After playing with the flash version of portal for a while, I broke down and got the real thing. I do not regret it. I really think this is one of the best games I have played in years. Every bit of hype you have heard about it so far is true. The game is simply amazing. I don’t know what it is about messing around with portals, but the unique puzzles the game offers are incredibly fun to solve.
I really think we are dealing with something ground breaking here. Sure, different kinds of portals have been present in video games since the beginning of time. But not in this way. As far as I know no one ever gave the player this much freedom in manipulating the gaming world. Pray was close with it’s physics puzzles, but I believe they were fairly static. It’s fresh, new and exhilarating. And you know you have hit something big, if everyone is moding portal like game play elements into other engines. For example, here is an Unreal Tournament mod that tries to duplicate Portal mechanics.
Oh, and there is also a relatively easy way to hack any of the Half Life 2 games to include the Portal gun and it’s wacky mechanics.
But that’s not all this game offers. It’s also the unique look and feel, the amazing attention to detail and the black humor that make it so special. Just the monologue delivered by the AI that conducts the test is hilarious, but there are so many other little things in there that made me giggle. For example, I love how the turrets call out “where are you?” in these squeeky childish voices when they loose you from their sights. Or the little side rooms filled with weird scribbles on the walls. I especially liked the little shrine dedicated to the weighted companion cube. Oh, and if you look closely, you will see multiple references to Black Messa throughout the game.
Btw, did anyone catch what the different colored eye-components were saying while you were carrying them in the final stage. They actually made me die on my first try cause I was just hanging around trying to make them say more stuff. Pay attention to the blue one! It cracked me up!
To bad the game is so short. I pretty much beat it in a single sitting not counting a break to eat something and check my email. I don’t even know how long it took me because I lost track of time. Still, it was worth it. I enjoyed every second!
I would love there to be Portal 2. But as far as I can tell, Valve is probably going to incorporate portals into Half Life 2 in Episode 3. That is really cool by itself, but a full fledged sequel would be great as well.
[tags]portal, portals, valve, half life 2, games, gaming, pc[/tags]
[quote post=”2054″]one of the best games I have played in years.[/quote]
I totally agree, a great new concept, instead of just adding to the very large pile of regular shoot-em-ups :)
I loved all the commentary (the female voice), and the song at the finish – Valve have a good sense of humour :D
It took me a little under 2.5 hours to complete it :mrgreen:
The song is actually by Johnatan Coulton also known for his similarly awesome song Re: Your Brains. I don’t think Valve could pick anyone better to write the ending song for this game. :)
The first thing I did after playing Portal was to extract the music files from the .gcf archives with GCFscape ;)
I did the same for the all the HL2 music :D
Oh, nice! I didn’t know about this tool. This may come in useful. :)
I actually found the mp3 of the song somewhere online. Due to sheer awesomeness it’s kinda all over the place actually.
Best. Game. Ever.
I saw a transcript of the dialogue in its entirety somewhere, including all the phrases that the AI modules come out with.. I’ll have a poke around in my history and see what I can find (or Google if I can’t find it)
I don’t think Portal 2 is an impossibility, one of the people involved said in an interview that they’re deciding what to work on next – addon maps, multiplayer or Portal 2, indicating they’re at least considering it (So make some blog-noise, we want Portal 2!
I also did it all in a single sitting (and also totally lost track of time), then a few days ago I had a friend at my house, and he played to within walking distance (sans obstacles) of the final fight, then had to go (neither of us realised how close he was)
For me, the black humour and general weirdity (like the turrets child-like voices, or the cake recipe interspersed with the writing on the plasma screens, or the companion cube) took a great game and made it awesome. Loved it throughout and now I wish I could play it for the first time again.
*looks in history, finds nothing, turns to Google* Wasn’t what I saw before, but this has the relevant quotes and less extraneous fluff: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Portal
or here’s the whole in-game script: http://mmmmmoo.com/public/games/portal/portal_script.txt
[quote post=”2054″]addon maps, multiplayer or Portal 2, indicating they’re at least considering it (So make some blog-noise, we want Portal 2![/quote]
Portal 2 or [free] addon/expansion maps would be great, but I can’t see multiplayer being that fun for very long… Sure you could have co-op mode to complete the game, but what else is there after that?
Good point. I’m not sure how a multilayer portal would work. I guess using a well timed portal shot to drop someone into acid could be fun, but other than that I’m not sure. Also with 10-20 people on a single level, the sheer number of portals that could be opened at a given time would really make things very confusing.