I have been telling everyone, serious gamer or not, to play this game. It was forced upon me from an almost normally silent voice of imposition (my brother, the "almost" comes from World of Warcraft and his constant heckling me to play) and frankly I couldn't be happier. I purchased the Orange Box on 360 for $60 to play this game and I haven't even touched the other parts of it (Half Life 2, Half Life 2 Episode 1, Half Life 2 Episode 2, and Team Fortress 2) and it was money well spent. You can also download the PC version from Steam (Valve's software distribution system) for $20 on PC. Find a way to play this game.
You are in a lab, testing a new method of travel. Portal technology allows you to go through a hole and come out the another. If you look through the portal you will be seeing the room as if you are looking into a window into the room. You can put a portal on the ceiling and on a wall
How many security cameras are in this
picture?
You can almost compete with M. C.
Escher.
and walk through the wall to come out the ceiling. Objects can be moved this way as well, by shooting the portal under the object or throwing an object into it. Put a portal on the ceiling and on the floor and create an infinite loop.
Throughout the entire game you are instructed by a female sounding artificial intelligence. She helps you get used to basic functions, gives you information and lets you know what your goals are. She never repeats herself and is very unintentionally funny in her comments and suggestions. Then she starts taunting. I will say no more.
Most people comment on the game's length. My first finish (while chatting online at the same time) was 2 hours 38 minutes. I've heard some people say it took them two hours, some say three. Either way you go, by industry standards it is short. I'm not one who is against short
games. If they can make an extremely high-quality game, especially as just a "pack-in," but it's short, then fine. The creativity, dark humor, and fun this game provides exceed nearly everything else I've played in a long time. I would rather be left wanting more than bored before I finish. Maybe that's just me.
I only have a little bit of a problem with play control. Some of the jumping segments seem a little off, and shooting portals under you while you're falling seems a little odd at times.
Part puzzle game, part shooter, this game alters your way of platforming/puzzle solving thinking. I've played through three times now showing people the game. It really does take some time to wrap your mind around it. After I finished, I watched the trailer again and saw different alternatives to the way I solved the puzzles when I went through, so it is fairly open ended in its solutions.
Going through the orange portal while watching myself go through the orange portal.
How can you destroy things with Portals?
Find out for yourself.
I would play online versus if this game had it. I don't know what kind of things you'd do, capture the flag could be crazy.
Anyway, I realize this review is lacking in a lot of specific details, but only because I don't want to give anything away on plot. I'm being quiet on the levels, as it only takes 2-3 hours to get through. As for the absolutely hilarious ending credits, I must keep my lips zipped. You need to see them for yourself.