I don't usually make reviews of games, because most games are very much alike. Very few games these days actually stand out.
One does.
That game... is Portal.
Portal is Valve's newest attempt at thinking outside the box, which the developers have done with excellence. It's based, I'm told, on another game called Narbacular Drop, made by a bunch of students as a pet project. Valve snatched the idea and out comes Portal.
It's a game where you are basically trapped in a gigantic laboratory, The Aperture Science Labs, a maze-like, sterile environment, controlled by a computer mainframe. There are glass walls with empty offices behind them, where you would normally see people studying their labrats. Something is obviously wrong from the get-go. So far it's a standard story formula, set in the Half-Life universe.
Introducing the main selling point of this game - the Portal Gun. Here's a first person shooter device heretofore unheard of; A gun that allows you to link any two smooth surfaces together in a portal. Fire the blue part on the wall in front of you, and the orange part on the wall in another room, and you have an instant doorway between the two. But walls are not the only thing you can link. What about the wall and the ceiling? Jump in the wall, fall out of the ceiling. Link the wall and the floor, jump in the floor and pop out of the wall. Or follow yourself endlessly. Or fall forever. Your choice.
You have to utilize this incredible ability to traverse the Aperture Science Enrichment Center and confront the insane mainframe. Which, by the way, is the other main selling point as far as I'm concerned. The mainframe, GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, voiced by singer Ellen McLain of Half-Life 2 fame) is, by far, one of the most entertaining malfunctioning A.I.'s I've ever come across in the vast fields of the entertainment industry. While maintaining a synthesized voice and cold robot-logic behaviour, it also manages to sound both sarcastic and evil in a darkly humorous way that makes the experience all the richer.
People of the world, the First Person Puzzle Comedy has been born as a genre. And may it live long and prosper.
I give this game a solid 9 out of 10. The pros are dark humor, an *excellent* new form of entertaining gameplay that makes you actually THINK (how daring is that in the world of games these days?) and GLaDOS, the mainframe.
The only con about this game is the length. I've heard of people burning through it in less than six hours, which is way too short. But it is still a very well-spent six hours at that.
I endorse this game. It is a thinking man's game. (Or woman, I should add, to avoid any quabbles) And it is a rare pleasure to find new, solid goodness in the jungle of crap games that are being released these days.
Give this a try. You will not be disappointed.
-Fred
One does.
That game... is Portal.
Portal is Valve's newest attempt at thinking outside the box, which the developers have done with excellence. It's based, I'm told, on another game called Narbacular Drop, made by a bunch of students as a pet project. Valve snatched the idea and out comes Portal.
It's a game where you are basically trapped in a gigantic laboratory, The Aperture Science Labs, a maze-like, sterile environment, controlled by a computer mainframe. There are glass walls with empty offices behind them, where you would normally see people studying their labrats. Something is obviously wrong from the get-go. So far it's a standard story formula, set in the Half-Life universe.
Introducing the main selling point of this game - the Portal Gun. Here's a first person shooter device heretofore unheard of; A gun that allows you to link any two smooth surfaces together in a portal. Fire the blue part on the wall in front of you, and the orange part on the wall in another room, and you have an instant doorway between the two. But walls are not the only thing you can link. What about the wall and the ceiling? Jump in the wall, fall out of the ceiling. Link the wall and the floor, jump in the floor and pop out of the wall. Or follow yourself endlessly. Or fall forever. Your choice.
You have to utilize this incredible ability to traverse the Aperture Science Enrichment Center and confront the insane mainframe. Which, by the way, is the other main selling point as far as I'm concerned. The mainframe, GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, voiced by singer Ellen McLain of Half-Life 2 fame) is, by far, one of the most entertaining malfunctioning A.I.'s I've ever come across in the vast fields of the entertainment industry. While maintaining a synthesized voice and cold robot-logic behaviour, it also manages to sound both sarcastic and evil in a darkly humorous way that makes the experience all the richer.
People of the world, the First Person Puzzle Comedy has been born as a genre. And may it live long and prosper.
I give this game a solid 9 out of 10. The pros are dark humor, an *excellent* new form of entertaining gameplay that makes you actually THINK (how daring is that in the world of games these days?) and GLaDOS, the mainframe.
The only con about this game is the length. I've heard of people burning through it in less than six hours, which is way too short. But it is still a very well-spent six hours at that.
I endorse this game. It is a thinking man's game. (Or woman, I should add, to avoid any quabbles) And it is a rare pleasure to find new, solid goodness in the jungle of crap games that are being released these days.
Give this a try. You will not be disappointed.
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
They actually hired the students who made Narbacular Drop. I'm gonna totally agree, even though it only took me a few hours to get through the game, the hours were pact full of the goodness.
Travis Jacobs
"You might not sound so idiotic if there were at least something excitable in my post to begin with..." --Baf
"You might not sound so idiotic if there were at least something excitable in my post to begin with..." --Baf
If you can run Half Life 2, you're set. It's Source-based.
Dunno the exact sys reqs though. But if your rig is newer than three years old it's a cake walk.
-Fred
Dunno the exact sys reqs though. But if your rig is newer than three years old it's a cake walk.
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
And to think, I never knew what The Orange Box was before Freepizza mentioned it a while back. This is my next game I'm getting. I've never played Half-Life 2 or any of the expansions ... and I'm really interested in putting Team Fortress through it's paces. You know, this has to be the best deal in gaming I've ever seen. 5 games that I've never played, all of them in one, all of them being very critically successful.
I may never come outside again!
I may never come outside again!
I'm not fat ... I'm festively plump.
I just bought Orange Box tonight. I am on puzzle 18 out of 19 in Portal (getting tired and a timed puzzle is too much for me atm) and am having some of the most fun i've had gaming for a long time. This is what the medium of computer games is all about!
I gots a webcomic! http://yetanothercomic.com