Have you ever wonder what it's like to be kidnapped by futuristic machine and thrown into an unknown maze as a lab rat where your own survival is always in question? Yeah, me too. There's a game for that actually. Enter Portal. From the creator of Half-Life comes one of the most unique games of this gen, and probably any gen for that matter. It's safe to say that after Portal, You'll think gaming in a new way. It defines gaming in basic level, like Tetris or Pac-man. The game mechanic is, dare I say, a true novelty.
Portal is an add-on single player game of The Orange Box from Valve back in 2007. With limited budget and resource, it's quite amazing they could pulled off something this caliber. It is first person puzzle platformer, not to be mistaken with shooter, the first of its kind. From technically perspective, this game is merely next-gen version of Counter-Strike. The graph is bare minimum, a pristine laboratory and its shady factory-like inside, that's it. The parts that made the setting look mediocre, even by 2007 standard, compared to games like Gears of War or CoD : Modern Warfare, but it matters little. It's excellent in its simplicity.
The gameplay has to be experienced yourself. To put it simply, There are two portals at any time. The object that passes through one portal will appear in the other portal. So if you are trap in a platform, just shoot the gun and create a portal on the other end, let's say the blue one. Then shoot the gun again into a wall or a floor near you, create the yellow portal. Simply walk through the yellow and you appear in the blue one. That's the back bone of it. I can't overstate how amazing this works. It's like 4th dimension paradox or Inception shit.
Add the acid water, moving platforms, jumps, turrets, switches and you got yourself a groundbreaking video game. There are limitations for the gun, it doesn't work on crude surfaces, it won't get pass the laser that separates each test room. While it might cause confusion at first, but these things make very challenging and interesting puzzle mechanic. The game will give you hint bits by bits, but it's up to you to overcome the puzzle. No hand-holding, long tired narrative, just brief explanation and you're off on your merry way. Safe to say, Portal is the only one game of its kind.
There are subtle myriad things that make the atmosphere. The silent surrounding, the originally somehow reassuring voice of GLaDOS, the scribble of the wall beyond the test room from what seems to be the previously unlucky lab rat and the view of your own character walking from portal to portal. The details are brilliantly made, when you see it, it then clicks, all makes sense. The sensation of discovering something new and neat ways to solve the puzzle and not die are very rare in gaming, in any media. It further emphasis the ingenuity of this bizarre love-able game.
Let it be known, the voice of GLaDOS is one hell of sexy machine. She, it, is a sentient human-hating full-of-lies cynical bitch of AI. She would sounded like any other computer at first, the inorganic voice like most that of your notification speaker of your GPS, even pretended to help you a bit, but soon it turned out that she just wanted to screw you mentally. Seriously, not many villains can do this. She doesn't rely on profanity or cursing, intimidation or such, but the ironic dark humor of her is truly creepy. For example how she just mention the possibility of death when falling to acid water, but after you get pass through it, she would say that it's only to motivate you, only to found out that the acid water would have, in fact, killed you.
It's a sense of humorous yet despicable, and you would hear her blabber the entire time. That the road is a dead end, but as you actually found out the way, she would congratulate you on how you prevail through pessimistic condition. How she used reverse psychology and when it didn't work, she obviously lied to fool no one, quiet adorably I might add. And of course how she fucking lied to you for the infamous CAKE, that is a LIE. Deep down, she is so cute in perverse kind of way that it's baffling that no one else had created this type of "enemy". The other voice in the game belongs to the turrets, when they hunt for your life "Are you still there~~?", "Put me down~~", "I don't hate you~~" Hilariously ironic.
This game is rather short, I completed it in about 5 hours. it's definitely one of the more unique games out there. Some called it the best of all time, while I don't think it's that good, but definitely one of the best. An instant classic game, can be recommended for just about anyone, gamer or not.
Graph : Looks dated, even when it was released, but passable. Note that, like Tetris, it doesn't rely on graphic much. 7/10
Sound : Silence at most time, the rest is symphonies by GLaDOS' robotic voice. 8/10
Gameplay : Simply masterful. 10/10
Presentation : Oddly brilliant and timeless. 10/10
Overall 8.8/10
PS : This is one of the few games which core mechanic and simplicity push it to another level of excellence. And the ending song, sung by GLaDOS, is awesome SPOILER http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI
No comments:
Post a Comment