Perfectly-timed, perfectly-wonderful and just plain perfect.
As such, it should be no surprise that I do not play video games shortly after they are released, and due to this, I don't typically write traditional reviews. Although, upon realizing that many internet video game personalities make their careers reviewing and trashing old Nintendo games from the late 80's, writing a few Johnny Come Lately reviews of current generation and last generation games could be considered somewhat timely by those standards. Without further ado, here we go with my first regular review.
The other day, I dropped by my alma matter to pick up a copy of my transcript. It had been a while since I graduated. Everything looked about the same but with one glaring exception. As I passed the college café, I noticed someone had written “The Cake Is a Lie” on the wall. What could breed such outlandish – and awesome – behavior?
Portal is a first person puzzle game with an impressive physics engine, mind-bending challenges and surprisingly good dialogue for a video game. At every turn, the game prompts you to use a portal gun which creates holes in space that you use to navigate your way through a science lab. No tommy guns, no rocket launchers, no extra tools and no fist fighting. Every single task in the game is completed by figuring out how to get from point A to point B with your portals. Each puzzle is more difficult than the next, so once you feel like you just passed the most complicated challenge ever as a gamer, you get a tougher one...and I loved every second of it.
What I find most impressive about Portal is the philosophy behind its creation. It's as simple as this: Portal assumes you are not an idiot. It has faith in the mind of the player to figure out each puzzle, not throwing out hints along the way or guiding your actions with pop ups and reminder texts like in so many other games. Portal treats the player like a thinking human being. Isn't that a novel idea?
In a way, the story of the game is minimalist. There are no cut scenes, the protagonist does not speak and very little background is given about your environment. However, that is not a failing. The game gives you bits and pieces through dialogue by the mostly unseen character GLaDOS, a sentient computer with a woman's voice who runs the Aperture Science laboratory now that humans have abandoned the project or have died off. Tidbits of the story are also told in graffiti on walls (sounds familiar) and on a website created by Valve. In other words, the game doesn't just throw the story at you and hope you catch it. You must seek it out. Again, Portal assumes you are intelligent enough to figure it out, and that's fantastic. You control Chell, our heroine, who must survive a training simulation handled by GlaDOS, one which grows increasingly more deadly as the game progresses.
Has a superpowered computer with artificial intelligence ever worked out for anyone? You would think that fictional mad scientists would just stop making them by now, but noooooooo. They have to wizz in God's eye and see if He blinks, right? “Oh, I have an idea. Let's attach this A.I. program to our missile defense system and see what shakes loose.” Or “Let's make sure those robots we created are significantly smarter than us so they can out-manuever us at every turn.” When the mechano-apocalypse comes, you better hope your name is The One or you are going to be balls deep in some trouble.
Portal is highly rewarding. Completing a challenge in Portal isn't the same as finishing a level in, oh, say Sonic the Hedgehog. Sure, those 2-D worlds can be tough at times, but I don't feel proud of myself for having beat them. Accurately finishing a stage in Portal gives me a sense of real accomplishment. While certainly not calculus problems, the puzzles in Portal are difficult enough to put together that it requires a lot of problem solving and a little math.
Did I just say a bad word? Don't be scared away. Portal is a lot of fun. It's a short game, but I believe that worked out very well for me. At the precise moment when I started becoming frustrated with the growing complexity of each task, it was time for the final boss, just in time. Well done, Valve. Great timing.
Final Analysis: Perfectly-timed, perfectly-wonderful and just plain perfect. I have rarely enjoyed a game as much as this one. I highly recommend it as either an affordable download or as part of the fabulous value of The Orange Box.
By Leon Thomas - Systemlink Blog
