Portal still remains the puzzle king.
Released last year in the Orange Box; Portal was an instant hit. Its humor, its magnificent puzzles and fresh gameplay were all at the very top of the puzzle genre. Portal: Still Alive isn't just a quick and dirty Xbox Live Marketplace port: it's filled with enough new puzzles and the same old charm to make revisiting the Aperture Science laboratories more than worth the price of admission.
Portal: Still Alive focuses on the Portal gun, which with one shot creates your entrance and the other creates your exit. The portal gun gives Portal a unique and entertaining hook which keeps reeling you in throughout the whole entire game with more elements and ways to use the gun. Portal never really stumps you in a way that you'll have to look at a walk through but still leaves a great feeling of accomplishment when you solve a particularly tough puzzle.
The other great element to Portal is its story. Throughout the game you are being watched by a computer named GLaDOS who narrarates the story brilliantly. Ellen McLain does an incredible job making this computer hilarious and somewhat scary at the same time. Portal is an incredible ride that derserves many playthroughs, if not only to see all the easter eggs.
After reading all this praise you might ask "Why is this game $15 on XBLM, shouldn't it be a full-priced retail game?" Well Timmy, see, Portal isn't very long. On my first play through I clocked in on about 3 and a half hours but that doesn't really matter too much because of Portal's high replay value and the new challenge maps added in Still Alive. There are a myriad of new maps that don't just take elements from the original game and reverse their order, they add completely new puzzle elements that you'd never expect. Although these portions don't have any story, it's completely excusable because the game still makes for an excellent standalone puzzle game.
Portal: Still Alive is a must-buy for those who never bought the Orange Box or haven't gotten into the original Portal, and also derserves some serious consideration for those who feel like getting some more achievements or have had their interests piqued by the new challenge maps. Whoever you are, you'll be hard pressed to find a better way to spend $15 on XBLA.
