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One of the few original games out there

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: April 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm not sure what I can say about the X-Box to the PC conversion, as I haven't played it on the 360. I can say that Portal is the best game I've played for a long time. I'm not a big gamer, but this got me hooked, it's so addicting and challenging, that you won't rest until it's completed.

Essentially, Portal is a game about Physics. Every portal has a begining, and an end. By using this peice of information, you create portals using a gun. Sounds simple, but your brain needs to sweat to be able to play the game.

So far, the story is lacking, but I'm barely into the game. The design on the other hand, is insanely good. When you make portals, you can see yourself moving in the next portal and the next and onto infinity. It is such a trippy feeling. They must have spent hours figuring out the physics of the game. While playing, you have to sit back and think: "Look at how far we've come from the the days of Pong."

Finally, the graphics are great, the music, although there is not much, is great, and the game is the most original 'first-person shooter' out there.

This not entertainment, this is science.

UPDATE: Wow. Just...wow. The final peices of the game just blew me away. The plot unfolds brilliantly, GLaD's dialogue is frickin' awesome in the final battle, and the song playing in the credits is so original and caputures silliness of the game amazingly. Once finished, Portal leaves you with a bitter/sweet feeling in your heart. It is over, and yet somewhere, deep down, you know they have to make a sequel.

The Cake Is A Lie

Very fun but short (or perhaps just concentrated)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The game is a blast to play, if you are into physics-based puzzles. I'm not going to describe it, because it's well-described elsewhere (Wikipedia, for instance). So the question comes down to, "Is it worth buying?" And the answer is a qualified yes.

The game is short. Yes, really short. Compared to the typical puzzle game ("Myst", etc.), you blast through this in half the time (or less). But what is cut out is all the "envirnoment exploration". It has just as many puzzles as the typical puzzle game, but none of that walking around and looking at the scenery stuff. No bits where you have to go to island A to get the key that opens a lock in island B, which gives you the answer to a puzzle back on island A again, etc.

But it's not sudoku, either. GLaDOS is hilarious and menacing at the same time. Even with no other visible characters to interact with, the plot is a surprisingly important part of the experience. You start to get emotionally attached to the idea that you are a lab rat trying to get out of the maze before you get euthanized.

So, yes, it's worth the money. It's short, but intense. In the same way that an hour-long movie might be better than that same movie stretched out to three hours, I'm not sure the game would have worked if it was much longer than it is. In fact, I bought the whole "Orange Box" just to try this game, and I'm happy with the purchase. (That doesn't mean I'm not also going to play Half-Life, eventually.)

If I want to just kill hours on the computer, I can play solitaire. What I wanted was what I got -- an exciting and challenging set of puzzles with a surprisingly compelling plot as a bonus.

Very Challenging But Crashes

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I ordered the Portal DVD expecting a stand-alone game for the PC. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had to sign on for Steam in order to play it. Although I have a strong video card and processor, the game crashed frequently or stuttered both in video and sound. I spent several weeks changing around start-up applications and game options until the crashes stopped (at least most of the time). Good game, but a pain to get running smoothly.

Good game, horrendous package.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Portal is a good puzzle game. I like the concept of the wormhole. It is fun. It took me a couple of days to complete it, and then I did the whole thing in two hours non-stop.

I hated Steam. Before installing Portal, you have to install Steam, then download Portal and then install it, and then activate. It took me close to two hours to get it running.

I loved the game, hated the way it gets installed.

Mountain out of a Molehill

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: May 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First, let me say that I don't appreciate not being informed by the product that it was an online game. I do not buy online-only games. And though this game can be played off-line, the player is forced to go to an online site to obtain the full program.

Then there is that online site's program that is now resident on my computer, taking up memory and really serving no function except to act as an intermediate between me and the product which I payed good money for. Found out about this condition when trying to initially install the program and was informed that I had a 'steam.dll error'. It took a little web surfing to discover that I needed to be online while installing.

Next is the size of the program. From the look and mechanics within the game, there is no apparent reason for the program to be in the multi-Gigabytes! And that wait while the online site downloads their program is no picnic either.

Then there is the play itself. After having the program crash several times around the 10th level, I finally was able to fix it by running the game in a window instead of fullscreen. Obviously there is some form of rendering problem, which is not the fault of the computer but the program.

So when I took a break from chasing this problem which there was apparently no advise available anywhere, and came back to play. The program informed me that I need to once again go to the on-line site. I could not figure why this was necessary. Thought it might have been because I did not fill out their survey, so I did that. And once again, tried to play the game.

Okay, I'm done. The game was rather short. And I know that there are additional levels which can be downloaded from the online site. But that means just more inconvenience. So I removed it and the online site's program from my 'puter. And will probably never load them up again.

Let me add, the game is rather beautiful and the potential play could be great. But not near what most of the rave reviews have given it. Could this all be just product hype by the industry to get us to accept this form of gaming? Not actually owning a game, but renting it piecemeal (remember that it costs most people to have an ISP).

Finally, I am not angry with the developers of this game, just disappointed. They have a great idea, it seems that they let someone talk them into this convoluted method of distribution. Probably driven by the fear of software piracy.

If this ever becomes a stand-alone game, I will probably revisited it. Until then, I have no further interest.

A must-have for fans of FPS games - and others as well

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought the Orange Box for the Half-Life Episode and was not disappointed. Then I fired up Portal and realized that this was even better!

If you blow through the game as fast as you can it can feel a bit on the short side, but for $10-$20 I think the length is not unreasonable. What it lacks in duration it makes up for in addictive gameplay and wicked humor. I was not disappointed in the length. And yes, they are working on a sequel.

As the game progresses, the challenges get more difficult and GlaDOS becomes more imbalanced. You have to use the portal gun and the companion cube to navigate increasingly complex puzzles. The portable gun turrets are easily disabled by knocking them over, but getting into position to do so or figuring out how to drop one turret through a portal onto another is the challenge here.

Those familiar with the Half-Life universe will notice references to Black Mesa, etc., and Portal 2 may incorporate both (or the next episode of Half-Life might, who knows?).

If you are so inclined, there is also a way to import the portal gun into the Half-Life games with some limited funtionality, a little google searching will reveal how.

Overall, the simple yet addictive gameplay and humor of the game win out over any concerns of brevity. Highly recommended.

Don't pay $20 for a two-hour tech demo.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 18
Date: April 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Portal is very very short for a standalone game. It's more of a tech-demo showing off a gameplay concept rather than a full-length adventure. You'll probably breeze through all 20 levels in 2-3 hours, which is not good for a $19.99 package. The Orange Box ($49.99) provides a far better value, as you'll get both episodes of Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 along with this game.

The gameplay centers around a single gimmick: a gun that allows you to shoot two portals. You enter one, and exit out the other. These portals enable you to cross seemingly impenetrable walls and dangerous hazards. You will carry items called weighted storage cubes through portals to activate switches, drop the same cubes through portals to deactivate turrets, and shoot portals into very deep pits to generate momentum. The portal gun gimmick doesn't really allow for that many puzzle varieties, and by the last few levels, they start to get stale due to repetition.

On the other hand, the storytelling is suspenseful and witty. Throughout your experiment, you are led by a robotic voice known as GLaDOS, who provides you with hints -- and often, heavy sarcasm along with them. More and more is revealed about this character as you progress through the game, leading up to a final, dramatic showdown.

Portal is good for a rent (or a purchase with The Orange Box bundle pack, if you are into shooters), but its short length and limited gameplay do not justify the $20 price tag.

awesome game for those who want to use their brains

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I had so much fun playing this game! I only wish I got it for the ps3 rather than PC (I'm just more used to gaming on there). For the guy on here who whines about the $20 price tag...i got mine from a major retailer for ten bucks on sale so just shop around. It's your own fault for paying full price for something.
Anyways - the game is well worth 10 or 20 bucks. I had hours of enjoyment and you really need to think "outside of your brain" for this game.
You experience enter & exit portals. soon you get a gun where you can create either of the two. You just have to see how the two react to you going through and then later in the game velocity and momentum play a role in it as well. I know my description might not be the greatest but it really gets your mind thinking about how to get to the otherside of the room which mostly seems impossible. Tons of fun - especially the computer GlaDos system that mocks you the entire way. Laugh out loud funny lines especially towards the end. I had tons of fun and for that same guy who whines about the length - there are many advanced levels you can unlock after you solve the initial game and online ther are many DIY portal dimensions you can do that people have posted themselves.
I can't wait to play it again! Level 15 sure had me stumped for awhile :)

Surprisingly Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

By the time you read this review, you will have already learned that Portal is a very short game. However, I can tell you that you should invest the modest price for the game and play it. It's a very fun and fresh concept. The game is entertaining; both in terms of actual gameplay and the undercurrent of humor. I haven't had this much fun with the non-play portion of the game since the No One Lives Forever franchise.

As for the shortness of the game. I actually found this to be fine. Had I paid $50 for Portal, I would have been disappointed... but of course, I did not. Had the game been priced higher with 3x the amount of game play, it would have become tiresome, but as it was, I was left wanting more at the end. In comparison, another game I liked a lot was the massive Oblivion (a game which also featured portals, but of a different variety). However, that game was so big, that I actually was getting tired of the game before I completed it. It has had no replay value and I've avoided the add-on/expansion packs. Portal, by comparison, never grew old at all, was fun and challenging throughout and had a fun and tidy conclusion. In many ways, this game left me wanting more games that are equally short and cheap.

Now, about the gameplay. This game is a FPPS (First Person Puzzle Solver). I must admit that that concept wouldn't be my type of thing normally. For me, when I'm engaged in a fun FPS game and then come to an obviously contrived puzzle that I must solve, I find it a frustrating and annoying divergence from the purpose of the game. However, in Portal, I never had that feeling. I embraced it whole-heartedly and enjoyed the experience. Although I'm not a great puzzle solver, I found nothing here to be so hard as to force me to look to external resources for solutions. I feel smarter having played the game, yet never felt like I was solving arbitrary meaningless puzzles. In other words, Portal is a game of puzzles, but it doesn't play or feel that way. For me, this is the great strength of the effort.

The bottom line for me is that I found Portal to be a very pleasant surprise and would recommend it to FPS players looking for a fun diversion.

A+

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is very good, its a combination puzzle FPS game. The AI in the game is very entertaining. the game is short but in this case that is isn't such a bad thing.

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