A couple of days ago I fired up Portal (a 2007 release) for the first time and, four hours of play time later, the game is finished.



While four hours may not seem like good value for money, I absolutely loved every second that the game had to offer. (And to be fair, it contains unlockable bonus content, which I have not yet attempted.)

For those of you who - like myself - were living in a cave when Portal was released, the game is a physics puzzler that grants you the ability to create a pair of rips in the fabric of the universe that you can step through. For example, to ascend a high ledge you would shoot your portal gun to create one entry on the ground level, and another entry on the ledge; you would then walk through the ground level portal and step out onto the ledge. This simple concept sets up one of the most engrossing gaming experiences that I have had in a long time.

What makes Portal so perfect is the wonderful pacing that Valve's developers gave the game. You start out knowing absolutely nothing about yourself or the game mechanics, and are slowly fed story and game play elements as you progress. Puzzles are simple at first, but get tougher as you go due to both the increased number of ways in which you learn to interact with your environment, and the ingenuity required to solve them. Likewise, the story slowly comes together with time as you learn who you are, where you are, and who your adversary is.


The entire package is wrapped together in a delicious atmosphere that is both silly and twisted in equal parts. The turrets serve as wonderful exemplars of the cute/deadly dichotomy that Portal pulls off so brilliantly; deadly in the extreme, a turret will kill you in short order if you get caught in its line of fire, however if you manage to disable it the turret will scream out in comedic girlish horror as it realizes its fate. Also noteworthy is the voice that guides you through the game: it is delightfully schizophrenic, and you can never quite be sure if it is trustworthy.

I could go on, but I'll stop here before I ruin anything for people who have not yet completed the game. Suffice it to say, Portal is a masterpiece. If you haven't played this game yet, stop cheating yourself: go pick up a copy of ASAP, and play through it.

Bonus: Play the unofficial flash-based version of Portal!