Holy shit.
I know Prey tried to make a big deal about its portals. “Look, you can go back and forth in some places with pre-determined openings in the world! And our gravity is weird!” And they were fun at times, a good method of shuffling players around levels and letting enemies in.
It just doesn’t compare to making your own, though. It can’t.
And that’s what Portal is all about. Make holes in the reality and leap through them. The concept is simple, but the execution is amazing.
Portal is a simple puzzle game from a first person perspective that allows for creative genius in player methodology using momentum and the occasional crate. Players are given, after a few puzzles, a portal gun which opens blue portals. The other half of the portal, the orange one, opens on its own in the world or is triggered for several levels, until the player upgrades said portal gun, gaining total control over both ends. And the possibilities are damn near endless once players have both, and the ability to go just about anywhere from wherever they currently are. The basic mechanic is to open two ends of a portal, and go through it. And take other things through it. Or throw them there, or just guide their paths with the portal.
Good portal use can launch players and objects to insane distances, allow for instant travel across levels, and reach areas which would be completely out of reach to anything that doesn’t have wings. And that’s just the simple use.
It’s very simple, and it’s just far too fun. Portal completely avoids feature creep or overloading players. Things are, in Valve style, slowly introduced as needed, the player is trained, and then they’re used in some amazingly fun ways, and creative ways, that I won’t spoil due to the fact this would become less of a review and more of a walkthrough. So there. Really, all I can say is that it’s incredibly fun, and has some moments that will make you feel incredibly clever for working out a solution, especially once you encounter rooms where not all surfaces can hold portals, or there are many obstacles right in the way of what you’re trying to do.
Portal just stays extremely fun constantly, putting the player in a large test facility with an AI that is clearly not entirely sane, and has an obsession with cake. GLaDOS constantly talks to the players, informing them of the situation, congratulating them, taunting them. The writing for GLaDOS is, unquestionably, one of the funniest things I’ve experienced all year. Portal is by far the funniest game this year, and GLaDOS is right on track to end up on the list of all time great comic relief. Every bit of the sound and graphic presentations is perfect for the game. It’s all very immersive and consistent, really making players feel like they’re there. Graphically, the test chambers have a wonderfully sanitized look to them, with smooth white segmented walls and smooth glossy metals as the defining features. Most things, turrets, crates, and the portal gun, have a molded shiny look, which is absolutely perfect. The audio, parts of which come from Half-life 2 (appropriately, as some elements are shared), is wonderful and balanced just right. Sound effects are clear, and dialog can be heard perfectly well. This is the anti-Halo when it comes to sound-mixing. It all just works.
To say more is to give away a large amount of the game’s surprises, though I certainly don’t feel like I’m doing the game justice. It’s hard to say a lot. The game is short, 3 hours or so initially, with a much warranted playthrough for developer’s commentary. After that, advanced puzzles and bonus challenges will take up a significant amount of time and can be absolutely fiendish. I’ve gotten about 9 hours of play personally, even though the first play was only 3 hours. That alone speaks volumes about the quality.
Portal gets 5 canes. It’s pure, twisted genius of an incredibly creative sort. It’s part of the brilliant
