Portal

"Portal Will Leave You Drooling For a Sequel!"

If there's any word out there that could be used to quickly describe this game, it would be "stunning." Portal is a game that's unique in its own way, yet is still beautiful. Almost everything is perfect about this game: the music, the controls, the game play, the graphics, and the storyline. When you play Portal, you'll find yourself engrossed in the levels, which range from easy, to difficult, and basic, to confusing. No matter what skill level you have, you would still find this game amazing. The beginning levels are nice and easy, giving even novice players good training for later levels. You don't need to waste time sitting through one of those pesky tutorials with this game, you learn the basics when you start, and you pick up new techniques as you progress. However, the surprising thing about this game is that even if you're an expert gamer, or have played through the game multiple times, you still get some pleasure playing through easy, beginning levels.

The Story
The game begins in what seems to be a closed glass room. The radio is playing some type of music, and there is a timer on the wall that seems to be counting down from one minute, but for an unknown reason. The game gives a short period of time to get used to the basic controls, and to look around. When there's about 30 seconds left on the wall timer, a female voice comes onto the intercom, and starts speaking about what you're doing there. She starts off by saying something about how you're involved in a test, but doesn't expand on that point. After that, and throughout the rest of the game script too, she states that serious injury may occur from participating in the test, but that the primary goal is to have fun, and to enjoy delicious cake after you're done. However, also throughout the whole game, there is the phrase "The Cake Is a Lie" smeared on multiple walls with blood. All of these points challenge whether or not the female voice, (named GLaDOS) is on your side or not, which adds to the suspense of the game, and the engrossing storyline. After GLaDOS' little introduction, a portal leading out of the glass room which is containing you opens, and you can leave the room. At this beginning time, you do not possess the portal gun, but a few levels later, you obtain it. The gun allows you to do what the whole game is about, which is shooting portals. Overall, the story is amazing, and is really entertaining. The way that the game contradicts itself by promising cake, and then stating that it's a lie really adds to the suspense, and makes you want to play more and more so you can figure everything else about the story out.

The Portal Gun
The portal gun, as you should be able to tell from its name, is a device that allows you to shoot portals. When the gun is fully upgraded, you'll be able to shoot two portals; a blue one and an orange one. When both portals are in place where you want them to be, you'll be able to step, drop, or jump through one portal, and then come out another. The game follows some physics rules, and the most recognizable one that it follows is "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out." Basically, what that means is that if you jump from a high distance into a portal on the ground, you'll come speeding out of the second portal just as fast. That adds more realism to the game, as well as the fact that you'll need to consider it to get through more advanced levels. By using the multiple portal techniques, you'll be able to cross large gaps, access new areas, bypass dangerous turrets, defeat enemies, and more! It all just takes some training and some getting used to. However, there is a catch to ensure that the game has an actual challenge. You can't shoot portals in all places, just some. Places that can not have portals shot at them are marked, so you'll be able to tell the difference between places that portals can be, and places that they can't be. The challenge that this delivers is just right, and adds to the fun!

Achievements
After you've played through the game once, you can look at the achievements menu. This menu basically lists multiple challenges for you to try and accomplish. Some examples of achievements are "Friendly Fire," where you need to knock down one turret with another, "Camera Shy," where you need to knock down all security cameras in the game, "Terminal Velocity," where you need to manage to fall thirty thousand feet, and more! In total, there are fourteen achievements to accomplish, and some can be very easy, but some can also be extremely difficult. Overall, the achievements are a nice feature that has been added to the game. They add lots of extra playtime on to the game, and provide a motive to play through multiple times.

Bonus Maps & Developer Commentary
Completing most of the bonus maps in the game is another one of the fourteen achievements. In total, there are twelve bonus maps. Six of them are "Advanced Chambers," and six are "Challenge Maps." The bonus maps are basically edited versions of chosen, original levels from the game. For example, one advanced chamber was of a regular level, but with turrets that could not be disabled. Therefore, getting through the level was much harder, as you would need to dodge all of the turrets, instead of disabling them like you would in the normal level. On the other hand, challenge maps are much different. Instead of editing the levels, the levels are the exact same. The hard thing about them is that they have limits on either how many portals you can shoot, how many steps you can take, or how much time you can use. When you pick one of the six challenge maps, you'll the need to pick one of the three that you'd like to try and accomplish. Will you play through the level with a limit on time, steps, or portals? Because of these limits, you need to strategize, and think in advance so that you can actually make it through without passing the limit. Overall, bonus maps are an extremely difficult extra challenge that's been added onto the game. They would even challenge the expert gamers. In my opinion, trying to accomplish the challenges that they present is quite fun, and can take up a lot of time.

One of the final features that are in the game is developer commentary. On all of the 19 levels, the developers have put in some type of commentary that can play in the background while you're playing through the level. This commentary can be quite interesting if you listen to it in detail, as it can tell reasons why levels are made the way they are. The commentary can also reveal the history of the level, how it has evolved, and other wishes that they had for the level. You can actually learn a lot by listening to the commentary, so it's a nice feature, especially for people that like to know lots of things about games.

The Sound
The sound and music is great. GLaDOS' voice was well done, and really does sound like the computer it was supposed to sound like. I believe that the voice actors did extremely well with this game. The sound effects are also done really well too. The sound of the turrets shooting at you actually makes the fact that they're shooting evident, even if you're looking away from them, and the bullets aren't hitting you. The portal gun also has its own unique sound effect that occurs whenever you shoot a portal. While there isn't really that much to say about the sound specifically, I can conclude that it was done extremely well, and it definitely assists in the stunning outcome of the game.

The music and speech in the game are also great. The ending song, "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton was written exclusively for the game, and can be heard after you beat the final boss, while the credits are playing. The song is quite popular, and it's unique because it's sung by GLaDOS. The song is based off of the events of the game, so if you listen to it or read the lyrics before you beat the whole game, it wouldn't make that much sense to you. However, if you listen to it or read it after you've beaten the final boss, everything, or almost everything should make sense to you.

The speech in the game should be payed close attention to, as it's quite humorous, and often assists with the storyline. GLaDOS often pipes in to say things as you progress through the levels, whether it be warnings of what negative effects the test can bring, warnings of what not to do during the test, explanations of new features that have been added to your gun, or other things. Near the end of the game, I think that her comments seem to be more humorous and entertaining. The turrets also say some interesting things when they spot you, when they lose sight of you, and when they're knocked over. For example, when they're disabled, one of the things that they might say is "Your business is appreciated," and when they spot you, they might say "Dispensing product." They have a long line of possible things to say, so them talking never really gets old.

Graphics
The graphics in the game are actually quite good, and have lots of detail. In the game's options, you can choose whether you want Low, Medium, High, or Very High detail, depending on what your graphics card can handle. Most players should have no trouble with "Very High" detail, as I can run the game just fine on "Very High" with only a HP 128MB video card, made by neither NVIDIA or ATI. (For those who don't know what that means, I basically just said that my card is an extremely low quality card compared to other ones which are made today.) If you're really having a lot of trouble playing it, you can choose to size the game down, and just play in a window, rather than full screen. In the game, no matter what options you pick, there is still a good amount of detail that makes playing seem quite enjoyable and realistic. There is sufficient texture in all areas, and everything looks really nice.

Controls
The controls are really quite easy to learn, and by the end of the first few levels you likely will have mastered them. The game is in a first person view, and you look around by moving the mouse. If the mouse movement is too sensitive for your liking, or not sensitive enough, you can change the sensitivity in the options so that everything works well for you. Aside from the mouse, you only use about 7 buttons on the keyboard that are easy to reach because they're all around the same area on the keyboard. Another good point is that you would never end up using all of the keyboard buttons at the same time. Therefore, the controls aren't really confusing at all. To shoot the two different portals, you use the left and right mouse keys.

Playtime and Replay Value
Like all things, nothing can be perfect, and that includes this game. As much as I want it to be, it can't be perfect. In this game, the one problem is its length. The game is longer then a demo, yet I wouldn't say it's long enough to be considered a whole game. I'd say that the original game, without completing all of the bonus levels and achievements, only takes about three or four hours to play through. Luckily, it's a very addicting game, so it will really make you want to replay it over and over, and then there are the bonus maps to keep you entertained. It's a great game, and I would definitely recommend it, but I guarantee that it'll leave you drooling for a sequel.

Cool:
- Addictive
- Great sound, control, story, music
- Extremely fun
- Cool features
- Good for all levels of gamers

Could be Better:
- The length of the game

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/09

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