"Are You Ready to Start Thinking With Portals?"

Portal is, simply put, a spectacular game. It opens your head to a whole new way of thinking. Basically, you shoot a portal on one wall, shoot another portal on a different wall, and walk through one to get to another. Easy, right? Now try it with turrets, energy balls, and floors full of deadly muck. This extremely amazing, addictive puzzle game will have you starting to rethink the laws of physics. Are you ready to start thinking with portals?


Controls - 10/10

The controls are all well placed and easily accesible. You use WASD to move, E to pick things up, Space to jump, and the left and right mouse buttons to fire blue and orange portals, respectively. Those are all of the basic controls that you'll have to use, so it's a good thing that they're so easy to use.


Story - 9/10

The story, although a little hard to understand at first. You wake up in a cell, and a giant computer, GLaDOS, starts telling you about where you are while not giving too much information. Although it's hard to understand at first, it becomes clear throughout the story with GLaDOS, the giant computer, telling you different tidbits of information. It's just your job to piece them together, like a puzzle inside a puzzle game.


Graphics - 10/10

The graphics are all crisp and clear. Everything looks in some way realistic, all of those little details are shown, and it just seems so well made. You'll understand the second you try it out. What else would you expect from VALVe?


Sound - 10/10

It could annoy some, but I personally love the sound. You're in a giant factory throughout the game. You always here those little sounds, like steam being given off or fans turning. GLaDOS also has an interesting voice that sounds like an actual robot, as well as the turrets. I just love the sound; it makes the game feel especially real.


Gameplay - 8/10

By now, you should know how it works. Shoot a portal somewhere, come out of a portal somewhere else. You're also affected by momentum, which means that if you drop into a portal from high above, you'll come out of the other portal with the same distance you entered the one before. It's a very interesting piece of information that makes the game much more difficult and exciting. While the gameplay is great, there's only one flaw: duration. If you play nonstop, you should be able to complete the game in only about three hours. Quite a short time, so it does leave you wanting more. However, for the time you're playing, you'll love every second of it.


Replayability - 7.5/10

After you beat the game, you can play the bonus maps. The first set pits you on six of the same stages you were at before, except with increased difficulty. There are more obstacles in your way, or the obstacles are harder to overcome. Once you're done with these, there's also another set of bonus maps. These are some normal stages from the game, except now, you're aiming to complete it either with the least time, least portals, or least steps. As you do better, you'll earn more achievements and more gold medals. It does get a little boring to complete the same level over and over, though.


So, there you have it. Portal, an amazing game only suffering from duration and replayability issues. When you put those aside, you've got incredible puzzles, graphics, and sounds combined in one. This is really one of the best puzzle game out there, and you'll all be finishing this game, talking about it constantly, and waiting for the sequel to come out as soon as possible.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/29/08