Portal

The Good
The story was amazing, and the fact it used artificial intelligence as the main enemy of the game was exactly what I was looking for at the first time I played it. I would watch every lets-play on youtube as many times as possible as I waited to actually buy the game- and when I did I was so happy to get it that I beat it in a matter of three days. I love how the gameplay was, and how not every 'chamber', or test level, was easy and how you had to use your mind for quite a few of them.

The Bad
I really didn't like how short the game was in general. They could have added a lot more interesting things to the first game and still had it lead up to the seemingly even more popular sequel. Personally, I could play through this game with my eyes closed- I memorized the levels since I played it through so much, and over time it just got flat out boring.

The Bottom Line
Personally, this game is one of the coolest games I've played in awhile. Sure, it has some pros and cons about it and its not all completely amazing. Sure, it gets boring after awhile for people like me, but it is definitely worth getting.

The Good
I haven't seen a fresher idea for a game mechanism in years. And to find one that actually leaves much up to the player's imagination is rare. The portal weapons work like a charm, as does the physics in the game.

The Bad
However, I can't shake the feeling that I'm playing around with a tech demo. I have a hard time calling it a game. Most gamers will probably finish it in a couple of hours and that only adds to the demo feeling of the "game".

The story is thin, vague and not much to spur the player on. I got this game for free but had I payed money for it I would have felt even more cheated. It's fun to play around with and the gameplay is superbly executed - but I just don't see a whole game in there.

The Bottom Line
Imagine a typical 3D shooter without weapons. Instead you have the ability to shoot portals on almost any solid surface. If you shoot one portal on the right wall, and the other on the left and then go through the right one - you will come out of the left portal. These portals can be applied to ceilings and floors as well.

Now, the traditional shooter becomes a puzzle game where you need to use the portals - and your imagination - to get from point A to point B.

The Good
Portal is, at its heart, a puzzle game. You can place one portal here another there and walk through one to get to the other. Although the interface is typical of a first person shooter, there is no shooting of bullets on your behalf, the turrets on the other hand are rather trigger happy.

The FPS style wrapper for the game makes it immediately accessible to fans of that genre, but the game play is all about the puzzles. You proceed through the game completing rooms of increasing difficulty using portals to get around the obstacles. When you figure out the trick to a room there's a rewarding "Ah ha!" moment in your brain.

The story elements emerge out of the frame work of the game seamlessly. We don't need to be told exactly who we are or what we are doing there. We are put in the position of a mouse in a maze. A maze constructed by a sadistic AI personality. That's all there is to the story but how it unfolds is a brilliant example of minimalist writing.

You are never thrown out of the game world by an expository cut scene. The story happens through the dialogue and also later through pieces of the environment which suggest you are far from the first rat to run this maze.

The simple story reminds one of Harlan Ellison's AI gone mad in "I have no mouth but I must scream". And you have no mouth. Your character, though given the name Chell, is as silent as Valve's Gordon Freeman. Your own voice cursing or laughing is Chell's voice.

As simplistic as this may sound, the game is executed to a high level of quality. It's short. There is nothing extraneous present in it. Just very distilled puzzle game play surrounded by a simple plot that carries you along.

The ending, although well known and quoted to death by now, is one of the best I've seen in a video game. The end song flips the feeling of hatred you felt towards the AI in the game on it's head and makes you wish for more.

Should there have been more? Making a game this tight is a balancing act. I feel that if it had been longer perhaps the impact of the first play through would not have been so good. As it stands, they did an amazing job of creating the world of Portal around you as you played through the puzzles.

It does say something to the strength of the game that despite being bundled with an episode of Half Life 2, Portal has seen a sequel well before the next portion of Half Life 2. Talk about stolen thunder.

The Bad
I did feel that the difficulty in the game was a bit weird. Most of the earlier puzzles are easy to figure out. For a game having less than twenty total levels, the majority are easily cruised through.

The last couple of levels do present a challenge but some of this is from pure twitch mechanics not from brain work. For a game that relies so much on puzzle solving, it's odd that the hardest parts are just twitch timing.

The game is very short. An expert player could probably clear it in an hour or hour and a half. I replayed it before the sequel was released and it took me about three hours. I wasn't racing though, I spent time seeing the sights and messing with portals for kicks. For the price, it's not a bad value versus an evening at the movies but compared to the majority of video games it may seem way to brief.

The Bottom Line
Portal is a puzzle game in a FPS wrapper surrounded by dark humor. As Chell, the poor girl stuck like a mouse in a maze, you must use the portal gun to navigate the tests you are put through. The gun is simple to operate, one mouse button shoots the first portal, the other button shoots the second portal. Walk through one of these portals and you pop out where the other portal is located.

A simple concept, but you must use these portals to navigate some devious rooms, defeat or avoid bullet shooting turrets and even figure out how to use them to launch you up to seemingly unreachable locations.

The game runs smooth and using portals to get around is the essence of simplicity. It's almost too simple until you get to the final truly difficult rooms, which require you to generate new portals quickly while you are in motion.

The story comes in the form of dialogue from an insane AI, dedicated to testing the portal device. The humor is enjoyable and the voice acting superlative.

Short and sweet, Portal is a rare example of a game that doesn't overstay its welcome but rather leaves you wanting more.