Portal is part of a new compilation put out by Valve Software called
The Orange Box, which contains a few other games but none are as
inventive as Portal. Portal is a first-person puzzle game in which the
player embodies a test subject for a mysterious corporation called
'Aperture Labs'. Through a series of industrial gray and blue rooms,
the player must navigate from Point A to Point B using only the tool
provided.
But, oh, what a tool it is. Portal introduces the
world to the Portal Gun, a simple, yet extremely fun gameplay mechanic
that had me avoiding progression through the game for far too long as I
tinkered with the various contraptions I could construct using its
powers. The Portal Gun has two functions: make a blue portal, or make
an orange portal. Portals can be made on any surface allowed, whether
it's a wall, ceiling, or floor. Once the blue and orange portals are
placed, they become doors to each other, so walking though the blue
portal exits out of orange one and vice-versa. This can lead to some
pretty trippy happenings, especially given that the game makes you
place portals on all kinds of wacky places. For example, in some levels
you have to make on portal on the floor, place the other on a slanted
edge, then jump into the first one from a high altitude. The momentum
is carried through the portal and you are then flung out across the
room. Actually, this is one of the more normal uses. You can also make
yourself fall forever, chase yourself though endless hallways, and walk
through a door that comes out a floor.
Aside from the unique
puzzle solving, Portal is one of the most legitimately funny games I've
ever played. Many video games make attempts at humor, but most fail
miserably, which is not surprising since most video game writers are
not comedians. Portal is a wonderful exception. The comedy comes from
the voice of the computer that guides you through each mission, and
from the deadpan way in which the robotized female voice offers
'assistance'. It's a bit like HAL from 2001, but goofier. The same
robot voice also sings an extremely catchy song about the company she
works for at the end credits, which was written by the nerd-songmaster
Jonathan Coulton, who has such tunes as "Re: Your Brains" and "Tom
Cruise Crazy".
The genesis of Portal was a student-project game
called Narbacular Drop, developed as a senior thesis by Digipen
students. When the school had its career fair and developers from
across the country came to take a look at the games, Gabe Newell from
Bellevue-based Valve loved Narbacular Drop and offered the kids a job
basically on the spot, developing their game using the Half-Life 2
engine. I would imagine the kids were happy about that.
I should
also point out that two of the most critically acclaimed and popular
game series ever, Halo and Half-Life, were both developed in the
greater Seattle area. Apparently, we like games that let you kill
aliens.
