"One of the best 3-4 hours in my gaming lifetime!"

Let me start by saying that the only criticism I have of this game is that it left me wanting more... more time in the world that is Portals. The entire game, which I completed in the time it took my wife to go shopping with her mother, was from start to finish so enjoyable that after I was done I wanted more. I want to shoot portals in every game I ever play again. Hell, I wanted portals in real life if just to make my coffee maker fly in an endless portal loop through my kitchen.

The idea of Portals is simple. You are basically a test subject who wakes up in a glass cage that is the heart of an incredible obstacle course. You feel like a test rat with only a female computer voice to guide you and 'motivate' you to move from test to test to get to a promised piece of cake at the end. You are slowly and gradually introduced to the idea of portals in such an ingenious way that by the time you get to hold the portal gun itself, you already understand the concept of it. Through the use of various test rooms you are introduced to new concepts and reminded of past lessons on the laws of portal use. None of this feels like you are being taught however and really I only realized that I was being trained by listening to the director's commentary after completing the game.

Once you hold the completed portal gun that allows you to generate a blue and an orange portal, if you're anything like me, you will feel like you have just received the greatest toy the universe has to offer. The concept seems so simple... shoot here, shoot there and walk/fall through. But never before has any concept in gaming made me rethink the way I've played games more than this.

Other reviews will tell you about the ways you can use portals for problem solving, so I'm going to concentrate on the unintended uses of portals and how using them can make you rethink EVERYTHING about how you are used to playing a first person 'shooter'. For instance, you might find yourself running down hallways after you first get the gun only to realize all of a sudden that its much easier and efficient to just shoot a portal behind you and one at the end of the hallway and travel through. Or shooting a portal at the top of the room and one on the wall next to you so that you can just take a look at the puzzle room from a higher angle. You can make up your own fun little diversions by watching a bot fall into a hole on the floor and out of another hole on the floor and watch it oscillate between falling and rising. Or shooting a portal above you and one below you to start an endless loop of falling. And I believe it is by playing around with these concepts you begin to appreciate the idea of portals and how I believe they will become so much more than just part of a puzzle game in the future.

The concept of portals are so powerful that when I finished Portal and moved onto playing Half Life 2 Episode 2, I found myself so disappointed that I no longer had this power that I signed out of the game after 10 minutes and went back to playing the director's commentary for Portals. You feel like you need some sort of portal methadone to ween you off of something so simple and profound. Lets just say I'm drinking the Kool-aid and I'm friggin loving it.

In addition to the portals themselves, the game is very well produced. The pacing might seem slow to some, but I believe it was very important to make sure you grasp core concepts of this revolutionary concept before moving forward. Graphics are top notch, level design never gets old and information is given to the user between a minimalist HUD and an ingenious use of environmental design to tell you everything you need to know. And for a game that needs no storyline, lets just say that this is one plot I will never forget. Added to this are the mini achievements you receive as surprises for doing something in a unique way and you really do feel like a trained rat who gets rewards of cheese, or cake in this case, for doing a good job. And believe me, the cake is GOOOD!

I highly recommend this game not only because its a HIGHLY entertaining and original game, but because by playing it you can be one of those guys that tells their kids that you where there when video game history was being made.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/12/07