"There's no sense crying over every mistake"

When I first saw Portal footage, I was pretty excited. The game looked like another hit in the making for valve. I couldn't wait to try it. I was immediately hooked. When I first tried it, I discovered that the wait through all the hype was well worth it.

Gameplay - 9/10

The gameplay in Portal is quite good, as is expected from Valve. The Portal gun was a unique idea to try and they pulled it off perfectly. The only problems with the gameplay are that the gun gets old pretty fast. You have to go through 19 courses that get larger as you progress. Another problem with the gameplay is that there is not much room for diversity. You basically spend the entire game using the portal gun to solve everything. There definitely could have been room for more expansive and diverse ways to solve puzzles.

Sound - 7/10

The sound is a bit of a turn for the worse in Portal. Most sounds are recycled from the Half Life series. They had only one real voice actor in Ellen McLain, yet her voice is so diverse that she can carry all the voice scenes on her own. GLaDOS has an excellent voice. It seems metallic and computer generated. Ellen McLain does an excellent job, the turrets have voices too. The turret lines are perfect. They really set up a personality for the turrets.
The game ends with a beautiful and addictive song written by Jonathan Coulton and preformed by Ellen McLain in the GLaDOS voice. It's awesome.

The sound is good. But I would've prefered if they had used new sounds.

Story - 10/10 *Note, This area contains spoilers.

The story in this game in excellent. You wake up in the Aperture Science facility and begin to run the courses with the Portal gun with promises of cake at the end. At the end of the courses you discover that GLaDOS plans to kill you. Using the Portal gun, you escape from certain death and run amok in the facility. At times you almost forget this is taking place in the Half Life 2 universe. You discover more and more about what happened to GLaDOS and Aperture science the more you progress. The storyline is really entertaining.

Controls - 9/10

The controls are relatively simple with no attempt at diversity. Click one fires a portal, click 2 fires a connecting portal. Spacebar jumps with WASD movement and Ctrl as crouch. It's easy to pick up on which is good for someone new to first person shooters. Not that diverse but there is no point trying to improve on a good thing.

Graphics - 10/10

As a game running on the Half Life engine, the graphics were, as expected, excellent. Valve really did a great job on the testing facility. The drab white and blue everywhere created a sense of a labrotory. The portals themselves would really stand out in the test chambers. When you finally see GLaDOS, you can tell they put a lot of work into the graphics and the game.

Overall, Portal is a wonderful treat from valve. An excellent puzzle game that seems cute, funny, and creepy at the same time. This game will be perfect for everyone, even if you've never played any other game by valve. I would love to see a 2nd Portal.

This game deserves a 9/10. The game pulls lots of stuff off really well, with only minor mistakes. But as GLaDOS says, "There's no sense crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying till you run out of cake."

Valve completes another triumph with Portal, and I urge anyone who is thinking of buying Portal or Orange box to buy it now!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/08