Since it’s announcement and subsequent teaser videos, Valve’s Portal has been eagerly anticipated by many. Based on the freeware game Narbacular Drop, whose developers now work for Valve, Portal allows the player to create openings on walls, floors, and ceilings, and to both look and walk through them. While this gameplay mechanic was somewhat seen previously in 2006’s Prey, 3D Realm’s shooter did not allow the player to manipulate said portals. Now with the arrival of Valve’s Orange Box, the gameplay does not lose anything from the anticipation, and provides a solid, entertaining, and enjoyably puzzling experience, despite its brevity.
The game itself is pretty straight forward to learn. Eventually, you’ll gain the ability to create an entrance and an exit portal on surfaces that can support it. Walk through one, and you’ll end up out the other, making for obvious uses of getting to a higher platform by creating one at ground level, and the other at that upper level. However, you quickly learn that you or whatever objects going through the portal maintain their momentum — if you create a portal on the floor and jump into it from a great height, you’ll shoot out from the exit. This becomes a critical aspect of solving some of the puzzles in the later game. Beyond manipulating yourself through the portals to get to an exit chamber, you also need to use boxes to activate switches, or manipulate special energy balls to reach receptacles in order to activate platforms or open doors. Later puzzles also introduce automated sentries that will fire on you if they spot you (even through portals) but fail if toppled over. There’s just enough puzzle elements as to give a good amount of variety to each test chamber, without overloading the player with too many things to keep in mind to make for a nice, clean puzzling experience. There are a few puzzles that require some quick timing, but none demanded super-human reflexes to complete.
Beyond the game, there’s a lot of nice little elements from the presentation. The story is rather simple to start: waking up in an isolation chamber, a robotic voice instructs you to use Aperture Science’s new portal devices to work through several test chambers to verify the workings of the device. The game surprisingly is more than just a series of puzzles. There’s a very subtle story that carries through the short game, explaining who you actually are, why you are there, and just what is really going on. While it’s not a very deep story, it’s got the same flavor that Valve’s delivered before with the Half-Life series and players will note several universe tie-ins.
Throughout the levels, there are subtle visual hints about what to expect or how to solve a puzzle, including cute international-style warning signs for the impending dangers of the test chambers. It may not the most diverse set of textures, but it works just fine for the game. And of course, there’s a few interesting side areas that you may be able to explore. The robot guide voice is excellently done as you get towards the end of the game, and background music is sufficiently subtle but helps with keeping pace in the game.
Probably the only strike against the game is the length; I completed the entire work in about two hours. Of course, this is an add-on to The Orange Box and the Half-Life universe as a whole, so certainly I wasn’t expecting a lengthy game, and even to Valve’s benefit, they’ve added some additional replay value. You can attempt challenge modes, one where you are limited by the number of portals you can create and footsteps you take while racing against the clock, while another mode adds additional elements to increase the difficulty of the puzzles. Furthermore, once you’ve completed the game, there’s in-game commentary from Valve’s developers that you can activate as you go through the levels again.
Portal may presently not stand on its own for a full-length game, but by including it in the Orange Box, Valve has definitely demonstrated potential for further games based on the same premise, maybe even a true sequel to Portal. The portal technology is incredibly simple to learn but increases the possibly for unique gameplay opportunities immensely.
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[...] you’ve played through Portal and loved every minute as much as we did. Maybe you’ve even gone through the advanced maps and tried out some of the challenges? So what [...]
I played through the entire game and completed the entire game in about an hour and a half or so. I thought it was really great however, what I would LOVE to see is Gordan and this unkown shelia teaming up
Maybe she joins Alyx and Gordan in 3? That would be a Mesa/Aperture team up lol.
Either way, FANTASTIC game… Dang it.. if only Portal 2 was already out
The game is great, but a little too short
im looking forward for bonus maps 
except these included in the game 
The woman’s name is Chell
THINK YOU COULD CREATE A PORTAL MOD FOR COUNTER STRIKE SOURCE? THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.
I’m looking for the lyrics to the credits song. I’ve listened 1000 times and I’m not catching all the words..but my daughter likes to sing it so I wanna see the words. Can anyone help.
Here Bre,LYRICS: This was a triumph.
I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Aperture Science
We do what we must
because we can.
For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake.
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
And the Science gets done.
And you make a neat gun.
For the people who are still alive.
I’m not even angry.
I’m being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart.
And killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you!
Now these points of data make a beautiful line.
And we’re out of beta.
We’re releasing on time.
So I’m GLaD. I got burned.
Think of all the things we learned
for the people who are still alive.
Go ahead and leave me.
I think I prefer to stay inside.
Maybe you’ll find someone else to help you.
Maybe Black Mesa
THAT WAS A JOKE.
HAHA. FAT CHANCE.
Anyway, this cake is great.
It’s so delicious and moist.
Look at me still talking
when there’s Science to do.
When I look out there, it makes me GLaD I’m not you.
I’ve experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are still alive.
And believe me I am still alive.
I’m doing Science and I’m still alive.
I feel FANTASTIC and I’m still alive.
While you’re dying I’ll be still alive.
And when you’re dead I will be still alive.
STILL ALIVE
haha omg i lv tht song. i think it was my favorite part of the whole game. but the concept of the game… *shudder*. creepy. it was great. id love to c a 2nd
Awesome. One hell of a game, and, IMO, the best game for quite some time. Better than Halo, that’s for sure.
def better than halo! i play once and now need to play more! it awesome!