It was a great.

Great game

That game is awesome, and playable multiple times, but I understand why some people don't enjoy it as much as I do. I love genre-fusion (toward the goal of genre-obliteration, but that's another matter), so I loved the idea of fusing platforming, puzzling, and first-person perspective into one game. Personally, I think it finds itself halfway through, and that the initial stages are too facile.

I loved it in my initial play through, but i have no desire to ever go back to it.  
I feel the same way about Bioshock and Dead Space. 
 
I know I'm in the minority.

It's just so charming, while at the same time providing a great set of creative puzzles.  I'm gonna remember this game for a long time.

I think its awesome. Has a lot of replay value for me since it has the bonus stages and challenges (which are super challenging to me). And lastly found the environment as a test subject and the humor encompassing that to be very entertaining.

" @Suicrat: I felt the game kinda found itself at the escape. It seemed like if the whole game had been using this gun on everyday environments, it would have been fascinating. But everything prior to that just felt like an over extended tutorial level. I'm curious if you ever played Crush for the PSP? It fused 2d/3d with platforming and puzzling. Seems like something you might enjoy if you enjoy genre fusion. "

Sadly, I never played that game, nor Exit, or the one that looked like it was made by MC Escher, because I don't have a PSP. 
 

That it was "short enough to beat" should mean pretty little to anyone who actually has the game at heart.  A great short story isn't great because it's shorter than a novel.  And Portal IS a great short story.  The writing is absolutely top-notch--not just in the context of video games, but simply by the common standards of storytelling.  Glados (sic), specifically, has every right to go down in gaming  history as one of the most ingenious and enjoyable characters there'll ever be.  As for a common complaint:  the second half of Portal stands in obvious contrast to the first half, but neither manages to surpass the other in memorability.  The stark industrial aspect of the first half lends so much tension (and hilarity) to the second that all simply couldn't be there if the game were solely one way or the other.  The tutorialesque banality of Glados's training program is pure, well-paced poetry.  In the hands of anyone else, it should have been much worse.  Watch a few friends play through, ye naysayers, and watch how each struggles at his/her own special part of the learning process in his/her own little way; at least once, a puzzle that took you like 45 minutes to figure out will not even register as a challenge to your friend--and vice versa.  Add to this the fact that Valve brought something entirely new to the table with Portal, that it wasn't just honing a preexisting genre but rather taking a risk and making it look easy.  Really, if it comes down to anything, what makes Portal so richly pleasing, what makes it so hard not to adore, is the fact that it's just Valve being Valve again, proving that they can do no wrong, no-how.  In an absolute nutshell:  don't ask these types of questions in public, particularly at such a moody hour, and on a Monday, of all days.  Despondence rules retrospect with an iron fist, particularly w/r/t juggernaut sleepers, such as Portal.

"That it was "short enough to beat" should mean pretty little to anyone who actually has the game at heart.  A great short story isn't great because it's shorter than a novel.  And Portal IS a great short story.  The writing is absolutely top-notch--not just in the context of video games, but simply by the common standards of storytelling.  Glados (sic), specifically, has every right to go down in gaming  history as one of the most ingenious and enjoyable characters there'll ever be.  As for a common complaint:  the second half of Portal stands in obvious contrast to the first half, but neither manages to surpass the other in memorability.  The stark industrial aspect of the first half lends so much tension (and hilarity) to the second that all simply couldn't be there if the game were solely one way or the other.  The tutorialesque banality of Glados's training program is pure, well-paced poetry.  In the hands of anyone else, it should have been much worse.  Watch a few friends play through, ye naysayers, and watch how each struggles at his/her own special part of the learning process in his/her own little way; at least once, a puzzle that took you like 45 minutes to figure out will not even register as a challenge to your friend--and vice versa.  Add to this the fact that Valve brought something entirely new to the table with Portal, that it wasn't just honing a preexisting genre but rather taking a risk and making it look easy.  Really, if it comes down to anything, what makes Portal so richly pleasing, what makes it so hard not to adore, is the fact that it's just Valve being Valve again, proving that they can do no wrong, no-how.  In an absolute nutshell:  don't ask these types of questions in public, particularly at such a moody hour, and on a Monday, of all days.  Despondence rules retrospect with an iron fist, particularly w/r/t juggernaut sleepers, such as Portal. "

" @Suicrat said:

Sadly, I never played that game, nor Exit, or the one that looked like it was made by MC Escher, because I don't have a PSP. 
 

Are you talking about EchoChrome? It's available on PSN. And Exit is available on XBLA. Though Exit while interesting, got tedious quickly for me. Crush has an MC Escher vibe to it also. "

Portal is without a doubt the best game this generation produced. Almost every aspect of it should be a shining example to every developer.

It was great. something different. with a good story and gameplay

" Portal is without a doubt the best game this generation produced. Almost every aspect of it should be a shining example to every developer. "

So what makes the story of Portal great? 

Absolutely  incredible. I had, and have, no interest in playing that game more than once, though.

I went into it thinking that there was really no story but as I progressed I found signs of others who were trying to escape and man was it a awesome feeling, it's like playing tetris and finding out theres an amazing back story to why the fuck you have to stack blocks.

I feel... that $20 for the game is too high.  I rented the orange box a while back, never got to finish Portal, it was an interesting game.  I was about to buy it today, and I saw that it was either $30 for the whole orange box with all those games that I already own, or $20 if I just want Portal separately.  Too high...

It was ok. 

It was awesome, though I just played through it once. Amazing game, though.

GlaDOS makes Portal what it is. She injects sterile personality, dark humor, and affection for inanimate objects into the world.

Truthfully, I never actually finished Portal.  -__-

Two thumbs up, 9 out of 10, 5 stars, or however you wanna say it.... 
 
I really enjoyed Portal and am tangibly excited for Portal 2.  

So so....and but it spawned many more of the Valve-sheeps which really sucks.

"  

So what makes the story of Portal great? 

The story of portal isn't great. Neither is the story of Shadow of the Colossus, or the story of Half-Life 2. Neither is the story of American Beauty, or the story of Terminator. The story of The Shawshank Redemption isn't all that great either when put into a brief description. The same goes for most of the works of Shakespeare: Their plots are mostly incredibly trivial and soap-opera-ish. It's all in the storytelling.   The main character in Portal does not speak. There are no supporting characters. There are little to no props. There are no significant action sequences. Basically, there isn't even much of a plot. And yet the developers managed to conjur up a believable, atmospheric world that the player easily slips into and is emotionally involved with. GlaDOS is a static, mostly un-seen object and yet she is the best written game character in the last decade or more. Its a one-woman-show: The developers managed to tell an episode of adventure with a single monologe and a clever setting. There is no piece of storytelling that is not also gameplay. There is no piece of storytelling that does not involve the player. It would not have been possible as a movie, a book, a stage or radio play. It is a videogame. The storytelling is aware of the fact that it is a videogame. It uses the tools of an interactive audiovisual medium to involve the recipient and build a world around him.  Very, very, very few games do this. And of those who do, the smallest percentage do it as well as Portal. It is the embodiment of video game storytelling done right.   Less "what can we do in order to make this as close to a Michael Bay movie as possible" and more "how can we take advantage of the medium's potential" please. "

Great little game. I wouldn't have given it a second glance if it wasn't packaged with the orange box though.

" @Suicrat: I felt the game kinda found itself at the escape. It seemed like if the whole game had been using this gun on everyday environments, it would have been fascinating."

It was delicious, but sadly I don't think I can bring myself to replay it, even with the new radio updates. As was mentioned earlier, the game did feel like an extended tutorial, perhaps that's why it seems hard to return to. Also, some of the challenges are far too hard for me. 
 
I look forward to Portal 2, but now that Valve mentions it, Portal 1 really did seem like just a "test bed"; an extremely well designed and presented "test bed".

Still love it.