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richardhutnik on 25 December 2009
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Killergran said:
richardhutnik said:

What kind of story does Portal have?  I see a series of puzzles, and GLADOS taunting you in very humorous ways.  The game has a goal of completing multiple puzzles.  I don't see a story.  I do see how the game could be used to generate a story, but the game itself doesn't really have a plot.  It does have some interesting stuff regarding the background though.

Now you are talking crazy. Portal has a very clear story. Without the story Portal would have been a great game. With it though, it's the best game of all time (my firm opinion). The compliance/escape/revenge theme that runs through it is similar to Half-Life 2, but with only two characters and much better use of enviroments the storytelling becomes so much more focused and rather impossible to tell from the gameplay.

It's the second best example of storytelling in a game, in my opinion.

I will admit I did push it a bit in what I wrote: "What kind of story does Portal have?" But the focus of the question was to focus on exactly what a story is, which is part of the discussion in this thread.  What I see with Portal is the following:

1. A set of goals, in a progressively harder set of game levels that are well designed.

2. A player character who doesn't talk (is a puppet for completing puzzles), and an antagonist character (GLaDOS) who gives you witty banter.  As you play, you learn more about GLaDOS (revealed through monology by GLaDOS), and scribblings on the background.

3. A game ending with a cut scene.

4. A detailed game environment, that has a feeling of realism to it (that does grow increasingly absurd).

 

What I don't see is a forced plot on the game, to make it tell a narrative.  What I do see is a series of puzzles, with the GLaDOS dialog added for entertainment value.  And I would say the lines start to get blurred here.  This blurring I believe would enable Portal to be transformed into a possible full story.  The series of Cube movies show this is possible.