Portal

"You will feel smarter after playing this game!"

INTRODUCTION
Portal is a very refreshing game! There are not very many original games these days which is why Portal is such a joy to play. A game like Mario Galaxy comes to mind cause I had the same feeling playing it thinking, there has never been anything like this before. Its a difficult game to put into a category so I will just name every category it is a part of. lol Its part first person shooter, platformer, puzzle, adventure. It consists of 19 puzzles or "test chambers" to be exact.

STORY
I was very impressed by the story! I didn't think there would be one at all but its seriously an amazing storyline that goes very deep. The only thing I am gonna say about it is you are in a research facility known as an enrichment center where you are being tested to solve environmental puzzles. Something happens later in the game that really opens up the story and changes the gameplay and it really impressed me so much.

There is also a lot of humor in this game. There is a voice that talks to ya while you are testing. Its very funny and makes you really motivated to get to the next test chamber just to hear what it has to say. I don't want to give any of the humor away but I want to mention one thing as an example. The voice always uses super technical terms to describe simple things like a block. lol I thought it was funny and clever. =] There is more humor than that but I don't want to spoil this amazing game.

PACING
The game does an amazing job introducing you to the portal concepts. Like I said earlier there are 19 test chambers and the game spends about 10 of em just teaching you the different ways to use portals because there are a lot. You are probably thinking that is half of the game right there. Its a short game but don't let that scare ya into thinking its not good. The later test chambers really do a great job and test what you learned. Every puzzle is very different which is really cool cause you have to think in different ways.

GAMEPLAY
This game is called Portal for a reason. lol You get a portal gun early on that allows you to shoot orange and blue portals. Only one of each portal can be used at a time. The R2 trigger fires a blue portal and the L2 trigger shoots an orange portal. If you fire more than one blue portal for example it will just replace the other one. When you enter one portal you come out the other, it doesn't matter whether you enter the blue or orange portal. That may sound simple but there is plenty of challenge to the game especially later on. You will be activating switches, carrying blocks, etc.

The game is very well thought out. You cannot fire a portal at just any surface or else that would make some of the puzzles way to simple. Your crosshairs will signal ya whether or not you can make a portal on a surface. You can just shoot a portal there to see what happens if you want but I thought it was cool idea that they put a signal on the crosshairs.

Also on your crosshairs it lets you know whether the last portal you shot was an orange or blue. That is so helpful because you will be using portals so much and sometimes you won't be anywhere near the portal you last fired. Without this idea it would have made the game very frustrating because you wouldn't know whether the next portal to shoot is orange or blue and like I said earlier if you fire the same portal color it replaces the other one.

One other very well thought out idea is the quicksave reminder. Some puzzles are pretty long and if you die, yes you can die in this game lol, you would have to start over. But thankfully the game has a quicksave feature you activate simply just by holding the "start" button for 2 seconds. The game will constantly warn you that this is a good place to quicksave. I suggest you take that advice. That's awesome because without it I would have forgotten and may have had to start the test chamber over if I didn't save earlier.

LASTING APPEAL
It has some decent replay value. Once you finish the game you can replay the test chambers but they will have developer commentary you can activate. That's a great idea for a game. Its really neat to hear how they came up with these ideas. They talk about average people playing the game and how they changed different things around based on that so the player won't become frustrated.

After you beat the game you can replay the test chambers to get medals like for example if you finish it in a fast time. That's a good idea for people who really want to master the game.

My favorite thing though is that they have 6 advanced test chambers which are 6 of the puzzles but changed around to make em super difficult. That's an awesome idea because the main game isn't super challenging, I got stuck only one time for awhile. These advanced puzzles are really challenging though and totally test your skill.

CONCLUSION
Portal really impressed me! In an age where videogames normally fit into only one genre...portal is several. Its a fairly short game but I didn't want to give it a lower score just because of that. What is there is amazing from beginning to end. For a puzzle game you want to be stumped and get stuck but I wasn't really challenged until those advanced puzzles, which are thankfully very difficult. That doesn't mean the main game is simple or bad. I had to constantly stop and think what I needed to do. I'm sorry I don't really have anything negative to say about this game at all. lol I really don't! Portal is incredible and the fact that it comes with Orange Box for $20 just sweetens the deal! Please get this game and you will have an enjoyable refreshing new gaming experience like no other.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/08

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