Portal
Developer/Publisher: Valve
Reviewed Platform: PC
Release Date: October 9th, 2007
Posted: April 1, 2008
Cake, even the virtual kind, is an excellent incentive to get a player into a game; never mind the fact that it was an off-shoot from one of, if not the, best first-person shooters ever created. It is all about the cake.
The player assumes the role of Chell in a white-walled testing area with nothing at the start. Shortly after, however, you pick up the portal gun which is an amazing piece of equipment. With this specialized gun that shoots portals onto flat surfaces, the player maneuvers around levels to find the elevator at the end. You meet GLaDOS, your computer instructor, who is a maniacally insane, rogue computer AI who uses and abuses you throughout the game, and eventually attempts to set you on fire.
GLaDOS, your friendly neighborhood maniacally insane, rogue computer AI.
The puzzles are entertaining, varied, and make the player strategize before acting. Of course there is one way in particular to solve each, but coming up with your own, unique solution for each is so much more rewarding. Sometimes that means along the way you may take an energy blast to the back of the head, plummet hundreds of feet through multiple launch portals to your death, or chase your own self incessantly through a pair of portals, but it is all in good fun.
While there is generally not much plot to puzzle games, outside of the quite lengthy Puzzle Quest, what is really going on behind all of those white testing walls starts to shine through as the player progresses onward to the later levels. Although the tests are numbered and the player may feel they have done all that could be done, these tests are merely stepping stones. What came post the testing area was rather unexpected for me, and added so much more to the game.
There is no other love quite like the love I held for my companion cube.Portal is the kind of game that after playing through once, the player looks forward to going through again on a harder difficulty. After you have had enough of GLaDOS’ verbal harassment and melt down his… her… its innards, you can move on to the single puzzles. In this area, you attempt to do all of the previous puzzles, either faster, with taking fewer steps, or using fewer portals. Based on how well, or poorly, you do will determine whether or not you deserve cake. And irritatingly enough, it seems the cake is highly out of reach half of the time.
Not only was the promise of cake a note-worthy part of the game, but so were the rather cute extras that were seen throughout. I do not think that the word adorable could be applied to a turret if it were not for Portal. GLaDOS was always amusing and added a depth of humor to the game. And, of course, there is no other love quite like the love I held for my companion cube.
Portal is like having your cake and eating it too, except there is no cake, and that cliché does not really pertain to this review. I just love cake, and Portal… and my companion cube <3 Now all we need is a multiplayer Portal with lava. Lots of lava.
TLDR: Play Portal. And get yourself some cake.
