Gaming Signal: Review: Portal

Review: Portal

Portal isn't just the best game with cake ever, it's also an incredibly fun mind-bending puzzler as well. You start out as a test subject for Aperture Science, competitor to Black Mesa, and the friendly computer takes you through a series of tasks to measure your reaction time and spatial awareness. These increasingly difficult tasks make use of the Portal device: a gun that allows you to place portals on various surfaces and travel between them.

This is the heart of the game. Each 'room' is a puzzle that you must solve using the portal device. They start simple, with you moving between two openings, and ramp up from there to the cool puzzles that make use of inertia and have you 'falling' between portals to reach higher platforms. I can't say enough about how well designed these puzzles are. At the later levels, the puzzles are quite challenging without being ridiculously difficult. If you give each room a minute or two of thought, you can figure out what you need to do. There are also certain surfaces that a portal can fit on and finding these will help you on your way. These puzzles are what make Portal fun and addictive to play.

But there actual story isn't bad either. For a game that you can complete in under 4 hours total, the plot isn't very deep, but it makes up for that with it's twists. More is going on than you realize and the goal you are trying to reach through the first part of the game ends up being nearly the half-way point. Once you reach the cake, things take an unexpected turn.

The only characters you see throughout the game are you, and the computer. Thus, to make this game work, Valve imbued the computer with a ton of character and has it say some really funny lines. The computer is your basic passive aggressive 'AI', and she has some, um, quirks, that make her interesting. The dialog you hear is well done, and the voice acting is terrific. There were several times during the game where I laughed out loud. That doesn't happen very often during a game.

It's also amazing that, for an FPS, you don't actually shoot anybody. In fact, you don't even have any real weapons at all. Valve has taken what is essentially a series of physics puzzles and created an engrossing, entertaining and funny game out of them. And at around 4 hours, its just the right length. Of course, once you finish new 'advanced' levels are unlocked for you to play on. And speaking of finished, the end credits is possibly the best credits/song combo for a game. Ever. The song, written by Jonathn Coulton, is amazing and fits the theme of the game to a tee. The credits also fit into the game seamlessly and the combination is awesomely funny. If you want to spoil yourself because you won't be playing Portal in the near future (and just WTF is wrong with you???), then you can search on YouTube for 'Portal credits' and find one of the billion videos. And no, I won't supply you with a link. If you can't bothered to play the game, I can't be bothered to point you to a video...

As part of The Orange Box, Portal is a must play. In fact, that whole package is worth the money. But Portal is also available from Steam for $20. I'm undecided whether that is a decent price for a 4-hour game, but the presentation and the technical details are so polished and well done, $20 is a steal. You simply must play this game.

And for your entertainment, Yahtzee at Zero Punctuation reviews The Orange Box, including Portal: