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Gaming: Valve's _Portal_ in review
Mon, 15 Oct 2007

Portal has the potential. Like chocolate. It knows things. Sadly, this latest title from mighty Valve of Halflife fame, is only scratching a surface where lay many itches in waiting.

(Portal is I think available only in The Orange Box, a collection including the aforementioned Halflife 2 title and so forth, plus Team Fortress 2, and all at a very compelling price. Sure, you have to bend over for the Steam system to violate your machine, but fine.. games downloading in background direct to your spinal column, is oft worth the discomfort. Or you can buy the XBox 360 version.)

Anyway, Portal is probably unique among games (how rare is that?) since it is really a puzzle game implemented within a first person shooter. Doubleplusgood. The central puzzle is that your avatar, standing at the front of some strange room, must be brought to an exit at the other end.. where 'end' is defined as somewhere else in the 3d-space instead of being opposite you. What sets this apart is the method of control the player imposes over his world is via a portal gun - a device that lets the player place two circular entrances into a wormhole into the world. Think of it like this -- placing a portal on a wall beside you and also down the hall on the floor means you could then walk into the wall and end up walking up and out of the floor by the by. Momentum is maintained, so if you jump through the wall on an angle, you'll fly out of the floor at that angle relative to the portals position on the floor. Neat. And immediately usable, as if a new limb on your body.

Suffice to say this simple mechanism is really compelling. I found myself looking at a long corridor to walk down and thinking immediately 'hell with this' .. drop a portal on one wall and a wall at the end, step through and turn around and keep going, instantly saving a few seconds of treading about. A tool like this you would simply make use of in every day life should it turn up. Second nature.

Naturally, the game puzzles are more complex than than that -- you'll find yourself dodging gun turrets (or dropping them through floors), falling onto floors several stories down so that you can vault high over some obstacle, or climbing around strange 3d rooms laid out like a jenga tower, not in any sensible square like we use. Its fantastic. Sometimes reactions must be quick as you'll be placing portals just in time to capture and repoing something, then flinging yourself through the air to an exit and so forth, but its all good. If something seems really hard and out of place, you're probably doing it the hard way. Without revealing anything, a few times I found msyelf up against somethign seemingly twitchy and hard, then realizing I could totally circumvent it via some clever placement of portals. The imagination reels with options, but Valve has very carefully constrained the levels so you can't be done them in mere seconds.. no, you must use strategy, delicious delicious strategy.

The problem is that Portal is really short. 19 levels, where the first 10 are really just two minute trainers to get you used to travelling in this erratic way. So really, we're talking about 9 or 10 actual levels, each relatively unique, that you can complete in 5 or 10 minutes. So in total, a couple hours gameplay. Still, considering this is one small part of a cheap pacakge its worth the money.. but its a steak dinner without the potatos -- you are left wanting.

I commend Valve for their usual high quality; each main level presents a new theme, and they exploit it in that session and move on. Most games would flog each theme for dozens of levels each. But in this one case, I would _love_ to see more.. even of the same. Just a few more levels without waiting for the modding community. With how short the game is, one can only assume Valve was really just being lazy.. rather assuming the modders would make their content for them rather than meeting half way. In this day and age it is difficult to go the right distance .. to provide enough content to be good, without going too far and delaying indefinately or spending too much and all that. But this is enough to make one mad.

I mean really.. if I can complete the game over a couple of very short sessions, it means someone with normal human free time could knock it off in one evening. Thats pretty sad for a title with such huge potential.

The Orange Box is excellent value, and all the games therein are fantastic.. but don't be lazy, GabeValve. Where'd those years of development go? There must be dozens of half baked levels lieing around.. you going to troll them out over months? bleh. I suppose with how little free time I have this is nice in a way.. a game I can finish! But 99% of the rest of the world expendable time.

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