Review: Portal - Disorientating, disconcerting fun

Mike Bantick
Saturday, 23 February 2008 10:17

Opinion and Analysis

The Portal Gun is the crux to the game, and requires explanation on its own.  Once the full gun is unlocked in the game, the Portal Gun enables you to “shoot” an oval portal onto just about any surface of a room, shoot the corresponding alternate portal somewhere else and you have created a connected mini wormhole that can be traversed by any real world object, including the player.

This is where the creative innovation of the game comes to the fore, to solve the rooms puzzle you will need to 'think with portals'.  Either by simply allowing you to areas not normally achievable through movement, or to get other in game object to use the portals to your advantage.

To guide you, is the ever hilarious Aperture Science AI GLaDOS.   The guiding robotic voice over is initially helpful, but as the 'story' of Portal plays out, becomes increasingly sinister, simple brilliance on behalf of the Valve team gives Portal a 'more than meets the eye' storyline to seamlessly accompany the engrossing game-play.

Mastering what can be achieved with the Portal Gun, layout and objects at hand, rules of momentum and gravity coupled with the occasional sheer fluke will see you shoot through Portal in three to five hours, but even then, the master levels and unlocked voice narrative add some replay ability.  (unless of course your Xbox 360 fails – see above).

Portal is a modern masterpiece of simple engrossing game design, something, along with much more complex games such as Civilization that capture a similar emotion, you will remember for a long time.  And another thing to remember, the Companion Cube is your friend .