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Portal Review (continued)
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Manufacturer: Electronic Arts
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ESRB Rating: Teen
Platform(s): Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Release Date: April 8, 2008
Average Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
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Retail Price: $9.99
Online Sale Price: $6.99
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More User Submitted Portal Reviews
Date: 2008-07-30
Make sure you're connected to the web
I bought this game to spend my offtime enjoying. Unfortunately, where I am currently situated has no internet and I haven't yet been able to play. Looks like I'll have to wait until I get back home to give it a shot. Didn't rate good or bad, due to inability to play, but I have been told it's very fun and look forward to finding that out for myself.
Date: 2008-07-29
Not worth 20 bucks, get the Orange box instead.
I got this game for 20 bucks thinking it was cheap. I finished it within two or three sessions of gaming.
I didn't get my fill. This is the equivalent to a free game Demo.
I feel ripped off. Hey Valve, i'm done with this game, Can i trade it back for episode two instead?
Oh wait, you don't sell it on the store shelves do you? I have to download it through Steam? Valve forces you to join their lame Steam cult. Installing Portal though Steam takes a hell alot longer than actually finishing it.
Ohhh okay, you guys are smart, really know how to rip someone off! I feel like cattled sheep here. I should have gotten the Orange Box instead. I'd waste my money either way. But at least i'd feel a little less stupid.
Don't get me wrong, i found the game quite innovative and it was fun while it lasted, hence the 4 stars fun factor. Valve wants your money. The moment this game got bloated with Hype, they sell it as a standalone game on store shelves, but they don't do the same to Episode Two?
B*stards.
Date: 2008-07-06
Good game, horrendous package.
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.
Date: 2008-06-10
Portal
Awesome puzzle game using the H-L2 engine. It involves creating an "open" portal with one button, and an "exit" portal with another - use it to figure out you way around obstacles and enemies.
Sounds very simple; in reality, it's an intricately desiged, incredibly-challenging game that fails only because it's too short. There is a very loose story and a boss battle of sorts at the end that really pushes this game from four stars to five. Awesome ending credits, with brilliant music throughout. Definately not one to miss.
Date: 2008-06-10
Surprisingly Fun
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.
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