Just finished Portal -- Oh wow.

[ja1484]

The entire title was an unexpected gem.

Introducing the First Person Puzzler was something I was not expecting from Valve, but the genre is fresh, and frankly, I could do with some of that. Your options for activities in video games these days tend to be:

Kill stuff with guns
Kill stuff with swords

I'm really getting a little tired of killing stuff in the same ol' ways. I was GLaD a game finally came along that gave me something compelling to do that didn't require me to stuff a shotgun up an alien's/demon's/nazi's ass.

I suppose there are sports games and racing games too, but...well...ok, I'll just come out and say it. They suck. Sports has been ruined by EA, and racing needs a swift kick in the ass to get back to something fun. I think the last racing title I actually enjoyed was ReVolt, which, like Portal, I was not expecting to be nearly as good as it was.

I also loved the length of Portal, because nothing in there was overlong or drawn out. They gave you their bag of tricks at the right pace and then ended the title. The story and characters were excellent - I am hoping against hope they continue the series and take it somewhere just as interesting next.

It's the kind of game that lead designers everywhere should make their design teams play and take notes. While not the best title to come out in the last year, I can say it was probably the only one that executed flawlessly on all marks.

 

[EvilComputer92]

Only good game that Valve ever made. I loved it from start to finish.

 

[nitro28]

Can you download just Portal from steam?

 

[DangerAardvark]

The game is ridiculously innovative. It even adds some replay value with the developer commentary "track". This is something that I'd like to see more games adopt.

 

[dighn]

It was a nice game and I enjoyed it. But to me it felt like little more than a quick distraction, like a Flash game. This is not a criticism on its length though; any longer and it would have been too tedious.

 

[Borealis7]

the next logical step would be to introduce the portal gun in FPSs, although it might be too powerful:

dont like that big bad boss monster? portal him down to the abyss!

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: Borealis7
the next logical step would be to introduce the portal gun in FPSs, although it might be too powerful:

dont like that big bad boss monster? portal him down to the abyss!

Unless he is too big for the portal

Just finished it, awesome, going to go back through with dev commentary on and try for more achievements. I have heard the dev commentary is worth the second go-round.

Awesome game though. Left me laughing - and totally satisfied. Especially as part of a $25 orange box.

Nat

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: nitro28
Can you download just Portal from steam?

You can, but its a better deal buying it with the Orange Box.

 

[misle]

I played and finished Portal a day or two ago. My only complaint is that all the puzzles were very easy, except Level 18 (which I found to be very hard).

More moderate and difficult maps would be great.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

You know.... at the end of HL2 it's made clear that Gordon will be making a trip to Aperture Science...

 

[Drako]

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
Only good game that Valve ever made. I loved it from start to finish.

Millions of people would disagree with you that this is the "only good game Valve has ever made" - HL1 and HL2 being some of the highest rated games ever.

 

[Drako]

Originally posted by: Drako

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
Only good game that Valve ever made. I loved it from start to finish.

Millions of people would disagree with you that this is the "only good game Valve has ever made" - HL1 and HL2 being some of the highest rated games ever.

Yep, Gordon gets the aperture gun in episode 3.

 

[EvilComputer92]

Originally posted by: Drako

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
Only good game that Valve ever made. I loved it from start to finish.

Millions of people would disagree with you that this is the "only good game Valve has ever made" - HL1 and HL2 being some of the highest rated games ever.

There are also plenty of people who agree with me. Go look at the episode two review thread if you want some opinions on the Half Life games, as I don't want to turn this thread into another discussion about HL2.

 

[Drako]

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92

Originally posted by: Drako

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
Only good game that Valve ever made. I loved it from start to finish.

Millions of people would disagree with you that this is the "only good game Valve has ever made" - HL1 and HL2 being some of the highest rated games ever.

There are also plenty of people who agree with me. Go look at the episode two review thread if you want some opinions on the Half Life games, as I don't want to turn this thread into another discussion about HL2.

OK, so you didn't like HL2. Did you like HL1? It's a pretty strong statement to say Portal is the only good game Valve has ever made.

Back on topic, Portal did turn into a really good sandbox for the upcoming use of the aperture gun - excellent gameplay, and wonderful little story. I can't wait to see how we get to use it in episode 3.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: Drako

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92

Originally posted by: Drako

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
Only good game that Valve ever made. I loved it from start to finish.

Millions of people would disagree with you that this is the "only good game Valve has ever made" - HL1 and HL2 being some of the highest rated games ever.

There are also plenty of people who agree with me. Go look at the episode two review thread if you want some opinions on the Half Life games, as I don't want to turn this thread into another discussion about HL2.

OK, so you didn't like HL2. Did you like HL1? It's a pretty strong statement to say Portal is the only good game Valve has ever made.

Back on topic, Portal did turn into a really good sandbox for the upcoming use of the aperture gun - excellent gameplay, and wonderful little story. I can't wait to see how we get to use it in episode 3.

I would settle for being the Portal character using the aperture gun in EP:3...

Are they going to do any opposing forces/blueshift sort of episodes?

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

All we know is he'll be going to some ship made by aperature science. There's no garuntee he'll find a portal gun there. More than likely they'll be some secret involving teleportation of the whole ship that you'll have to unravel/use to your advantage.

 

[mordantmonkey]

have to agree. just finished it last night. not only was it the right length for what it was, but the pacing was excellent as well. by the time you get toward the end you're doing crazy ass jumps/falls/midair portal shots that you would have thought impossible earlier in the game.
not to mention the ending was great and that song will not get out of my head.

 

[ja1484]

I just want to point out that MordantMonkey has one of the better Bill Hicks quotes as his sig.

Portal's still good too.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn
Are they going to do any opposing forces/blueshift sort of episodes?

I hope so. I loved OP4. That was my favorite HL game. I was also disappointed that Opposing Source was cancelled.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: nitro28
Can you download just Portal from steam?

Yes you can

 

[Danman]

Just finished it a few days ago, loved every moment of it. First game I've played in awhile where I had a lot of fun and laughed a lot from GlenDOS!

 

[soccerballtux]

I loved it too; but they basically told you how to solve each puzzle. I would have liked a little more open-endedness. Throw the person into the puzzle and make them figure it out-- if you listened to the commentary they wanted to make sure they had introduced every single puzzle element you would need, and only one at a time. Puzzles twice as difficult, about 5 times as many of them, would have made it a full game in my opinion. I loved the story, but I think they could have drawn it out very easily-- simply throw more puzzles in.

I hope they release an SDK soon though, gosh I can't imagine the following that game would get if they released an SDK.

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: Danman
Just finished it a few days ago, loved every moment of it. First game I've played in awhile where I had a lot of fun and laughed a lot from GlenDOS!

GLaDOS

 

[Coldkilla]

Originally posted by: JBT
5 Hrs or so is a perfect length? I prefer atleast 20Hrs for a single player game.

eh... it came in a box with 5 games, 5 hours for 1/5th of the products in that box imo was perfect, especially when you have a gun that shoots balls in square rooms to get from one area to another. I don't know how they could have made the game 20 hours and kept it interesting. Very good game, perfect length.

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: mordantmonkey
have to agree. just finished it last night. not only was it the right length for what it was, but the pacing was excellent as well. by the time you get toward the end you're doing crazy ass jumps/falls/midair portal shots that you would have thought impossible earlier in the game.
not to mention the ending was great and that song will not get out of my head.

I agree with most of the praise in this thread. I too want to see more innovative titles like this.

edit: I know it's an old thread and I'm totally behind the curve on this - I just wanted to throw my $.05 out there