Portal

Portal is something of a rarity in this day and age – a game with some truly original ideas. It is from Valve, the creators of the Half Life series, so you can be sure that it is going to be a polished and slick creation. Built using the bespoke Source engine, it has the same excellent graphics as the Half Life 2 games, along with the amazing physics engine, which is where I suspect the inspiration for the game came from. Within Portal you are a test subject in a laboratory, and you are presented with a series of puzzles to solve. As they increase in complexity as the game progresses, you are introduced to the concepts of portal in a nice gradual manner. ...  Read the complete review

Valve Corporation's Portal has been called one of the greatest games of all time. This is quite a lot to live up to. After all, the list of 'greatest games of all time' includes Super Mario Bros, Chrono Trigger, Monopoly and Naked Simon Says. Even if it doesn't make that list for you, it's undeniably a modern classic. But what is it all about? All I heard for months from my friends was "Portal is this, Portal is that", so eventually my curiosity was piqued and I picked up a copy in the hope of understanding what the heck they were all on about. You see the game through the eyes of Chell, a young female silent protagonist who wakes up in the abandoned ...  Read the complete review

Portal is a highly original, utterly fantastic game created by Valve, that comes packaged in The Orange Box, which also contains Half Life 2 and the expansion, Episode One. However, Portal isn't really connected to the Half Life universe at all, and instead goes off in a whole other direction altogether, with impressive, mind-bending results. The game opens as the character awakens in a science lab. They then are forced to trek through a number of puzzles, with the goal being that they use a special gun called the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, to teleport themselves and various key objects through portals that they create, in order to reach the end ...  Read the complete review

Portal is an ingenious puzzle game with a hilarious back-story (more of that later). You are equipped with a "portal gun" - you fire it at a wall and it creates a portal through which you can walk, usually into another section of the room. The basic premise is that you're in some kind of training program, being tested by the computer - but it becomes apparent that the computer (who controls your whole environment, as the exam/test is fully automated) is slowly losing it! The game leads you in nicely, starting you off with pre-built portals (you build one half of the portal but not the other) until you get the hang of it. The portals themselves are ...  Read the complete review

The game portal, is the most imaginative and incredibly simple idea for a game I have ever had the joy of playing. The game is set in the Half-life universe developed by the American company Valve, which has a very in-depth storyline that is a great read but not necessary to know to play portal. It all starts with you in a glass enclosure with a creepy computerised female voice explaining the idea behind the enrichment centre activity that you have been specially selected for. From then on its merely about surviving Glados' (the computer) rooms and get to the end, where she has promised you cake. To complete the many complicated challenges in front of you, ...  Read the complete review