PLATFORM

PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

DEVELOPER

Valve Corperation

PUBLISHER

Valve Corperation

GENRE

First Person Puzzler

# OF PLAYERS

1

Rating

T (The Orange Box M)

U.S. RELEASE DATE

October 10th, 2007 PS3 December 11th, 2007

MSRP

The Orange Box $49.99 PC $59.99 Xbox 360, PS3 Portal download $19.95

The Orange Box’s Portal

OVERVIEW

Following GLaDOS’s instructions, navigate through a series of tests using the new Portal gun from Aperture Science.

REVIEW

Not being a huge Half-Life fan, I was inclined to ignore The Orange Box when it was first released. As the weeks went on, I didn’t hear very much about the Half-Life game itself, but rather two games that were bundled with it in The Orange Box – Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

Admittedly, Team Fortress 2 looked find of interesting, but the last thing I needed was yet another Multiplayer First Person Shooter to play. Portal though – that one got my attention. What finally sold me on the game as a little Flash game I found posted over at Newgrounds. Not only was it one of the best Flash games I have ever encountered online, but it totally sold me on the Portals mechanic (Seriously – go play it. It is free, and you will see exactly what I mean). The game was challenging – a real brain-bender, and ultimately trained my brain to the type of thinking I would need to tackle Portal. I finally broke down and bought The Orange Box, and jumped right into the game.

As the game starts up, you find yourself waking up in a small glass chamber. There is an annoying alarm clock, a bed, and some debris that you can manipulate, but no way out. Finally, a disembodied computerized voice (Whom you later know as GLaDOS) opens a portal through you, and begins to instruct you on the parameters of the tests you are about to endure.

Each test takes place on a different level which you reach by an elevator. In each room, you face various challenges including acid floors, defense turrets, and several puzzles that you must solve before you can reach the end of the test and move on to the next level. Do accomplish this, you are given a Portal gun, a non-lethal weapon which fires two different colored portals (fired by the right and left mouse buttons on the PC). Entering the Blue Portal will allow you to emerge through the Orange one, and vice versa. In many of the levels you are given at least one Weighted Companion Cube, a large weighted cube which can be used to depress switches (among other things). In one level, GLaDOS accuses you of becoming too emotionally attached to your Companion Cube and forces you to incinerate it to move on – one of the game’s many humorous moments.

Of course, there is a twist at the end – suffice to say I am not going to spoil it in this review. This is just one of those things you are going to have to play through yourself to see.

Portal is short – really short. In fact, you can play it all the way through in a single sitting – about 2-3 hours depending on your puzzle-solving prowess. But that is ok – it isn’t written anywhere that a game has to top 20 hours to be enjoyable. Even after you beat it, there are several bonuses – you unlock harder versions of some of the rooms, and can go through a “challenge” mode, where you are asked to complete tasks using as few portals as possible, or as quickly as possible. Lots of replay value for certain.

The game’s atmosphere is really unique. The only character interaction is between Chell, the protagonist (who does not speak) and GLaDOS, a computerized test proctor voiced by Ellen McLain. Surprised I actually mentioned the voice actress? Don’t be. GLaDOS’s dialogue is one of the very best parts of the game. GLaDOS has no integrity whatsoever, and the praise, criticism, and outright torture GLaDOS inflicts on you is one of the absolute best parts of the game. Nods also have to go out to the design of the turrets – those polite killing machines who plead with you ever so nicely to stop moving, and even forgive you for deactivating them. Fantastic.

Graphic-wise – well, if you know anything about me by now, the “quality” of graphics is one thing I don’t weight too heavily anymore. Not that it would get low marks there – everything is crisp and clean – but the design itself is phenomenal. The levels look sterilized, very much like a test facility would. This is highlighted even more during those times when you get out of the test rooms, and find yourself in abandoned parts of the building where everything is decaying with rust and mildew. I can’t go into too much more detail there without spoiling things, but one word of advice – look for writing on those walls on the “outside.”

BOTTOM LINE

I grappled hard with the rating, and many of you know that when it comes to reviews, I don’t give full scores lightly. When thinking of the things wrong with this game – nothing was coming to mind. The lack of multiplayer might be considered a negative – but then, the game concept doesn’t really lend itself to a multiplayer format. The length is short, sure, but since when is there a game time minimum for a great game? Besides, with so many games out there to play, if something was short and totally enjoyable, I might actually play it more than once. When I was a kid and didn’t work for a living, perhaps replay value would mean something in those 30+ hour monsters, but Portal is a game I can actually see myself playing again.

Even if you aren’t interested in Half-Life or Team Fortress, Portal is definitely worth a look. It is well worth the $20 they are asking for it online, if you aren’t especially interested in the other games in The Orange Box, but it may well be worth the full price to pick up the whole package for Portal alone.

One interesting rumor has been floating about – that Valve might consider porting Portal to the Wii. I can honestly say that this would be fantastic news. The Portal dynamic is a perfect fit for the Wii, and the game would sell like gangbusters. I do hope that comes to pass.

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