Portal

Portal is part of a new compilation put out by Valve Software called The Orange Box, which contains a few other games but none are as inventive as Portal. Portal is a first-person puzzle game in which the player embodies a test subject for a mysterious corporation called 'Aperture Labs'. Through a series of industrial gray and blue rooms, the player must navigate from Point A to Point B using only the tool provided.

But, oh, what a tool it is. Portal introduces the world to the Portal Gun, a simple, yet extremely fun gameplay mechanic that had me avoiding progression through the game for far too long as I tinkered with the various contraptions I could construct using its powers. The Portal Gun has two functions: make a blue portal, or make an orange portal. Portals can be made on any surface allowed, whether it's a wall, ceiling, or floor. Once the blue and orange portals are placed, they become doors to each other, so walking though the blue portal exits out of orange one and vice-versa. This can lead to some pretty trippy happenings, especially given that the game makes you place portals on all kinds of wacky places. For example, in some levels you have to make on portal on the floor, place the other on a slanted edge, then jump into the first one from a high altitude. The momentum is carried through the portal and you are then flung out across the room. Actually, this is one of the more normal uses. You can also make yourself fall forever, chase yourself though endless hallways, and walk through a door that comes out a floor.

Aside from the unique puzzle solving, Portal is one of the most legitimately funny games I've ever played. Many video games make attempts at humor, but most fail miserably, which is not surprising since most video game writers are not comedians. Portal is a wonderful exception. The comedy comes from the voice of the computer that guides you through each mission, and from the deadpan way in which the robotized female voice offers 'assistance'. It's a bit like HAL from 2001, but goofier. The same robot voice also sings an extremely catchy song about the company she works for at the end credits, which was written by the nerd-songmaster Jonathan Coulton, who has such tunes as "Re: Your Brains" and "Tom Cruise Crazy".

The genesis of Portal was a student-project game called Narbacular Drop, developed as a senior thesis by Digipen students. When the school had its career fair and developers from across the country came to take a look at the games, Gabe Newell from Bellevue-based Valve loved Narbacular Drop and offered the kids a job basically on the spot, developing their game using the Half-Life 2 engine. I would imagine the kids were happy about that.

I should also point out that two of the most critically acclaimed and popular game series ever, Halo and Half-Life, were both developed in the greater Seattle area. Apparently, we like games that let you kill aliens.