Paul Frew
Dr Game's Second Opinion - Portal: Still Alive
October 23rd 2008 00:43
The gaming world creamed their pants when Portal came packaged with The Orange Box. They'd never seen anything like it. The ability to create gates you could transport through from one spot to another was amazing and then to use this ability to solve room puzzles was mind-blowing.
I mostly agree. Portal is a great game. It is a lot of fun. It has some great dry humour and the room puzzles are challenging enough that it does require a fair amount of brain power without becoming too frustrating.
For those of you who didn't pick up The Orange Box, Portal begins with a character locked inside a futuristic chamber. A voice is heard explaining that you are a test subject. You are instructed to navigate your way through a series of chambers using the Portal Gun. The Portal Gun allows you transport via, er, portals that you can open on walls or floors provided they're the right texture. The voice, who is known as GLaDOS, promises that upon completion of the chambers you will be rewarded with cake. It's a good story for a game that only lasts around three hours. GLaDOS's quips are humorous and the promise of cake does keep you playing until the end.
Still Alive features the entire Portal experience as well as the levels from the Flash title. They are not related stories but simply extra chambers for you to play around in. They're still fun and it's great to have new maps but they're not as challenging as the maps from the original.
DIAGNOSIS
9 out of 10
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