Blaenk Denum

I’m not really the type of person that reviews games, I suck at it. Anyways, I just finished Portal and man it was amazing. It’s a completely new game style, I love it. There’s only 19 levels, they get longer and harder each time, and the last one is extended/long due to a plot twist. It’s really enjoyable because all levels, at least to me, were challenging but not extremely hard. Sometimes I would have to examine the area a while before I got the hang of it. It’s a game where once you overcome the puzzle you’re like ‘Wow that was sweet I never would’ve imagined that in any other game’.

OverView
You first build basic strategies at the beginning, like manipulating momentum to get across gaps, to get higher up on places, using cubes to press down switches, killing sentry droids, catching some type of orb balls to trigger a switch, and more. After you learn these basics the levels get harder and they incorporate combinations of each. It’s a very digestible game, meaning you’re not thrown to it all at once but it’s not too slow either. The graphics are great and so are the physics (Courtesy of Source Engine). The thing I most loved about this game was that, although some would usually complain about how short it is (I beat it in about 2-3 hours, and I’m sure others might’ve even beaten it in less than one, on the first try I mean), that fact is outweighed by the innovative gameplay and ambiance of the game. It’s not too toddler-ish (Which some might think because there’s no real fighting involved i.e. no gun) but it’s also not too gorey, in fact it’s not gorey. The only time you see tiny blood splats on the wall is when you get shot by sentry droids.

The setting is that the player is a person who volunteered I guess (Might be getting, paid, who knows) to test out a new ‘portal gun’ that Aperture Sciences has developed. The levels are all tests until after the plot twist. This means that at the beginning of each test there is a sign that says for example ‘5/19′ to mean that the player is on the 5th test of 19. There is a robot that continually talks to the player, and I think this is one of the best things about the game. The robot occasionally helps out the player, sometimes discourage the player by telling him that a level is impossible, and that it wouldn’t blame him if they gave up. Oh, by the way, from what I could tell the player is a woman, but I’m not too sure on that since it’s not often you see the player model unless you open a portal and look into another one that’s looking at you, if that makes any sense. So what’s cool about the game is that it starts out all nice, not dark-ish like Half Life 2 or anything, after all you’re just fulfilling tests, but you know that there’s a plot twist somewhere in the game so you’re just waiting for the game to turn all ugly, but it never does. The plot twist is great, and it involves the robot.

Features
The game includes developer commentary where you play and while you’re playing you can hear the developers give some commentary which I think is pretty cool. The game’s saving system is pretty cool, you don’t have to manually save unless you want to be really sure, saving is usually automatic and also the load system is exact. Meaning you wont be set back to a checkpoint or the beginning of the level. This is cool because if you’re on a certain level and you die or something, you’ll load back to the moment right before you die but when you were on stable ground as well. The game also supports a feature to import custom maps which I’m sure is going to be a big deal later with many mappers making maps for Portal. There is no multiplayer feature which sucks because it would really prolong the life of the game, as we all know, but then again how would a multiplayer game be made? What game types would be possible?

Price
Anyways, at $20, Portal is really a great investment. Don’t be turned off by there only being 19 levels, they get long and challenging, and the mapping community is bound to make countless maps for the game. Also, don’t be turned off at there not being multiplayer. In the developer commentary, Gabe Newell from Valve said that this is just the beginning of this type of gameplay, so we’re bound to see more of it, which I’m sure will be greatly accepted.

Walkthroughs
I included links to two of the most popular Portal walkthrough sites. I highly suggest you don’t use these, though, because they’ll ruin the fun of the game. Before using them, if you’re stuck, I say give it at least 10 minutes of thinking before you look to a walkthrough.

» Buy Portal - From Steam, the best game content delivery system
» Portal Walkthroughs - A site dedicated to Portal Walkthroughs in video format
» IGN Portal Walkthroughs - Offered in PDF, Video, and PSP formats
All in all, the game