Portal
Portal
PC - Valve - October 9, 2007
Valve
First-Person, Puzzle, Steam, Valve, Portal, GLaDOS
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| 92 |
System Specs used in the review
At the time of writing, 4 hours have been put into the game.
What would you expect to be the best element in a First-Person Puzzler? The ingenious puzzle design? The clever learning curve and game mechanics? Play Portal and the answer may surprise you. The shining star of Portal isn't the graphics or gameplay, but the villain, GLaDOS.
Portal is available on its own or as part of the larger collection of Half Life 2 related games known as the Orange Box. It is available through the regular retail channels and Steam, and just to show you how much they like the game, Valve made the game a part of their flagship Half Life 2 universe. But, back to GLaDOS.
GLaDOS will creep you out a little as well as make you laugh. She's that type of girl. By the time you are finished with the game, you will remember her lines and her voice more than any of the 19 levels you played through to get to the ending. And believe me, you will remember the ending.
Don't get me wrong, all the other elements of the game are put together very well in order to create an immersive environment for GLaDOS to work her charm. The innovation of the game is admirable, as the portal gun makes you think with a different set of rules. Moreover, despite being essentially a puzzle game, the First-Person view actually allows for some intense action moments, such as desperately trying to find a solution before your platform runs into a wall that will knock you into a pool of acid. This blend of puzzle-action is fresh and actually makes the game quite accessible. The short levels will allow even casual gamers to step in and do a few levels at a time.
The puzzles in the game are also not that challenging, which should lend a hand in attracting a wider audience. However, this aspect was a little bit disappointing as I never really felt triumphant at any moment in the game, which should be the reward of story-based puzzle games. It did help the pace of the game and gets you to the ending faster though, so it's more of a lose-win situation.
The graphics are very clean and really does the job of making it look like a somewhat dilapidated futuristic training centre. As you go deeper into the Enrichment Centre you will notice broken things or dirty things and soon you get the eerie feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. There really isn't much to say about the graphics except to say that they are good but I've seen better.
The sound and music in the game are perfect. The voice acting is funny, touching, emotive and yet robotic and distant. I gave it an imperfect score only out of some sense that there is probably some technical element to the sound that I can't perceive but can be improved. Also, providing subtitles for the audio dialog is a fantastic option. I can't express how much I love subtitles.
The only major flaw from a "I have to pay money for this" perspective is the length of the game. If you are not interested in the achievements nor the bonus maps, you may be able to blow through this game in 3 hours. Yet, I still believe the experience is worth the full CDN$20. I recommend that everyone play this game, if only so that I can randomly send them quotes from GLaDOS and share a laugh.
