This game was provided by the developer/publisher. Thank you!
The Entropy Centre is a first-person puzzle game where you are tasked to think...in reverse! Solve complex puzzles with your trusty AI gun ASTRA and manipulate objects in this time-bending adventure to find the truth behind The Entropy Centre and save Earth...if you can. I couldn't help but compare this to Portal 2 a bit, but I wouldn't say it is a negative statement here. I felt a similar joy playing this and I enjoyed the visuals and witty dialog I encountered throughout my time. I can say, without a doubt, it was definitely worth the experience. But now we have to take a look on how it really runs on the Steam Deck!
Since the demo, The Entropy Centre has come a long way and definitely gotten significantly better in terms of optimization, but it is not perfect. At max settings, depending on the area, you will get a range of 30-50 FPS with battery drain around 22W - 25W. This fluctuated even more when moving around, so max settings definitely isn't the way to go, at least not like this!
Thankfully, with how much more optimized The Entropy Centre is now, I was able to easily get 3 different builds focusing on different aspects. This one was harder for me to choose which I preferred, but the battery focus will be my favorite as it still feels really smooth, looks great, and lasts a bit longer than the others. For the recommended build, I kept all settings on high except for Shadows and Effect quality, a 1152x720 resolution and FSR Sharpness 1, and resolution scale of 70%, I was able to keep battery drain under 14W most of the time, with the average being around 12.5W for 3+ hours of battery life.
I then proceeded to create a build that would keep almost all settings on ultra with a 100% resolution scale. This was achievable with a 40 FPS cap, shadow quality on high, and TDP limit of 11. While the TDP could be pushed higher and could maybe increase framerate to 50, there were too many times the game dropped framerate noticeably and 40 just felt way more comfortable.
From there, I decided to create a 60 FPS build as well, but it does require some compromises. With this build, you will get around the same battery drain as the quality, but everything will need to be lowered a bit. The compromises aren't so bad in the grand scheme, and it is harder to separate on the smaller screen, but it can be noticeable in certain places regarding high concentrations of shadows.
Regardless of whichever build I chose, there were always certain sections that stuttered a little. This mainly occurred when entering new areas, though running around semi-outside areas that have collapsing architecture tended to slow things down a bit too. These only lasted 5 seconds at most and then went back to normal, but they did still happen and wouldn't completely go away. Otherwise, I didn't have much issue keeping stable framerates!
The Entropy Centre was one of the demos I tried for NEXT last month and loved the premise and visual presentation, so it brings me great pleasure to say it has only gotten better! In the demo, hitting 40 felt like a stretch, but being able to hit 50 and 60 so easily and stable while staying under 20W drain is an accomplishment. Overall, the pros heavily outweigh the cons and I am happy to recommend adding this one to your libraries!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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A huge step forward from the demo, The Entropy Centre is a fantastic game and playing it on Deck feels right at home with some tweaking!
No Forced Compatibility
Resolution: 1152x720
Window Mode: Windowed
Resolution Scale: 70%
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Medium
Effects Quality: Medium
Anti-Aliasing Quality: High
Foilage Quality: High
View Distance Quality: High
Post-Processing Quality: High
Motion Blur: Off
SteamOS:
40 FPS Cap with 40 Refresh Rate
Half Rate Shading OFF
TDP Limit 11
Linear
Proton Version:
No Forced Compatibility
Game Settings:
Resolution: 1280x800
Window Mode: Windowed
Resolution Scale: 100%
Texture Quality: Ultra
Shadow Quality: High
Effects Quality: Ultra
Anti-Aliasing Quality: Ultra
Foilage Quality: Ultra
View Distance Quality: Ultra
Post-Processing Quality: Ultra
Motion Blur: Off (Personal Preference)
Projected Battery Usage/Temps:
15W - 19W
Around 70c - 76c temps for CPU and GPU
Around 2.5 - 3 hours of gameplay
SteamOS:
40 FPS Cap with 40 Refresh Rate
Half Rate Shading OFF
TDP Limit 11
Linear
Proton Version:
No Forced Compatibility
Game Settings:
Resolution: 1280x800
Window Mode: Windowed
Resolution Scale: 75%
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Medium
Effects Quality: Medium
Anti-Aliasing Quality: High
Foilage Quality: High
View Distance Quality: Medium
Post-Processing Quality: Medium
Motion Blur: Off (Personal Preference)
Projected Battery Usage/Temps:
15W - 19W
Around 70c - 76c temps for CPU and GPU
Around 2.5 - 3 hours of gameplay
Is there a portal vibe ? Seems fun !
Definitely has this awesome vibe! That's what drew me to the demo and kept me going throughout the game. I loved it!
Was looking for a review to see how well this ran on SteamDeck, glad to see yours pop up so quick! Really solid review and awesome information on the various builds used. More sites should follow this format for SteamDeck reviews with how useful these can be!
Picking this game up later today and will be using your recommended build!
Hell yeah! Thank you for your kind words. While we can't comment on other sites, we will continue our trend and try to encompass as many games as we can! This kind of testing does take time, so we have First Looks which offer our recommended build, then we come back and update them with new builds and turn them into full reviews! Let us know what you think of the game!!