I rushed home from class and the bank this afternoon to get in a good hour of Portal before I plunged back into my reading for my evening class. We all know how that story goes.
So three and a half hours later I looked up from my computer with the Portal credits rolling along the screen and a funny feeling in my belly. Week old leftover pizza, perhaps? No. It’s that void you get when you finish something that you don’t want to end. Portal is awesome. Portal is also really short. My 3.5 hour completion time includes fixing lunch, chatting on AIM a bit, and some other distractions. The game is probably 2.5 hours long if you focus.
Portal is essentially a series of puzzles with no “action” in between, but don’t think the game doesn’t have a boatload of personality. There’s no “story,” as it were, but there is a narrative that connects each piece. Though simple, Portal’s narrative also has a great sense of humor. In fact, it’s the funniest game I’ve played since Psychonauts. The game also has a really cool sense of visual and aural design, which carries over from the teaser video we all saw. These help augment the short but fun experience.
Most importantly the game is extremely fun. The portal mechanic is awesome. It’s every bit as innovative as the gravity gun and adds a whole level of gameplay that will be a must for the rest of the Half-Life series. Like the gravity gun, you have to be thinking in terms of portals for everything you do. Some of these will be more obvious than others, but you’re constantly building on your learned skills. There were a number of times I felt an adrenaline rush as portals sent my flying though the air and flipping me upside down - the same feeling you doing loops on a rollercoaster.
I will be legitimately upset if it does not get integrated into the remaining HL2 episodes in some capacity. I also demand a Portal 2. I’m already disappointed to think that Episode 2 doesn’t have it, but I’ve heard it will make up for that in other ways. What Portal’s replay value lacks in terms of challenge it overcomes in terms of innovation. It’s a mechanic that’s too fun to leave after only two hours.
Just go play it, damn’t.
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