One third of the new content in the Orange Box,
Portal is too short to be worth the price by itself, but it's one of
the most inventive and enjoyable games in a long time for the few hours
it lasts. It has a simple setup; you're a test subject being evaluated
as you solve puzzles using an experimental weapon that can create a
portal between two different places. At first you can only create one
end of the link, but before long you can set both locations as you use
them to redirect energy balls, cross pits and fling yourself over
obstacles. It's a bit mind-twisting at first, but it doesn't take long
for you to get familiar with the logic behind it and understand how it
works as simply as any other game mechanic. As you go on, the
environment gets more dangerous (including turrets that are both deadly
yet cute) and the puzzles require more thought to navigate. It climaxes
very well with a final encounter that tests everything you learned in a
tense situation. It's cool how they were basically able to have a final
"boss" without resorting to giving you actual weapons besides the
portal gun. They do a good job of shifting between simple but
pressurized puzzles and more cerebral ones, preventing your brain from
getting tired with the same thing over and over.
You can't talk
about Portal without mentioning GLaDOS. She's the artificial
intelligence that monitors your progress and tells you what's happening
as you work your way through the lab. She seems nice at first, but it
isn't long before you realize something sinister's going on. Her voice
acting and dialogue is hilarious, and the game's great writing and
presentation is half of why it's so good. Few games are actually
laugh-out-loud funny, but Portal is one of them. The fact that
something horrible is happening becomes more and more obvious, and it's
all dark in a very silly way. The line "The Cake is a Lie" is already
embedded in the collective consciousness of everyone who's played it.
There's also a very memorable and funny song in the end credits that
keeps it going. The ending is a cliffhanger and they've already tied
Aperture (the company whose laboratory you're running around in) into
Half-Life's story, so I wonder how the future of Portal will pan out.
