeit, Geduld und Ausdauer. Ich bin gespannt auf die Level die noch folgen. Klare Kaufempfehlung für Jung und Alt.

Очень неплохая головоломка от первого лица, завязанная в основном на физике, а именно - на катании разного рода шаров - водяных, кислотных, огненных, металлических. Применять их придётся в разнообразных сочетаниях: остужать огненные водяными, испарять кислотные огненными, строить токопроводящие цепи из водяных и кислотных и прочее. Визуальный стиль довольно минималистичен, что на мой взгляд очень подходит для игр такого жанра. Игровая механика не перегружена, но и примитивной её не назовёшь - как раз золотая середина. Отдельно скажу о системе отмотки времени. Это просто идеальная схема сохранений для абсолютно любой игры. Вы просто нажимаете кнопку - и всё произошедшее отматывается назад, вплоть до начала уровня (если надо). Идеальнее просто не придумать. После ненавистных мне чекпоинтов в большинстве современных игр - это просто сказка. На прохождение я потратил около 10 часов - довольно много для такого проекта, тем более за такую цену. Впечатления исключительно положительные, настоятельно рекомендую.

Really cool and tricky game. I especially like the rewind opportunity. Absolutly worth spending a few euros.

The time reversal ability and other gravity affecting abilities are really cool and the game ran pretty well on my system, which is always a nice surprise as it's not exactly top of the line. Ultimately I can't recommend this game because it just doens't seem like a finished game. IT has no personality at all. The story is told very very sparsely and I never felt connected to the world. It was an ok brain teaser, but I expect a little more from my games.

A great indie game that allows you to reverse time when you make a mistake instead of restarting a level. It has great graphics and interesting challenges.