Portal

(I did it for the cake)

What must have been years ago I heard about a new game from Valve called Portal. I heard it was from a group of people that made such an awesome mod that Valve actually picked them up and commissioned their own version. Usually I wouldn’t really care too much but after seeing some videos of this I was instantly intrigued. The basic game concept was that you can make portals and you can go through them. My head instantly filled with gameplay ideas and the video I saw confirmed these. Needless to say I was happy, excited, and impatient.

Skip forward a few years and lo and behold—I have this game I’ve been waiting for in my grubby little hands. I was a little put off at first because apparently my computer doesn’t meet the minimum requirements but after setting everything to the minimum level of detail I was able to play. It was upsetting that the textures had to be such low quality but at least I was playing this game. Just to make things short since I’m starting to ramble a little here—the game was everything I had hoped it would be.

Presentation – 9.5

A lot of things come to mind when I think $20 game and quality is not one of them. Portal ranged anywhere from $10-$20 (depending on when, how, and what you bought it for) and for that price I would expect a buggy unpolished game with maybe two hours playtime or either an endless play type game like Puzzle Quest. With Portal, I got a painstakingly polished game with no noticeable bugs and about three hours of play. Gameplay aside, this just blew away my highest expectations of this game.

Even with a small game I generally expect to find bugs because they are always there even in the most polished of games. With Portal, I didn’t find any. I’m not saying they weren’t there, but they were hidden well enough or so rare that I didn’t see them throughout the course of the game which is beyond acceptable. As for the polish of the game, even though most environments were very bare and sterile, every detail was scrutinized to give the exact atmosphere that Valve was going for. I don’t always go crazy over Valve’s games, but if they do one they better than anything else, it is their attention to detail and perfectly placing the player in the given atmosphere.

The only thing that bothered me presentation wise for this game was the jump animation. Normally, this wouldn’t be a huge deal, but since there was so little in Portal and everything should have looked perfect, it was something that stuck out in my head. I get that the player character had something attached to her feet that made her jump and perhaps that’s why it looked funny, but nonetheless it still looks funny. When you press jump the character suddenly pops in the air and then comes down and it just really doesn’t look right. With the small amount of art content in the game I would have preferred at least some kind of jump animation, especially since Valve normally has spectacular animations.

All in all though, I’m beyond happy with the Presentation for this game. Portal is a budget title that brings with it the kind of quality you would expect from a $25 million AAA game.

Graphics – 9.5

As Valve games usually do, Portal looks great. Even with the textures scaled way down; this was still a fine looking game. It was done in the same art style as Half-Life 2 and could possible be in the same universe as Half-Life 2 and it was just a nice looking games. There wasn’t much to look in terms of variety, but it fit well with the game. The lab station and test environments were clean and sparsely decorated as they should have been. The test environments had nothing except for what was absolutely necessary which was just what they were supposed to look like. The grunge environments were also pleasing with the rusty texture set, industrial feel, and writings on the walls from some unknown person.

My only complain is that I would have liked a small amount more variety. With the small texture set the game it did a wonderful job, but they could have added more decals to the grunge type areas. By no means do I think what they did was lazy, I just believe that more would have been nice.

Sound – 9.4

I really enjoyed the sound of Portal. In tense spots where you actually could die, the perfect music kicked in, the world felt alive by having the appropriate environment sounds playing at the right levels, and the GLaDOS voice was perfect. I really think that GLaDOS made this game and she has more character than many video game characters do today. Her delivery and lines were amazing and she added so much to the game. Without her amusing voice this game wouldn’t be half as enjoyable.

Oh, and this game has what is possibly the best credits song ever. I just though I’d throw that out there and you can listen to it here. The song does mention some things in the final part of the game, but it isn’t anything that will ruin the game. I just think it’s awesome that for the last week I can walk through the office at any given time and I can hear this song playing on at least one persons computer.

Gameplay – 9.5

Lets get one thing straight—I love games with a simple core rule set that get used in a variety of ways and Portal is the definition of this. I see far too many games that try to have too large of a core set of rules and these games suffer. They have confusing controls, most of the rules get ignored, and more rules offers more chance of breaking something and it’s just often overall confusing to remember a large rule set. The Portal rule set is very simple: you can make two portals, portals maintain velocity, you can jump, you can press buttons, and you can pick up physics objects and carry them. That simple rule set is used in a variety of ways and is constantly being built upon and it’s just comes off very nicely.

For the puzzles, I won’t go in to any sort of depth on the solutions so I don’t spoil anything, but they work very well. They start off incredibly simple but get increasingly complicated so that the last ones have you pulling off some impressive things. At some points you will be spinning as you leave portals and at other times you will be shooting the ground at precise times to get your speed high enough to make it across large gaps and the game just gives you that kind of mind screw that is awesome.

The presentation of the puzzles was also very well done. Instead of just throwing you into a room, there are always small signs that tells the player exactly what is in the room, what order things should be done if there are multiple parts, and even over here signs in the grunge areas. Normally I would be upset at being led through puzzles in a puzzle game, but these are very well done. It’s a really hard thing to pull hints like these off and Portal does an absolutely excellent job of it.

The one gameplay flaw I found was the turrets you eventually encounter. I think they were a good idea, but the way you have to get past some of them isn’t really fun. Everything in this game should use the portals and these didn’t always do that. That being said, they were still fun for the most part.

Lasting Appeal – 8.0

Portal is only about three hour game that will have you asking for more when you finish it but given that the game is only $20 at most, three hours is about the right length for the game. I would have loved more to this game, but I’m also not upset that at the amount of content it offers.

The thing that bothers me at the length is that the first 14 of 19 areas fly by after about the first hour or so. These 14 areas are spent teaching you everything you can do with portals and while I appreciate the lengthy and interesting tutorial of sorts, I would have liked more afterwards. That said, the remaining five areas will take you a decent amount of time each. Each time you’re about to finish one of these areas, you find out that there’s even more and an even more difficult puzzle to figure out. The last five areas is where the game shines and is where you will get your moneys worth.

Overall – 9.2

Whether you buy Portal by itself or past of The Orange Box you will not be disappointed. For a budget game it’s just absolutely incredible the amount of things this games does right. It’s rare that you see a game with a character as excellent as GLaDOS, a unique FPS experience, and a perfectly executed puzzle game and on top of all that a budget a game. I have my issues with Valve but they have always had a good track record of finely polished games that place you in the atmosphere perfectly and this game easily sits up there with the best of them. Even though it’s short, Portal will be one of those gaming experiences you will remember for years to come.

Request: Revisit the "Lasting Appeal" section once the level editor and custom maps start coming out. I don't think its guaranteed to change your mind but I think it could add a compelling reason to come back to the game as there will always be some new content waiting for you ideally.

I'd definitely love to play this, but 3 hours length is ridiculous. It's a shame, the concept sounds fantastic, why didn't they make a full game?

I'd like to point out that if you cough up for the PC version of Orange Box you are going to get more Portal levels in the future in the form of user created content and even possibly more from Valve.

The PC system requirements really aren't bad at all. I HIGHLY recommend the PC version over either console version. Also once you beat the 3 hour singleplayer there are 6 advanced levels (in all versions)that will take you another 2 hours and some timed levels which I haven't tried yet.

So yeah, the value is a much higher on the PC version.

Great review! I agree with most of your comments. One thing I would like to shine more light on is the humor, which really made the game special for me. Portal would have been a fantastic game even without any kind of character or story element, but GLaDOS kept me in stitches throughout the whole game. When a game has a great sense of humor, it makes a real lasting impression on me. I'm still amazed at how minimal the story in Portal was, but at the same time, how effective Valve was at making you grow attached to its characters, especially its inorganic or inanimate ones (<3 Weighted Companion Cube).

As for the gameplay, the concept behind the game is so simple, yet so mindblowing when you actually experience it, you kind of have to be amazed that nobody had thought of it before. I'm sure Portal will open up new doors for game design in the future. It's fresh, fun, and deep.

One of my favorite games, hands down.

If Valve released a map pack sometime soon and released it for free I would raise the lasting appeal but I really don't see that happening. I did consider the bonus content but it's about the same thing (though still awesome) and it equals out the first 14 levels whizzing by. I consider a 7.5 (I don't like starting at 7) score something that is just right. It's pretty much the starting score and I generally just go from there so the 8 I gave it was just slightly above average and not a score to laugh at.

Its your score, so obviously you can set it wherever you want, but I want to raise one more point.

When LBP comes out for the PS3, should it be rated poorly on its lasting appeal?

They have said they only plan on releasing a limited amount of starting content and letting the community build the rest from there.

I really think for a game like portal I actually prefer they not try to do too much. Leaving some stuff for the rest of us to have fun creating is something I think that will prove to lure people in as they find there are lots of things that can be done beyond what the game provides for.

I don't want to come off like I am insisting you see things my way, but I would like to hear your opinions on some of this stuff. Not only as a fellow gamer, but as someone I know enjoys modding, and someone who like me has a highly technical background.

LBP is a completely different game. LBP is driven on user created content and Portal isn't. There is of course the option to make your own content for Portal but that really isn't part of the game.

-edit-
And definitely respect your opinion, I just don't see Portal as a game fueled by the mod community.  I think there will be some interesting maps made, but it isn't a game like LBP will be or UT2k4.

I definitely agree the community won't be as extensive or important as LBP or UT2k4/UT3 but I do think that its worth a second consideration once more is known. If the tools for portal end up being lackluster I will completely agree with your score actually. And as of right now I do agree with the score.

But for me, I am reserving final judgment on the "Lasting Appeal" until after I get a good look at those tools and have a chance to see the volume and quality of maps being put out. I won't try to say its guaranteed to be a huge successful community, but at the same time I am not ruling it out yet either, not to suggest that you are. But that does leads me back to my initial point in my first post of the thread. Which is, I think you should at least revisit the score after the community has a chance to get going. It may not change your mind at all, it might lessen your score as you realize some of the fun was hype and newness, but all of those are fair factors imo.

Anyways, I think I have turned this conversation far away from its original intent as it is, so I will leave it at that.

 If you've used Hammer then you've used the Portal tool (I'm assuming at least).  I imagine that only special thing would be the textures in that if you create one that you want to be able to place a portal on that's probably just a line in the texture file.  Other than that, it's more than likely just like playing with any other mod in Hammer.