Portal is one of those rare examples that demonstrate video games as an artform. The geniuses at Valve have created a game that inspires a new way of thinking, a compelling storyline, and gives us a glimpse of the larger world that is the Half-Life universe. Portal is one of the innovative games in Valve’s “The Orange Box” package which includes Half-Life 2, HL2 Episode One and Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Portal is available by itself via Steam if you have a PC.
You wake up in a white sterile environment enclosed in a glass cage. A computerized voice (the same one on “The Orange Box” TV commercials) tells you that you are part of an experiment and you will be let loose shortly. Your first “portal” then appears inside your transparent prison, and you can see another exit outside your cage. You immediately get a sense that these two spinning ellipses are connected gateways, as you can see a mirror image of yourself from the outside gateway.
This is the dynamic that you will use to solve the puzzles in Portal, which rely heavily on three-dimensional thinking, and a paradigm shift on how we think about gravity. Source’s physics engine is critical in these puzzles, and there can be several ways to solve them.
At first you may feel as confused as your lab-rat avatar in what to do, and may not feel compelled that this title is not worthy of your time. It only takes a few minutes before the puzzle aspect becomes intriguing, and you will be thinking about it long after you stop playing. The puzzles become addictive, and you get hooked on them; and then the story begins to unfold which really ropes you in.
Anyone who is a fan of Half-Life will enjoy the wry wit of GLaDOs, the omnipiant overseer of this experiment. She also lovingly refers to you as “<< insert test subject here >>”, and says things to playfully antagonize you; one minute providing encouragement, and the other insulting you, much like a good cop/bad cop scenario. A typical example is how she explains that the next puzzle is impossible, and then states that she wanted to see how you did when discouraged. Another example is how she says she won’t watch you for the next experiment, and then says “our previous statement that we would not monitor you was an outright fabrication. As part of a required test protocol, we will stop enhancing the truth in 3… 2… “.
Another one of my favorite GLaDOs quotes are “Safety is one of many Enrichment Center goals. The Aperture Science High Energy Palette seemed to have been left in the chamber can, ans has caused serious permanent disabilities, such as vaporization. Please be careful.”
The puzzles in Portal rely heavily on Source’s innovative physics engine.
One of the dynamics you encounter is the use of momentum and gravity. Say there’s a ledge you need to get to, but is way out of reach. You can place a portal on the wall opposite of the ledge, and shoot another one down a shaft. When you jump down the shaft and into the portal, your momentum shoots you out of the destination gateway like a bullet and onto the ledge.
Some of the objects in the game are similar to what you’ve seen in Half-Life 2. There are no real “enemies” in the game, but there are gun turrets (similar to those seen in HL2), and energy orb receptacles. Several of the puzzles require that you get an energy orb from the source to its destination receptacle to open a door or proceed to the next part of the room. Since you can’t touch these balls of energy, you must paint a path with portals to get the orb where it needs to go.
The portals can also be used to eliminate your enemies. One of the game dynamics is to open a portal next to a gun turret, and then another directly in the path of a rocket launcher or orb canon, which causes the projectile to take out the obstacle.
There are other gameplay dynamics in the first half of the game in which you are running the experiment gauntlet that you must learn to complete the puzzles. These skills become absolutely crucial to your survival in the second half of the game, where you find yourself behind the test structure and must find your way out.
Didn’t I mention that? As you near the end of the experiment chambers (19 in all) you see evidence of your predacessors who have opened walls, written notes, or otherwise reveal the conspiracy of GLaDOS, such as graffiti stating “There is no cake.” Near the end of the experiment, your electronic overlord tells you that you will be “rewarded with cake” for your survival, and then states instead that “you will be baked” as a conveyor belt slowly lowers you into a pool of lava.
Using your portal gun, you can escape, and GLaDOS becomes very aggitated as you weed through the back rooms like an unwanted cockroach. She says things that will be familiar to anyone who’s dumped a psychopathic girlfriend, like “I didn’t mean it. I’m not angry, really. Just come back.”
The puzzles are no longer staged, but you must use what you’ve learned in the Enrichment Center to get past pools of toxic waste, lava, crushing platforms, and various turrets and obstacles. The puzzles become increasingly harder as you progress, but nothing too extremely difficult. You need to have good aim while you are flying through the air, as you will have to repeatedly fly through several portals to gain enough momentum to get out of some very high rooms.
Near the very end of the game you see the back offices of Aperture Science. There is an abandoned PowerPoint presentation in one of the offices that indicate that Aperture is in competition with Black Mesa (Gordon Freeman’s former employer) for government contracts. There are other subtle hints that give you a larger glimpse into the Half-Life world, which makes Portal more cohesive.
The graphics in Portal are good, but not mind-blowing. At first the environment looks very clean and sterile, so there really isn’t much to look at. Once you get behind closed doors you can see the gritty underbelly of the building’s construction. The textures are good, and look as good as the graphics in Half-Life 2: Episode 2. While the Source engine has been updated to include HDR lighting and other advanced DirectX9 rendering techniques, it doesn’t compare to the new eye candy we see in games like Bioshock and Lost Planet.
Portal’s conclusion is very cool, and you’ll want to experience it a few times, but the total gameplay doesn’t total to more than two hours, even if you have a hard time with the puzzles. Because of this, extra features become unlocked once you play complete the game. One of these features is developer commentary (much like director’s commentary on DVDs). When you play through the game again, there will be spinning “talk boxes” that you can interact with that talks about that particular room, graphic feature, or other thoughts behind the gameplay.
The PC version of Portal also has unlockable achievements, similar to the Xbox 360 version… but they don’t seem to carry the same amount of bragging rights. Others on the Steam community can see these achievements, however. You may want to play through the game several times to unlock all of the achievements, most of which are unlocked by beating a level in an certain amount of time.
Portal is part puzzle-game and part first-person shooter. Not only do you have to think in a different way to solve the puzzles, but you must have fast reflexes to execute the maneuvers once you’ve found a solution. First-person fans who want constant action may get a little bored during the opening of the game, and hard-core puzzle freaks may get frustrated by clumsiness. This hybrid game is a full syringe of Innovation into the vein of the Video Game industry.
At first you may not know exactly what’s going on or why you are playing this game. This is as much a puzzle game as anything else, and Portal makes you use your brain in a different way by thinking in three dimensions. The use of Source’s physics are critical to the gameplay, and yet it seems like they haven’t untapped the full potential of what can be done.
The graphics look fantastic, but the environments look very similar until the second half of the game where you get behind the scenes of the Aperture Science’s test facility. The new Source engine adds some new rendering capabilities, but doesn’t use anything fancy.
The creativity is where Portal shines. GLaDOS’ commentary is macabre yet hilarious. Only at the very last of the game does the story reveal it’s “aha” factor of how the spinoff ties into the Half-Life universe, and leaves me wanting more. To me, Portal is an absolute masterpiece. I can’t wait to be tested again… and have some cake.
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