So, around noon yesterday, I got my hands a copy of Portal. Around 3 o’ clock, I finished it. Only around three hours, which is about a third of average first-person shooter length. But I really enjoyed it.
Let’s start with the graphics. Portal doesn’t provide any shocking, emblazing graphics like crysis, but it is not bad at all. Portal uses the same engine that powers Half Life 2 and its two episodes, and Team Fortress. No wonder the graphics looks very Half Life-y. Solid surface, shiny weapons, those kinds of things. But like I said, the graphics is not bad. I can see some HDR working its magic of transforming what used to be a plain, dull object into a shiny, pretty one.
The only weapon in this game looks very much like Half Life 2’s gravity gun, which it might actually be based on. And again, thanks to HDR, it looks nice. Being the only weapon in a game, the Portal gun needs to be great. And I’m happy to say, It is great.
This is a first-person shooter that isn’t focused on killing enemies, but on solving puzzle. Yes, you do find some enemies, and there is a boss battle, but that is only about 5-10% of the whole game. But since you don’t have any ‘real’ weapon, killing them becomes a puzzle itself. But, i’ll tell you this, the whole gameplay is very fun, and every puzzle you solve is satisfying by itself.
The story, however, is not going to win any awards. You play as a woman who somehow ended up as a test subject in Aperture Science. You were given a portal gun as well as a spring-shoes-thingy to get trough some test levels. After that, you try to escape from the facility. Nothing great abouit the plot. But there is a very entertaining part of the game, the GlaDOS, I’m not going to tell you what that is, you’re going to have to play it yourself.
Now we’ll talk about the portal system. It pretty much work the way you expected, portal A goes here, portal B goes there, and they connect each other. whatever goes into portal A will come out of portal B, retaining the momentum they have when entering. This means that if you jump from a hundred feet high into a portal, you will be launched out of the next portal. This gives variety to the puzzle-solving experience.
Overall, I really think this is a very good game, eventhough it is short, every single minute you spend playing this game is well spent and very fun.
One last thing : The cake is a lie!
