Portal

"So, where's the cake?"

I recently picked up the Orange Box for the PC. I'm a bit late to the party, but I finally arrived. The first game I just had to install was Team Fortress 2, however, my computer somehow cannot play that game so I moved on and tried my second choice I just had to play, Portal. Now, once I started playing, I entered a whole new lonely world…

Storyline:

Umm… this is a weird one. You play this person named Chell who is somewhere inside this building that is holding some kind of test that she is supposed to perform. The only voice that she hears is from the computer AI called GLaDOS who leads her through the tests. For completing these tests, Chell will get cake and a party.

As the story moves along, things become stranger and very weird. Whether or not it comes from the voice of GLaDOS saying disturbing lines and lies or the strange rooms that are hidden around certain corners of the test rooms, things become unsettling as you go. Once you reached the climax, the whole world is turned upside down and you must escape from the crazy testing place! I'll leave the rest of the story for you to discover.

8 out of 10!

Graphics:

I don't know… there isn't much to say. Most of the game is completely barren and dull, despite for the couple of portals, energy balls, some equipment, and some androids. Then, even when you get to the final part of the game, it just doesn't really seem that all impressive, for example, the fire in the game looks rather bad This game isn't meant to be eye candy, but it use some more detail.

6 out of 10!

Sound:

Sound? Is there really much sound in this game? There really isn't much sound or sound effects in this game, it just feels dull. The portal sound effects get really old after a while, the energy balls don't make a sound while moving, and there really isn't any background music until the turning point of the game.

The background music that does play during the turning point sounds nice and it gives you the feeling urgency as you must find a way to get out of this predicament. The voice for the GLaDOS and androids are done by the same person, who did a good job.

7 out of 10!

Controls:

Everything works rather well and you can assign what key you want on the keyboard to do whatever you want for more convenience. Personally, certain commands felt a bit delayed, but that maybe my computer.

9 out of 10!

Game Play:

Here's where everything gets interesting. You have this interesting little gun that shoots these two portals that work like a door. Let's say you shoot one portal on the ceiling and then another below you, you would fall through the floor and then through the ceiling. It is an inventive way to play a puzzle game and if you use it right, you can do so much more with it to solve some of the most inventive puzzles I have ever seen. However, later puzzles with less obvious goals can be mind-bendingly difficult and will most likely have you seeking information via the Internet for help. Trust me on this.

9 out 10!

That's pretty much the entire game in a nutshell. Depending on how much dedication you put into this game, you'll pretty much breeze through this one in a weekend or a little bit longer. However, once you start playing, you'll probably not want to stop until you finish this game.

Now I'll crunch all the numbers up and see what the official score is… divide this by this… add that… scratch that… round that…. Alright! Here's the score:

My Final Score: 8 out of 10!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/08

Game Release: Portal (US, 10/09/07)