Portal

Perfect. It’s a word that gets thrown around with far too much disregard for its true meaning in these somewhat throwaway days of games journalism. Personally, I would hesitate to use it any games review, no matter how mind-blowingly orgasmic it might be. However, with Portal, it almost feels appropriate.

You see, Portal tries to be nothing but that which it is; basically an add-on packaged in with four amazing other games. Yet it applies itself to this role in an impressive way. Portal is one hell of a puzzler with a stylistic sheen covering every inch of its composition. The elements it brings to the player – innovation, ideas, substance and puzzles – are all there in abundance, and are pulled off with a deft touch. Everything feels right, the gameplay, presentation, sound design and ambience combining to make a single experience that is so much more than the sum of its parts. Portal exists almost in its own little bubble, and it is one that would be very difficult to burst.

Portal presents itself with a sterile and clinical aesthetic, enhancing this with a soundtrack that is at once ominous, ambient and atmospheric. Although the game itself is remarkably sparse in its exposition and environmental design there is still a surprising amount of context and story information to be drilled. It’s a brand of storytelling that is uniquely Valve’s. For example the very sensation of abandonment that Aperture Laboratories presents, with it’s now deserted observation posts, is one that tells you something is not quite right with this place. This is a feeling that is constantly reinforced by Portal’s wonderful antagonist, the senile AI that leads you through each test chamber.

The seemingly now decrepit AI – named GLaDOS – provides a subtle yet sinister humor that adds a whole new layer to the experience of playing Portal. She is condescending and mockingly bureaucratic; her lines begin with an informative tone and become gradually darker and malicious as the game goes on, offering the player the promise of ‘cake’ if they are to complete the tests and skimming over the prospect of death as if it were a mere inconvenience. It is this subtle yet pervasive humor that makes Portal and its offbeat nature feel like a whole package, as it draws bold lines with its intentions to both innovate and amuse.

So, the real meat of the game is in the puzzles, and it is here that Valve exhibit their ability to take an already imaginative idea and build upon it. The puzzles constantly force you to rethink the ways in which you can use the portal gun to get from one place to the next, and you’ll find yourself using it in a totally different way at the end of the game than you did at the beginning. The incorporation of momentum into the puzzles is inspired, and using gravity to slingshot yourself out of portals at high speeds is a great sensation.

All in all there are nineteen test chambers in which you acclimate yourself to the uses of the portal gun. The constant disorientation of moving through portals into different parts of the map can have your brain sometimes struggling to compensate for an entire shift in gravity, and other times you’ll find yourself completing puzzles with only the slightest grasp of how you actually went about it. Strangely enough, this is a really satisfying experience as it rewards quick thinking.

As mind-bending as they progressively get, they’re never so complex that they become frustrating. Players will find that they are adamant to figure out each brainteaser because the process of doing so is so far removed from any other game. Seemingly impossible puzzles open up to you a lot quicker than you would think, leaving you with an extremely rewarding and enriching experience. Portal is consistent in its ability to make you smile with its conundrums, and is as intriguing as it is gratifying to play. It’s a game that demands an entire review of how we associate with level design, particularly that in the first-person. It turns your expectations of the genre on their head. Literally.

Valve are really onto something with this one. It’s a fantastic game, all of the elements feel perfectly in place, and it puzzles as much as it rewards. I even went as far to mention that controversial word, ‘perfect’. But why, oh why, oh why is it so short? What we have in Portal is an insanely promising play scheme cut short by an almost criminal length. I mean, come on, even just an hour more would have been nice. If the game had been miserable this wouldn’t sting so much, but the game borders on being such a wonderfully flawless experience. Portal is almost cruelly short, clocking in at just about two hours, and just when you’re beginning to get the feel for the portal gun and its possibilities you’re denied the chance to truly put them to use. In a way it feels that your imagination has been limited, and this is such a let down for a game of this caliber.

Portal’s brevity will hopefully be remedied by more content released at a later date, as it’s a promising new addiction and something Valve should clearly look into. More levels are the obvious choice, but user-created content could be an interesting choice for the future. ‘Advanced’ versions of some of the levels are also unlocked upon completion of the game, and the achievements can go some way to expanding the game’s lifetime, but a longer gameplay experience in the first place would have been the best bet.

9/10