Portal: Changing the way we think about modern gaming.

Producers of games like “Bejeweled” are making millions of dollars yet these puzzlers aren’t considered mainstream videogames by the general public. First person shooters, on the other hand, are the very definition of a mainstream game, with seemingly every new release falling into this category of gaming. It takes a game like Portal to combine the best of these worlds to make an experience truly unique to modern games. That’s what we have here, folks- something that shatters the boundaries of gaming to form its inimitable occurrence.

Graphics- 6.5/10.
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Portal looks a lot like Half-Life 2 and its episodes. A lot of the textures look similar to one another, but that is to be expected as both were made by Valve. You might expect a game that is based on the idea of walking through portals to get to areas previously unreachable to be plagued with screen-tearing problems, but that is not the case with Portal. I’ve run across absolutely NO screen tearing. The frame-rate is also steady throughout Portal. The graphics here won’t “wow” you, but at least they don’t take away from the fun you’ll have in the game.

What really detracts from Portal’s overall presentation, or at least holds it back, is the lack of character models. I can’t really think of a good way that Valve could have implemented them in the game, but Half-Life 2’s character models were so dang good that it made up for some of the blurry textures. To the contrary, the only character model you’ll see in Portal (yourself, but you’ll only see yourself through portal wholes) looks truly awful. It’s to the point that it is impossible to tell if you are even playing a boy or girl. Obviously, the designers didn’t put much emphasis on the model, because you’ll barely ever see it, but it still would have been nice to have something a little easier on the eyes.

Another small gripe about the presentation is the water effects. Not while you’re out of the water looking into it, as it looks just fine then, it’s when you accidentally fall into the water and consequently die from it that it looks bad. When you fall in, you’ll be welcomed with one ugly color all around you that just SCREAMS playstation 1. Maybe Valve just didn’t think that anyone would notice. When you turn, the screen tears all around you, the textures break up, and the lighting goes to crap. Of course, I can’t complain too much, because this only happens very infrequently, but it still adds an “unfinished” quality to the game that is worth mentioning.

Sound- 8.5
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Portal’s sound effects have the same feel as the graphics in that they won’t “wow” you, but they get the job done. No explosions are in the game, and for that matter, nothing of real sound importance is. Footsteps sound real enough, cubes and cameras that fall will make clanks and dings against the floor, and the Portal gun feels right when you use it, and the sounds it makes seem very appropriate.

The real fun in the sound department is in the robot GlaDoS. The voice actor for the robot does an outstanding job, and the hilarious bits of dialect that come from her are a welcome bit of humor. The end credits song “Still Alive” is one of the best original songs to come from a video game. I actually enjoyed the song so much I felt compelled to put it on my iPod. Nothing I can say can really describe how good the song actually is in the game, so you’ll just have to beat Portal and find out yourself!

Story- 9.0/10
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Portal drops you in to a testing facility, with absolutely no explanation why, other than the people at the “Aperture Science Laboratories” felt like testing someone, and that someone is you. Honestly, it’s very hard to tell if you are even playing as a boy or a girl in Portal. You’ll only see glimpses of yourself through portals. This just goes to demonstrate how nondescript the story is. It’s hard to knock the story of Portal, because if there were anything more of the story than what’s to be had, the game would feel overdone, and ultimately, it would just make you dislike the game. Even though there isn’t much of a story in Portal, that’s not to say that it doesn’t have a personality. You’ll be guided through these puzzles by a female robot’s voice, and you’ll hear some of the funniest stuff you’ll ever hear from her. The game feels just right in regards to the story, and I really wouldn’t have changed a thing about it.

Game play- 10/10.
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Portal has an interesting bound with Half-Life 2. It’s obviously made by the same designer, and the games just feel a lot alike. Portal even gets mentioned in Half-Life 2 episode 2 and that brought quite a few of the devoted Half-Life following to Portal just to try it out, but even if Portal didn’t have this connection with the Half-Life universe, it would still be one of the most talked about puzzle games in recent memory, because it feel so unique from everything else being put out right now.

Portal is shown from a first-person perspective, but it isn’t a FPS, because there isn’t any shooting- other than the Portal gun. The object of Portal is simple- Use the Portal gun to reach places previously unreachable. The gun can shoot 2 Portals, one orange, and one blue, one of these being the entry point, and one being where you will exist. You shoot it at walls that the Portal gun can shoot through, you walk through the entry point, and you’ll come out of the exit point you’ve pre-determined. It sounds like a very confusing concept, but in reality, it makes a lot of sense after you’ve played Portal for an hour or so. I'll reference the back of the games box to help you further understand the idea behind the game play of Portal. "Open your mind to a new way of gaming. Portal blends puzzles, first person action, and adventure gaming to produce an experience unlike any other. With the Portal device, manipulate your surroundings to complete dozens of unique challenges. Are you ready to start thinking with Portals?"

Physics are a big part of Portal, because you’ll need to use momentum to get over walls, and get to higher places, and you’ll also have to pick up boxes and such to use them to solve the puzzles you’ve been faced with. For the most part, I found the puzzles to be rather challenging. Maybe it’s because I’m your typical console ‘tard and wasn’t used to a game that required such a great amount of logic to figure out, but I thought I got my money’s worth with Portal. Professional reviewers have clocked the game at around 2-3 hours, but it took me the better part of 4 to finish, and that’s not counting how many times I plan on playing it again.

Controls- 8.0/10.
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The controls behind Portal are slightly above average. This is helped by the fact that there aren’t many different things needed, so the controls feel less cluttered in Portal. Overall, it’s very easy to use them, and they feel fine while playing. The controls are as follows- LT is to fire a blue portal, RT fires an orange one, A/LB is to jump, X/RB is used to pickup objects, B is to duck, right stick is used to look around, left stick is to move, while Y and the D-pad aren’t used.

Conclusion
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Portal is one of those unique occurrences in gaming where everything comes together to help create one of the best gaming experiences of the year. While it may not be perfect, you’ll ceartinly enjoy Portal, and that’s why I’m giving it a 9.0/10.. Not bad for something that was designed as an extra for The Orange Box.

Things to know about the game-
Genre: Action-Adventure; Puzzle
ESRB Rating: T - (Teen)
ESRB Descriptor: Gaming
Platform: Windows