Portal
I remember when Portal was released back in 2007 it was pretty much all the gaming community was talking about. Seriously, they wouldn't shut up about it. I didn't have a PC running at the time and therefore I couldn't play a copy, but I knew it was going to be released as a bundle called The Orange Box for consoles soon enough which included Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 as well. So I waited patiently, forever listening to nerds talk about the cake and companion cubes all the time giggling like it was the world's funniest joke. By the time I had finally gotten around to purchasing a copy the game was almost completely ruined for me. Like listening to people quote a Simpsons episode over and over before seeing it. It's just not as funny anymore.
But lo and behold, I got my copy and incredibly enough it was as enjoyable as if I had picked it up day 1. That is to say, there was a lot more to the game than a stupid cake joke.
Portal, for those who somehow have not seen anything on it, is essentially a first-person puzzle game. A unique concept, this game was originally created by students who were in turn hired by Valve to turn their concept into a full retail launch. In Portal, you awake in a laboratory as a test subject. You are provided with a 'portal gun' and are trained to use it in order to complete a series of 'test rooms'. Your portal gun basically fires an entrance and exit portal which in turn connects two point instantly. As an added bonus, objects passing through this portal maintain their current velocity; so, let's say you place an entrance hole at the bottom of a large drop, items exiting would do so with the speed of the initial fall. Put this all together and you have all the tools necessary to complete the tests put in front of you.
So, at first you find yourself making your way through increasingly complex test rooms. Learning new and interesting ways to make the portal gun work for you. Then, just when you think you understand the ins and outs of the game; presuming it's a merely a first-person game of Tetris with a sarcastic computer giving you crap each step of the way, the game reveals itself.
You soon discover the depth behind your test-subjectyness and the overall insanity of your testee. The game takes a turn and suddenly there's story involved in your puzzle game. This is where it really takes off. Because it was a great game on it's own before the story hits, but when the story does it, the game becomes an exceptional one.
Portal is one of those really unique games that really shows how much more you can do with the FPS platform than just shooter mechanics. I really enjoyed it way more than I thought I was going to after the initial hype died down from it's launch date. It's inexpensive, fun, skill-testing and simple but still great to look at. I'm super glad it made it's way into a sequel and I've love to see where they will take it with a third game. It's just such a beautiful mechanic.
I remember when Portal was released back in 2007 it was pretty much all the gaming community was talking about. Seriously, they wouldn't shut up about it. I didn't have a PC running at the time and therefore I couldn't play a copy, but I knew it was going to be released as a bundle called The Orange Box for consoles soon enough which included Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 as well. So I waited patiently, forever listening to nerds talk about the cake and companion cubes all the time giggling like it was the world's funniest joke. By the time I had finally gotten around to purchasing a copy the game was almost completely ruined for me. Like listening to people quote a Simpsons episode over and over before seeing it. It's just not as funny anymore.But lo and behold, I got my copy and incredibly enough it was as enjoyable as if I had picked it up day 1. That is to say, there was a lot more to the game than a stupid cake joke.
Portal, for those who somehow have not seen anything on it, is essentially a first-person puzzle game. A unique concept, this game was originally created by students who were in turn hired by Valve to turn their concept into a full retail launch. In Portal, you awake in a laboratory as a test subject. You are provided with a 'portal gun' and are trained to use it in order to complete a series of 'test rooms'. Your portal gun basically fires an entrance and exit portal which in turn connects two point instantly. As an added bonus, objects passing through this portal maintain their current velocity; so, let's say you place an entrance hole at the bottom of a large drop, items exiting would do so with the speed of the initial fall. Put this all together and you have all the tools necessary to complete the tests put in front of you.So, at first you find yourself making your way through increasingly complex test rooms. Learning new and interesting ways to make the portal gun work for you. Then, just when you think you understand the ins and outs of the game; presuming it's a merely a first-person game of Tetris with a sarcastic computer giving you crap each step of the way, the game reveals itself.
You soon discover the depth behind your test-subjectyness and the overall insanity of your testee. The game takes a turn and suddenly there's story involved in your puzzle game. This is where it really takes off. Because it was a great game on it's own before the story hits, but when the story does it, the game becomes an exceptional one.
Portal is one of those really unique games that really shows how much more you can do with the FPS platform than just shooter mechanics. I really enjoyed it way more than I thought I was going to after the initial hype died down from it's launch date. It's inexpensive, fun, skill-testing and simple but still great to look at. I'm super glad it made it's way into a sequel and I've love to see where they will take it with a third game. It's just such a beautiful mechanic.
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