Portal

Woefully short. I blew through it in just a few hours. It's unfortunate that the game doesn't even begin to spread its wings until the final level, and then it's over. Outstanding concept for sure, but with such a vast amount of obvious potential left on the table, it's hard to give this game, as a whole, the praise that its core mechanics certainly deserve.

This is a game so obviously good it's probably a waste of time to prattle on about in a formal way. Instead, I'll just share some of my experiences with the game and how I think it holds up on my playthrough of it yesterday, the 12th of August, 2019.

I first played through this game in the most abominable way possible - by way of the console port of The Orange Box for Xbox 360 back in 2008. Although the controls limited some functionality and it wasn't nearly as pretty or smooth as the PC original, I was utterly obsessed with the original Portal and how unique it was. It took the industrial horror influence of Valve's previous Half-Life series and painted over it with a pristine, hostile white, letting it slowly chip away and erode along with your feelings of security and comfort. Portal is not about being tested, it is about the nature of testing - being a pawn for some hidden authority, the isolation and disconnect from reality, the helplessness and desire for escape.

What helps sell the setting of Aperture Science is not a lengthy campaign with rigorous puzzles and world building, it's actually how far GLaDoS goes to prevent you from figuring out what's going on, and how fantastic the pacing of this "paint peeling back" occurs over the utterly cinematic 2-hour runtime of the game. There are essentially 3 acts of the game: 1) simple puzzles and building the Portal skillset, 2) being confronted with the fact that you are being misled by your AI companion by way of the Ratman's lairs and her gradual accumulation of lies to you, and 3) executing the escape when you are left with no other choice, using what you have learned to break out of the facility. This is done so goddamn well that I still can't believe this isn't a film yet, and none of it is accomplished through cutscenes or scripted sequences. Your perspective is never altered, and it is up to you to make these events happen in real time. When you're finally in control of your escape and on your way to freedom, you find that the reason for your particpation in this sadistic game was simply to test this tech so Aperture Science had more leverage in corporate warfare with Black Mesa over DoD contract work. You, the individual, were nothing but a disposable tool for profit margins.

The most underrated portion of this game to me is the sound design. Outside of one of the actual best ambient soundtracks in the history of music, with tracks that knaw at your insecurities as a test subject in a confined space and amplify the sci-fi thriller pacing, every sound effect is outstanding and leaves a mental impression. I think many people who have played this game can remember the sound of a Portal being deployed, of a switch being depressed, of the energy ball keys flying around the test chambers, of the off-kilter moan of the elevator moving you to a new floor. Of course, just like its mechanical evolution and story twists, the music abruptly hits a stride and becomes HL2-inspired adrenaline pumping electronica that lets you know that you are in DANGER and need to act. Above all else, Valve managed to make a game that was carried plot-wise by a single character with voice lines in GLaDoS, who is outstandingly written and conveys her gradual loss of control in a very convincing and creepy way. The mechanical hum of her voice and Microsoft Reader-esque way that certain words are always enunciated gives a serious HAL-9000 vibe to her character. The way her voice flips when you melt her morality core is also just sinister and incredible voice acting work by actress Ellen McLain. From an audio standpoint, Portal might top Valve's already outstanding resume of sound design.

The only things that hold this game back from being completely flawless for me are the omnipresence of the janky Source engine when interacting with stuff like cubes that regularly remind me this is not just a game but an old one, and the overall low difficulty of the test chambers before they let you loose through Aperture, as the puzzles after you receive both ends of the portal gun ramp up slightly and then plateau. Outside of those minor complaints, I don't think you'll find a better 2 hours of game anywhere else in the world. Despite being published by a major force in the industry in 2007, Portal's success and popularity was a sign the gaming world was ready for the avant-garde and surreal. This is one of the most developed concepts and executions in gaming history.

After playing this I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I am just not good at video games, and I'm doubtful I'll be good in future games I play. Maybe I'm jumping the gun as I've played very few video games, but it's just a *feeling* I've got. This game is typically brought up as one of the best for beginners, with gameplay that's relatively easy but still rewarding. My experience was very different. To be fair, about half of the levels are easy, but gradually get to what I would say is a medium difficulty until level 16, then it's hard from then on. It's not hard like, in a combative sense, but seriously puts your logical thinking and problem-solving skills to the test. Hell, I even had to go online to cheat this one time because I couldn't figure out how to get the stupid cube in chamber 18! It was worth it too, Lord knows how long I'd have been flopping around trying to get through that section. I saw a comment on Reddit saying "If you can't beat this game within five hours you have a very big problem"...

It took me six hours.

Granted I wasn't rushing, I liked exploring any area I can get into, but regardless, they're probably right. Perhaps I'm just a brainlet. This is no criticism of the game, of course. In fact, despite being supposedly worse than everyone else, I still had a relatively good time. What I think probably drives people to suggest this for beginners is maybe not so much that it's "easy", but it really kind of has it all. I'm aware of why this game was such a success and is seen as a classic, the mechanics are like a mix between a first-person shooter and a puzzle game, linked together with a small, simple story. I can't say from lack of experience the landmark this was but, I'm assuming the critics aren't lying about its influence.

None of that matters too much to me right now, to be honest. I love unique experiences, and I'm hoping this continues to be that, but one of my favorite elements of this game is how well it balances tone. The situation the protagonist is in is awfully isolationist, the only things she can communicate with being robots. Along with the dark-ish ambient music, the experience is set up to be a bit sad... although it throws in a very humorous dynamic with funny dialogue from GLaDOS. The little androids too and how their personality somehow ranges from cute, to terrifying (when they're killing you), to funny. It's impressive how something that serves such a singular purpose can be infused with so much personality. The final scene is a bit humorous too.

Most of the levels are going for a minimalistic aesthetic, and while for many of them, I would've appreciated something more, they were still enjoyable to play. GLaDOS's involvement was merely to guide the player, occasionally interweaving some humorous bits of dialogue, but it isn't until the final chamber that her role is much more involved. The level design for the final chamber is much more complex as well, timing becomes a much more crucial aspect of the puzzles, and they just generally are much cooler than the previous levels. It makes me wish those previous levels leading up to this were a bit more interesting in their design, even if they were still fun and challenging.

Compared to many other games, this one has always stuck out as being relatively short, which is a-okay with me! It might have not been *as* short for me, but six hours is still comparatively a short amount of time to complete a game. I just kinda wished there was more to it. The hints of potential this game has to offer shine just a little bit by the end. Perhaps the more acclaimed sequel expands upon this potential - I'll be looking forward to it.

A series of puzzles to be solved by opening and closing portals around. The design is neat and minimal, and there is no verbose plot or unneeded distractions dragging the player down. I wish the puzzles were a little more complex though; the whole thing took me a couple of hours.

Couldn't fit cube through the hole (0/10)

Remember when Valve was once the Daniel Day-Lewis of the video game industry? They didn’t churn out games annually like other triple-A developers, but the titles they did release once in a blue moon became some of the best of their generations. Nowadays, Valve is more like the Apple of gaming, a giant gaming conglomerate known for digitizing video game commerce. Steam has become Valve’s most significant priority for quite some time now, leaving them no time or incentive to put any effort towards developing video games anymore. Since Valve has shifted its focus and priorities, many gamers have been clamoring for their triumphant return in the realm of developing video games. It’s a shame that such an esteemed developer has decided to ascend to broader horizons, from a gamer’s perspective at least. Above all else, the core principle that made Valve the juggernaut game developer was their strides in innovation. Half-Life may not have invented the 3D first-person shooter, but the seamless cutscenes and 3D ragdoll physics changed the genre forever. Its sequel expanded on these aspects to significant effect and arguably still stands as the greatest FPS of all time. Portal carries this same point of innovation but far beyond the realm of the FPS genre. The FPS, 3D platformer, and puzzle genres are three wildly different video games with polar audiences. Valve presents Portal with this pitch: why not make a game that includes all of them?

I claimed that the 3D platformer died in 2005. I wrote about this heavily in my review of Psychonauts, which I claimed was the creative peak of the genre that could efficiently lay the long-winded genre to rest. Since it came out, I’ve been familiar with Portal and never spoke of it in the same breathe as Psychonauts or any other 3D platformer. The game didn’t include any of the genre's tropes that I had come to affiliate it with, such as collectibles, varied worlds, or even a double jump mechanic. Portal, by comparison, is more minimal and restrained than the often vibrant 3D platformer game. I forgot that the core fundamental of the 3D platformer was jumping on platforms in a 3D space which makes up a significant amount of Portal’s gameplay. It’s interwoven so subtly with everything else in the game that even a 3D platformer connoisseur like myself couldn’t see it. This revelation unlocks a whole new layer of admiration I now have for Portal.

The aspect of Portal that threw me off initially was the fact that Chell, the silent protagonist, has the jumping ability of a dead jellyfish. If Portal is a 3D platformer title, Chell is the least aerodynamic protagonist possible. Nonetheless, she must find a way to get onto a series of platforms, similar to any platformer protagonist before her. This conundrum entails the puzzle ingredient to Portal’s eclectic gameplay recipe. In a traditional 3D platformer, the platforms or geographical land is used as terrain to get to the goal. In Portal, finding a way to get onto the platform IS the goal. Doors that lead to the next area are in hard-to-reach places and or locked by buttons that require a permanent weight on them to open. The player will also utilize energy balls, moving platforms, and velocity to place Chell on the desired course. The various numbered rooms that Chell completes one by one get progressively more challenging and integrate more of these devices. The difficulty curve of Portal is perfect, starting with the simplest solving of physics to multifaceted puzzles as the game progresses.

How does Chell achieve success with any of the various perplexities she faces? Why, with Valve’s successor to the Gravity Gun, the Magnus apparatus and namesake of the game: the portal gun. The first-person view naturally elicits the feeling of a first-person shooter, as Valve never developed a game that wasn’t in this perspective. However, Chell would be hard-pressed to make it through the halls of Aperture Science with bullets. Instead, Chell shoots differently colored portals that connect and serve as entrances and exits regardless of color. The player will start using the blue portal gun as the next few puzzle rooms will supply orange portals to work with accordingly. After that, the player will receive the orange half of the portal gun and alternate between the two colors. Offering the orange portal gun to the player should make things easier, but the lack of apparent trajectory makes things more complicated, and the player has to take some time to adjust. One might ask: wouldn’t have two portals that connect simply allow the player to shoot where the goal is from their location? Fortunately, Valve thought ahead of this predicament. The portals can only stick from a specific type of wall material, which the player will come to discern as the game progresses. The more solid-looking chrome walls will make the portals dissipate in a blast of color. Each puzzle in Portal has a precise method of solving it, and the player cannot cheese their way around it. Valve takes pride in their physics engine, and they’ll be damned if the player finds a way to exploit it for their gain.

Puzzle games typically aren’t narrative-based. They usually get more complex in small increments until the player has been bested. On the other hand, Portal puts the player in a science-fiction excursion disguised as a nightmare. The game never utters the protagonist’s name, and the name I’ve been referring to her is non-canon. Her name is but a complicated number like a prisoner, along with Chell wearing an orange jumpsuit. The player wakes up with Chell in a pristine-looking room with a robotic but feminine voice speaking to her about conducting some experiments (the various puzzles). The player is given no context as to where they are or why they act like a lab rat for this facility. All they know is that the place is called the “enrichment center,” and the robotic voice is a product of a corporation called Aperture Science. The “enrichment center” setting where the puzzles are conducted is eerily cold and sterile. The lack of context and the closed-off nature of the setting recalls a similar sense of existential dread seen in Cube or the Twilight Zone episode “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” that was an inspiration. They are two science-fiction stories that give little to no context to the “wheres” and “whys” to the setting or the characters. This type of story exudes a heavy sense of existential dread as the setting and ambiguity strip the characters of purpose and agency. The protagonist's identity would most likely be less clear if only the portal guns didn’t let the player see Chell. A reward of cake is given as motivation for the player, but looking through the center's deep crevices uncovers writing on the walls from previous subjects that repeatedly says “the cake is a lie.” It’s a creepy method of foreshadowing that gets under my skin.

While the protagonist of Portal lacks any character, the same cannot be said for Portal’s antagonist. The robotic voice that narrates the player’s progress through the center is a supercomputer called GLaDOS. She was a project developed by Aperture Science that became too powerful and usurped control over the entire facility. Her primary goal in testing these subjects seems not for research but her sadistic pleasure. She constantly berates the player in a condescending tone like a mechanical Nurse Ratched. She plays with the subject’s feelings of loneliness by offering a “companion cube” with a warm heart on its center, only to have the player dump it in an incinerator to progress. Her sardonic dialogue and passive, malevolent nature make her an entertaining villain. Once the player completes the tests, they go rogue and hunt down GLaDOS in a long section where the game will not hold their hands in the scope of a meticulously designed puzzle. It’s a long trek upward that utilizes the player’s ability to use both portals to progress. Once the player reaches GLaDOS’s chamber, they are treated to one of the most original final bosses in video game history, with a malfunctioning GLaDOS getting more and more discombobulated as the fight advances.

From what I stated about Portal’s aspects, one would expect this game to have blown me away. Sadly, something about Portal leaves me unsatisfied. Games of a shorter length do not deter me from playing them, but Portal’s pacing is the one aspect that slightly sours it. The two sections of the game feel uneven as a whole. Working the player outside the confines of the organized tests makes those tests feel like an extended tutorial, which is more than half of the game. The developers should’ve either offered a game with more tests or shortened their amount before setting the player loose on GLaDOS. As it is, the pacing makes the game feel unfinished. The extraordinary aspects of genre-blending, mechanics, and existential atmosphere make Portal a marvel. However, the “complete” product here feels more like a beta test and doesn’t unlock Portal’s full potential.