Clever, thinking man's puzzle game (Portal)

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	Portal
Date:	05/09/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smart and darkly comic

Disadvantages: Not for all tastes

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 of each stage. It's a thinking man's game, and one that offers a very original challenge, requiring the gamer not only to strategise but hone their sense of spatial awareness. And a little scientific knowledge about momentum probably wouldn't hurt either!

With the promise by the lab's computer that you will recieve cake upon beating the game, there's a somewhat creepy and disturbing atmosphere about the whole thing, an uneasiness that penetrates through to the final mission, where the game has a few surprises up its sleeve. Needless to say, for such a minimalist premise, this is an incredibly engaging game with superb visuals and a unique challenge that's taxing, but never too difficult. The game is quite short, but I think this suits the methodology of the game - how long can you really distend this series of puzzles? Nevertheless, the game runs in at about 5-6 hours long for the average player which, to me, was more than enough considering the relatively small cost within the bundle of the Orange Box.

Clever, challenging, and complex, this is the exact sort of game we should be encouraging - for a fun, slightly creepy, thinking man's game, this is one to get for sure.

Summary: Some will hate it, but it's very unique