I played this game with no previous experiance with Half-Life or Half-Life 2 and I found it to be very amusing. The first thing you need to realize about it is that it is a puzzle game or you're not going to enjoy it very much. When I first played knowing it was made by the people who developed Half-Life I thought I was diving into a FPS RPG. Then after playing a few levels I thought 'I'm just moving blocks around, this is stupid.' Once I played far enough to gain the fully upgraded version of the portal gun I was hooked though.
The mechanics of the game are very simple, you create linked portals to gain access to areas or transport key items across levels. Even though it sounds very mundane all of the puzzles are very fun when they're not causing you to scratch your head in befuddlement. I really enjoyed the amount of work they put into making the portals as realistic as possible. You can create infinite windows by placing two portals on opposite walls and see yourself standing in front of a neverending row of portals. If that doesn't interest you, then you can always place a portal on the roof and floor to continuously pick up speed in an infinite fall.
Playing through the storyline is quite short, I was able to buy, beat, and gain every achievement in the game all on the same day with still time for some afternoon tea. None of the puzzles are very much hard to figure out either, only one puzzle really ever had me completely stumped for more than five minutes. The biggest compliant I have with this game was the almost total lack of dialog or any stimulating atmosphere in the game. Sure, I understand LIMBO had absolutely NO dialog but it atleast gave you the feeling of progression where Portal's same white walls and moving platforms in every room just about had me wearing a monocle screaming out "SWITCH PLACES!!"
After you beat the game you can try your hand at the challenge puzzles which can be much more complicated than the storyline's. There is a total of 20 challenge puzzles which include about three of the puzzles from the storyline and three more advanced versions of storyline levels. The catch with these puzzles is that you can try for the bragging rights of the gold medals in the three catagories of time, number of portals used, and steps taken throughout the level. Some of them are tricky and may seem impossible, such as one user by the name of trstthelord on the gamespot website commenting:
"I have racked my mind for a few stages in challenges on how to get gold medals for the portal challenge but there is no way you can complete the first stage using no less than four portals and challenge two no less than five. Someone prove me wrong."
I assure you all of these are possible, I was able to complete the first stage with only three portals on my very first try.
So if you're looking for something challenging to do or just for fun, Portal is a great game for anyone.
The mechanics of the game are very simple, you create linked portals to gain access to areas or transport key items across levels. Even though it sounds very mundane all of the puzzles are very fun when they're not causing you to scratch your head in befuddlement. I really enjoyed the amount of work they put into making the portals as realistic as possible. You can create infinite windows by placing two portals on opposite walls and see yourself standing in front of a neverending row of portals. If that doesn't interest you, then you can always place a portal on the roof and floor to continuously pick up speed in an infinite fall.
Playing through the storyline is quite short, I was able to buy, beat, and gain every achievement in the game all on the same day with still time for some afternoon tea. None of the puzzles are very much hard to figure out either, only one puzzle really ever had me completely stumped for more than five minutes. The biggest compliant I have with this game was the almost total lack of dialog or any stimulating atmosphere in the game. Sure, I understand LIMBO had absolutely NO dialog but it atleast gave you the feeling of progression where Portal's same white walls and moving platforms in every room just about had me wearing a monocle screaming out "SWITCH PLACES!!"
After you beat the game you can try your hand at the challenge puzzles which can be much more complicated than the storyline's. There is a total of 20 challenge puzzles which include about three of the puzzles from the storyline and three more advanced versions of storyline levels. The catch with these puzzles is that you can try for the bragging rights of the gold medals in the three catagories of time, number of portals used, and steps taken throughout the level. Some of them are tricky and may seem impossible, such as one user by the name of trstthelord on the gamespot website commenting:
"I have racked my mind for a few stages in challenges on how to get gold medals for the portal challenge but there is no way you can complete the first stage using no less than four portals and challenge two no less than five. Someone prove me wrong."
I assure you all of these are possible, I was able to complete the first stage with only three portals on my very first try.
So if you're looking for something challenging to do or just for fun, Portal is a great game for anyone.
