"A portal that doesn't stay open for long"

So there was so much hype and interest going on about this game, I watched the preview clips. I admit it looked fun and it is fun, and Valve probably sold over a million copies of the orange box. I was really looking forward to this game, it looked fun, pretty much all the reviews were saying how great it was.


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Gameplay
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6/10 Fun, it is very fun. You must use your own wits to make your way around numerous levels or ‘tests' to gain entry to the next room. You may have to get over a wall, or guide an electrical ball to a certain place using portals. Well actually, every room has the same look and feel including the doors, enemies and lifts, you enter the next room and the only difference is that it has gotten a little trickier, the lack of variety between the levels does make it seem a little dull. Whilst you navigate the levels you get a robot voice talking to you all the way through, if you dislike that voice at all you may want to use the mute button. Also, as the voice only says different things depending on the level you are on, if you keep failing a level, prepare to get annoyed as you just hear the same thing over and over again.

I can't see many young players enjoying this too much, because if you do have trouble and keep failing levels I'm convinced the voice will drive you crazy. For anyone that isn't a good thinker, I can't see this being a game for them.


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Graphics
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4/10 I really felt they could've done more here. I felt the portal gun was a little disappointing, for a gun that creates inter-dimensional portals it seemed bland. When I played Goldeneye years back, when you got hold of a laser gun it was a huge big silver thing that looked ‘lasery' and hi-tech and had that cool factor. The portal gun, bah, for being the only weapon in the game they could've done so much more to make it look hi-tech and impressive, how about a few LED's or shiny parts? I can't rate the graphics too high because there was only two separate levels of scenery. I did find some things impressive, but after playing Half-life 2 I failed to see any improvement.


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Sound/Audio
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5/10 Average, if you like the voice that constantly speaks throughout the game then you will find this fun. But if you don't like the voice, you won't last long playing this. Like before, as the game is so short there's no huge amount of sounds to review. I feel they could've done more, for example I didn't hear any steam or water sounds. I also had to listen to the same voice through the entire game; I guess that saves the developers a lot of money.

I didn't count many music tracks; I only noticed three, one halfway through the game and one at the end and another at the credits screen. There were probably others but I didn't notice them. Half-life 2 had a nice mix of tracks, doesn't music go well with this kind of game or something?


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Story
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1/10: I wouldn't really consider there to be a story, you just wake up in some lab and you have to carryout ‘tests' using portals. Unless you read about it online, it is unlikely you'll find any kind of story in this. There is a story, but it's just too confusing to follow. I think the purpose of the game is to make the story hard to understand and make the player confused. A simple marketing tactic; confuse the buyer, make them discuss it more online, making more people interested thus equalling more sales.


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Challenge
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2/10: If you understand the concept and you've watched the videos before playing this, it is unlikely it will last you any longer than 5 hours. Yes, 5 hours, this is a game from the same people that made Half-life 2. They could have added so many more features and challenges, like upgrading your portal gun with additional features like a scope or challenges where the battery run out and you had to charge it, or allowing it to push other objects over. There are so many different things that they could have done here, but they didn't. Why didn't they implement the additional challenges into the game? Why? I feel that Valve intentionally made the game somewhat easy so they got higher reviews and people didn't get frustrated over difficult challenges. When you finish this game, I assure you, you will be disappointed. I was asking myself, right so where's the big challenges? I have seen people saying they did it less than 2 hours the first time, and people speed running it in under 30 minutes. The fact this game was made by the people that made Half-life 2 which lasted me at least ten times longer, just disgusts me.

There are additional challenges that are unlocked when you go through the game, but they aren't part of the single player game so you don't really get any satisfaction from doing them. You get ‘awards'; oh wow, I'd rather carry on and play a new level thanks! If only they added the separate challenges into the single player mode, sigh.

On the separate challenges menu, you must complete levels using x amount of portals, or do it in x amount of time or x amount of steps. They easily could have implemented this into the game, the amount of portals is how much energy your portal gun has left before you have to recharge it. The amount of time left is how long until the door closes, there were levels which involved timed doors and such, but none of them very challenging or fun. For example there was no level where you had to make your way past obstacles before the door closes.


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Controls/GUI
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2/10 The GUI is nothing special, just the same Steam look of boring greyness. Heaven forbid we get interesting menus and selection screens which somehow involve portals or anything remotely unique. Just how Valve does things I believe.

The controls are pretty much the same as all source games using the WASD keys and mouse. Nothing else new added, yawn.


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Replay Value
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1/10: This type of puzzle game is only fun the first time round. Once you know how to do the puzzles, that's it, there's nothing else to do. There's also no multiplayer or hard mode, why didn't they add a harder mode after completion? It's just not the type of puzzle game you can repeat without getting bored.

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Fun Factor
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9/10: This game is very fun, while it lasts that is. The freedom of how you play the game and try new ways of getting around the puzzle is what makes it fun. The difficulty increases as you get further. I would give the fun factor top marks but you only get to have fun once, and that's a short once.

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Overall
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6/10: A ridiculously short game, I felt it was more of a preview or demo of the portal concept. So many things they could have done but didn't. If you want a game that lasts for more than 5 hours, don't waste your time with this. There are mmorpgs, online shooters and strategy games that will keep you hooked for months. I wouldn't recommend buying it, I would recommend borrowing it off a friend or playing it some other way that doesn't involve paying...

So why did it get so many high reviews from pretty much everywhere? Because reviewers didn't bother playing it all the way through, and just became too engrossed in the portal concept to notice how short the game really is.

GOOD POINTS
-Fun unique puzzler involving portals

BAD POINTS
-Too short!! Zzz..
-So short, ahhh!
-Only two separate levels of scenery
-Lacks features that Half-life 2 has
-Why is it so short???

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/03/07, Updated 12/04/07