Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. You play a female protagonist named Chell, after waking up in a lab you must test your skills to move through a series of tests. You must use your wits and the portal gun to figure out how to move through some of the most original puzzles seen in a video game. Upon successful completion, you are promised cake by the sentient computer voice that talks you through the puzzles. You cannot die from falling because of special springs built onto your legs, but you can die from falling into the various poison pits, fire, smashed by large pistons, or getting shot by turrets (with their own A.I. and voices). So, its a little more complicated than just running through walls. That is Portal in a nutshell.

The main portion of the game consists of 19 levels. The first 14 proved fairly easy and really only exist to show you what you can accomplish at a gradual rate so your simple human mind can absorb it. The last 5 levels become agressively more difficult until the last level where it will take you longer to complete than most of the other puzzles combined. The “boss battle” and ending are among the best you will ever see as you will try your best not to break concentration from a fit of laughter.

The most fun I had in the game came in the form of perfect placement of the portals. I set both portals direcly in line with each other vertically on the ceiling and floor. When I fell through the floor portal, I continued falling and falling… and falling some more. If you are good at timing your shots, you can propel yourself incredible distances just by using your built up momentum to throw you out of the exit portal.

Even in the most tense moments of the game, the robot guide’s lack of any emotion is hilarious especially when congratulatory messages are filled with generic phrases that were obviously suppose to be customized for Chell. Some real surprises in the game are the somewhat hidden easter eggs where you can find little areas where past participants stayed and wrote on the walls. I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone, but let’s just say that all is not well at the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Also, at the very end of the game make sure to look for the lonely board room. There you will see a slideshow playing that will tie Portal in to another game included in the Orange Box.

Here is a very short video I made to give you an overall feel for the game. I didn’t want to ruin all the jokes or the puzzles for you, so it’s just a taste. Hopefully, it will make you a little more curious.

Portal is a short game (2 to 3 hours of main content), but it also has advanced levels, challenges, achievements (Thanks XBox), and commentary. This all adds up for a decent amount of content that I could easily place at around $30. Since it comes in the Orange Box with a handful of other games for $50, this is really a steal. The game should be mind blowing to just about any gamer, and even if you find the puzzles bland, the voiced guidance and stellar ending should make you want to complete it just to know what everyone else will be talking about. Also, for another added surprise, the ending credits have a hilarious song that will probably be showing up on the web as a standalone download because it is just that well written and… “sung”.

Pros:

• Clean and Simple Graphics (“Mac-like”)
• Hilarious robot guide
• Mind-bending puzzles
• Easter eggs and plenty of extra content

Cons:

• Shorter than expected
• Might cause motion sickness
• Starts off a little too easy

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Games, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.