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Video Games : Portal (PC DVD)
1 2
Rating: 
- Nearly genius.
Every now and then a game comes along that requires serious attention, simply because it is pure genius. Usually such games are mind-boggingly simple, and feature an idea so obvious that it makes other developers slap themselves in the face in disbelief that they didn't think of it. Portal is the latest such game to follow in this tradition.
Portal follows the adventures of a young lady named Chell, who, for reasons never explained, has been held in stasis for an unspecificed amount of time at an Aperture Science Enrichment Facility, waiting to undergo testing and training on the Handheld Portal Device 04 (aka, 'the portal gun'). Chell doesn't encounter any other people, but is guided through the testing facility by GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), an extremely eccentric AI which becomes increasingly demented as the game proceeds, directing Chell into increasingly hazardous test chambers (including a 'live-fire course usually used to test military androids') but urging her to continue through the promise of cake.
Each test chamber consists of a puzzle which the player must overcome by use of the portal gun. The gun can create portals on certain wall surfaces. Two portals can be created. By simply stepping through one, you step out of the other. Puzzles can be very simple (crossing a chasm by firing a portal onto a wall on the far side and another next to you, and stepping through) or mind-crushingly complex. Since you retain your forward momentum when you pass through a portal, some puzzles involving crossing vast gaps (with non-portal-compatible walls on the far side) can be overcome by generating a portal at the bottom of the chasm, another one on the wall behind you, falling down the chasm at tremendous speed, which then gives you momentum when you pass through the portal to cross the vast gap. Dealing with sudden shifts in orientation and direction is key to progressing through the game.
The puzzles are complicated by the increasing addition of dangerous obstacles, such as energy spikes you have to direct through portals to generators to open up the next area of the test chamber but which will kill you if you touch them, and the sudden addition of robotic sentry guns to certain chambers (which comically tell you they hold no ill wishes when you inevitably destroy them). You also have some help in the shape of the 'weighted companion cube' or 'box' which you can use to press switches, bat aside energy spikes or deflect sentry gun bullets. For a non-sentient inanimate object, the companion cube soon becomes a trusted ally in the game and the puzzle which requires you to 'euthanise' one of them is strangely disturbing.
Of course, there's only so many times you can solve puzzles revolving around portals and the laws of ballistics before it becomes a bit old, and to their credit the developers realise this and only provide twenty test chambers. The completion of the last chamber triggers the second (much shorter) stage of the game where you have to use your carefully-gained portal skills to escape the facility once it becomes clear that something is not right in the world outside (this is where the link to the Half-Life universe is hinted at), leading to the fiendishly satisfying final confrontation and the best end games credits sequence ever.
Portal is a tremendoulsy simple idea, fantastically well-executed. I can imagine the Half-Life 2 team at Valve feeling a bit embarrassed about the fuss they made about the gravity gun when Portal shows off the capabilities of the Source Engine's physics engine with much greater finesse, elegance and originality. At about 2-3 hours in length, it doesn't outstay its welcome (and your brain will be aching by the time you get to the game's conclusion) but it does leave you wanting more. Where a possible Portal 2 could go is unclear, but the game hints that the Aperture Science facility has been abandoned due to something crazy happening in the world outside, and it isn't too hard to tie this in with the Combine occupation of Earth in the Half-Life 2 series of games. Whether this means that the planned sequel will see Chell taking on the Combine with the portal gun, or perhaps involve her meeting Gordon Freeman, is unclear, but it's an intriguing notion.
Portal (*****) is superb. It's original, it's funny, it's well-executed, it's perfectly-timed and has a sense of humour as black as midnight.
Rating: - Did you ever wonder if the cake was a lie?
This is the game that pretty much started the internet meme "The cake is a lie".
It's a mix between a puzzle and a darkly twisted stand up comedy act, and more than half of the drive to play this was to hear the next comment on the running commentary by GLaDOS (that's the voice you'll hear as your constant companion through the levels and beyond).
Like most of the truly good ideas, the concept is simple.. It leaves you thinking both "Why did I never think of that".. And even more "That was fun, interesting and hilarious..".
I made the mistake of thinking that this game was about the twitch reactions in some places.. But found to my delight I was entirely wrong. You can solve some things with good reactions and orientation, but it also works nicely for those that spend the time thinking, experimenting, and using careful precision.
Play it how you want, solve the puzzles in your own way, but most of all, don't laugh too long, or play while eating cake.
And even right at the end, it still leaves you wondering.. Was the cake really a lie?
Rating: - Awsome Game
Just started playing Portal and am still doing the tutorial for the game. But even so this game is fricken awsome. This has got to be one of the best games i have played for a long time. It manages to suck you into the gameplay even though i am still in the turtorial.
The half life people or who ever made it have really come up with an ingenius new way of playing a game that i have never come across before. I thoughrougly recomend this game to anybody.
Rating:
- Good Game, but way too short
When I saw this game in the shop, I had already heard of it and therefore decided to buy it.
Put it into my PC - first disappointment. Even though it doesn't need it during the game (it's a one-player game), the installer requires a working internet connection - which I didn't have on that PC.
Even though I eventually worked around that, I still needed to be connected to the internet every time I wanted to start it (damn Steam!).
Once these problems were solved, I could start.
The game gives a nice introduction and has an interesting storyline - you seem to be a female android (or clone or something like that) and are running through a test program. The computer voice guiding you gets more and more weird as you progress, giving you an eerie feeling and building the atmosphere nicely.
The difficulty of the levels builds nicely, even though you are somewhat thrown in at the deep end in the turret levels.
I was, however, disappointed after finishing level 19; after a (not extremely challenging) boss battle, the game abruptly ends. It took me only 3 hours to play through the game, which is not really the kind of value for money I had expected.
Rating: - Portal
Awesome puzzle game using the H-L2 engine. It involves creating an "open" portal with one button, and an "exit" portal with another - use it to figure out you way around obstacles and enemies.
Sounds very simple; in reality, it's an intricately desiged, incredibly-challenging game that fails only because it's too short. There is a very loose story and a boss battle of sorts at the end that really pushes this game from four stars to five. Awesome ending credits, with brilliant music throughout. Definately not one to miss.
- Nearly genius.Every now and then a game comes along that requires serious attention, simply because it is pure genius. Usually such games are mind-boggingly simple, and feature an idea so obvious that it makes other developers slap themselves in the face in disbelief that they didn't think of it. Portal is the latest such game to follow in this tradition.
Portal follows the adventures of a young lady named Chell, who, for reasons never explained, has been held in stasis for an unspecificed amount of time at an Aperture Science Enrichment Facility, waiting to undergo testing and training on the Handheld Portal Device 04 (aka, 'the portal gun'). Chell doesn't encounter any other people, but is guided through the testing facility by GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), an extremely eccentric AI which becomes increasingly demented as the game proceeds, directing Chell into increasingly hazardous test chambers (including a 'live-fire course usually used to test military androids') but urging her to continue through the promise of cake.
Each test chamber consists of a puzzle which the player must overcome by use of the portal gun. The gun can create portals on certain wall surfaces. Two portals can be created. By simply stepping through one, you step out of the other. Puzzles can be very simple (crossing a chasm by firing a portal onto a wall on the far side and another next to you, and stepping through) or mind-crushingly complex. Since you retain your forward momentum when you pass through a portal, some puzzles involving crossing vast gaps (with non-portal-compatible walls on the far side) can be overcome by generating a portal at the bottom of the chasm, another one on the wall behind you, falling down the chasm at tremendous speed, which then gives you momentum when you pass through the portal to cross the vast gap. Dealing with sudden shifts in orientation and direction is key to progressing through the game.
The puzzles are complicated by the increasing addition of dangerous obstacles, such as energy spikes you have to direct through portals to generators to open up the next area of the test chamber but which will kill you if you touch them, and the sudden addition of robotic sentry guns to certain chambers (which comically tell you they hold no ill wishes when you inevitably destroy them). You also have some help in the shape of the 'weighted companion cube' or 'box' which you can use to press switches, bat aside energy spikes or deflect sentry gun bullets. For a non-sentient inanimate object, the companion cube soon becomes a trusted ally in the game and the puzzle which requires you to 'euthanise' one of them is strangely disturbing.
Of course, there's only so many times you can solve puzzles revolving around portals and the laws of ballistics before it becomes a bit old, and to their credit the developers realise this and only provide twenty test chambers. The completion of the last chamber triggers the second (much shorter) stage of the game where you have to use your carefully-gained portal skills to escape the facility once it becomes clear that something is not right in the world outside (this is where the link to the Half-Life universe is hinted at), leading to the fiendishly satisfying final confrontation and the best end games credits sequence ever.
Portal is a tremendoulsy simple idea, fantastically well-executed. I can imagine the Half-Life 2 team at Valve feeling a bit embarrassed about the fuss they made about the gravity gun when Portal shows off the capabilities of the Source Engine's physics engine with much greater finesse, elegance and originality. At about 2-3 hours in length, it doesn't outstay its welcome (and your brain will be aching by the time you get to the game's conclusion) but it does leave you wanting more. Where a possible Portal 2 could go is unclear, but the game hints that the Aperture Science facility has been abandoned due to something crazy happening in the world outside, and it isn't too hard to tie this in with the Combine occupation of Earth in the Half-Life 2 series of games. Whether this means that the planned sequel will see Chell taking on the Combine with the portal gun, or perhaps involve her meeting Gordon Freeman, is unclear, but it's an intriguing notion.
Portal (*****) is superb. It's original, it's funny, it's well-executed, it's perfectly-timed and has a sense of humour as black as midnight.
Rating:
- Did you ever wonder if the cake was a lie?This is the game that pretty much started the internet meme "The cake is a lie".
It's a mix between a puzzle and a darkly twisted stand up comedy act, and more than half of the drive to play this was to hear the next comment on the running commentary by GLaDOS (that's the voice you'll hear as your constant companion through the levels and beyond).
Like most of the truly good ideas, the concept is simple.. It leaves you thinking both "Why did I never think of that".. And even more "That was fun, interesting and hilarious..".
I made the mistake of thinking that this game was about the twitch reactions in some places.. But found to my delight I was entirely wrong. You can solve some things with good reactions and orientation, but it also works nicely for those that spend the time thinking, experimenting, and using careful precision.
Play it how you want, solve the puzzles in your own way, but most of all, don't laugh too long, or play while eating cake.
And even right at the end, it still leaves you wondering.. Was the cake really a lie?
Rating:
- Awsome GameJust started playing Portal and am still doing the tutorial for the game. But even so this game is fricken awsome. This has got to be one of the best games i have played for a long time. It manages to suck you into the gameplay even though i am still in the turtorial.
The half life people or who ever made it have really come up with an ingenius new way of playing a game that i have never come across before. I thoughrougly recomend this game to anybody.
Rating:
- Good Game, but way too shortWhen I saw this game in the shop, I had already heard of it and therefore decided to buy it.
Put it into my PC - first disappointment. Even though it doesn't need it during the game (it's a one-player game), the installer requires a working internet connection - which I didn't have on that PC.
Even though I eventually worked around that, I still needed to be connected to the internet every time I wanted to start it (damn Steam!).
Once these problems were solved, I could start.
The game gives a nice introduction and has an interesting storyline - you seem to be a female android (or clone or something like that) and are running through a test program. The computer voice guiding you gets more and more weird as you progress, giving you an eerie feeling and building the atmosphere nicely.
The difficulty of the levels builds nicely, even though you are somewhat thrown in at the deep end in the turret levels.
I was, however, disappointed after finishing level 19; after a (not extremely challenging) boss battle, the game abruptly ends. It took me only 3 hours to play through the game, which is not really the kind of value for money I had expected.
Rating:
- PortalAwesome puzzle game using the H-L2 engine. It involves creating an "open" portal with one button, and an "exit" portal with another - use it to figure out you way around obstacles and enemies.
Sounds very simple; in reality, it's an intricately desiged, incredibly-challenging game that fails only because it's too short. There is a very loose story and a boss battle of sorts at the end that really pushes this game from four stars to five. Awesome ending credits, with brilliant music throughout. Definately not one to miss.