Portal (Let Them Eat Cake)
So I just borrowed The Orange Box from work to try Portal. I'm not terribly interested in Half Life 2, since story-driven single-player FPSs don't really interest me much. Team Fortress 2 is kind of cute, but I prefer Warhawk for online competition.
Portal is an FPS puzzle game based on the idea that you can put two interconnected holes on the walls so you can hop through one to come out the other. It implements this extremely well, as you can even see through the portal. So if you put them on either side of a corridor, you can look in and see yourself looking at yourself looking at yourself in a repeating image. Going through the portal doesn't change your momentum, so if you put one on the floor and the other on the ceiling above it, you can fall through what looks like an infinite tunnel.
Yes, Portal is short. I pegged the single-player campaign in about two-and-a-half hours. But, it has an extremely interesting play mechanic. I don't think the campaign needed to be longer, as it explored the portal mechanic rather well, and had very few frustrating moments. Also, the campaign was cleverly assembled with an interesting story and funny voicing from a neurotic computer.
One nitpick is that the deadzone on the move stick isn't big enough, so it was a little hard to do one puzzle that required not giving any movement input.
I haven't gone back to do the other modes you get for finishing the campaign, so I can't comment on their value. I can't say it's worth buying the Orange Box just for Portal, though I think it would have made a great $12 download title. As a Quake 3 player, I'd love to see the portal mechanic added to a competitive game with weapons.
Don't miss Portal. Find it on a platform you own (PS3, XBox 360 or PC) and play it.
Portal is an FPS puzzle game based on the idea that you can put two interconnected holes on the walls so you can hop through one to come out the other. It implements this extremely well, as you can even see through the portal. So if you put them on either side of a corridor, you can look in and see yourself looking at yourself looking at yourself in a repeating image. Going through the portal doesn't change your momentum, so if you put one on the floor and the other on the ceiling above it, you can fall through what looks like an infinite tunnel.
Yes, Portal is short. I pegged the single-player campaign in about two-and-a-half hours. But, it has an extremely interesting play mechanic. I don't think the campaign needed to be longer, as it explored the portal mechanic rather well, and had very few frustrating moments. Also, the campaign was cleverly assembled with an interesting story and funny voicing from a neurotic computer.
One nitpick is that the deadzone on the move stick isn't big enough, so it was a little hard to do one puzzle that required not giving any movement input.
I haven't gone back to do the other modes you get for finishing the campaign, so I can't comment on their value. I can't say it's worth buying the Orange Box just for Portal, though I think it would have made a great $12 download title. As a Quake 3 player, I'd love to see the portal mechanic added to a competitive game with weapons.
Don't miss Portal. Find it on a platform you own (PS3, XBox 360 or PC) and play it.
posted by Almo at 10:11 AM
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