Guides
A first-person puzzle game developed by Valve and graduates of DigiPen, Portal forces you to run a gauntlet of grueling spatial experiments administered by a malfunctioning, psychotic artificial intelligence, GLaDOS.
Plot 
Chell, the protagonist from Portal.
Portal casts players into the role of Chell, a human lab rat who awakes to find herself in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center were she is instructed by GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) that she is to take part in a series of tests. The warnings and general instructions GLaDOS provides Chell as she approaches each new test chamber provide the information she needs to complete each test while also creating atmosphere and further developing the personality of the AI as the game progresses. She is given a weapon calledAperture Science Handheld Portal Device, what can be used to create portals.
Chell, the protagonist from Portal.
As the test progresses, the difficulty of each level increases and the motives of GLaDOS become more clear as you come across the remains of previous test subjects while GLaDOS's comments become more sinister and less caring than before. At one point in the game, Chell is introduced to the weighted companion cube, a simple cube with a pink heart logo on every side, and she must use it to help her complete the test before being told it must be destroyed. It's at this point the game becomes more difficult with the introduction of live fire turrets which can kill Chell should she stand openly in range of them.
After finishing the final chamber Chell is praised by GLaDOS for coming this far but she must be destroyed, forcing Chell to escape from the approaching furnace, deeper into the facility. It's at this point she realizes, that there is no staff in the building. Following signs from what is possibly a previous test subject, who escaped, she makes her way toward GLaDOS. The game becomes slightly more difficult in that point, because there are no more clear entrances or exits for Chell to use. So it becomes a matter of trial and error to find out which way to go. All the while GLaDOS's comments become increasingly erratic with her mood and speech changing randomly as she tries to persuade and threaten Chell from proceeding.
Eventually Chell enters a chamber, where a large computer AI system is hanging from the ceiling and it is revealed that GLaDOS was in fact a computer all along. The morality core breaks and falls away from GlaDOS who explains it was installed after she flooded the facility with a poisonous gas killing everyone and now she can do the same. A countdown timer starts, indicating how long until the facility is filled with poisonous gas. GLaDOS proceeds to fire rockets at Chell, who must use the portal gun to redirect the rockets toward GLaDOS. Each time one hits her, another piece of her hardware falls off which the player must then throw into the incinerator.
Once every piece has been destroyed there is a portal malfunction causing everything in the room to be transported outside, where Chell is finally free. Just before the credits roll, a scene unfolds, where the companion cube from earlier is placed beside a large cake suggesting that the cake wasn't a lie after all.
Gameplay 
Early Design of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device
The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or "Portal Gun" for short, allows players to traverse any distance instantly, so long as two portals bridge it. When the player (or any object for that matter) passes through one of a pair of portals, it instantly emerges from the other, with its orientation and momentum preserved relative to the portal. This law of conservation of momentum, which GLaDOS memorably introduces to the player as "speedy things goes in; speedy thing comes out," serves as a key gameplay concept. The most common application is the gravity sling, in which the player jumps from a significant height, relying on gravity's constant acceleration to reach high speeds, before falling into a portal on the ground, and then being "flung" at the same high speed out of the complementary portal, often placed high on a wall. Through use of this technique, the player is able to fling him- or herself over hazards and barriers, which is essential to solving many of the puzzles in Portal.
Early Design of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device
Physics also play a recurring role in Portal's gameplay. One example is the oversized red buttons on the ground, which the player frequently encounters. These buttons are activated when an object of sufficient mass, such as a cube or the player character herself, is positioned on top of the button. When a button is activated, it triggers an event in another object in the environment with which it is associated, such as opening a door. In most puzzles that include these buttons, cubes can also be found. The player can carry, throw, and drop cubes, including through portals, and must frequently do so in order to get cubes onto buttons that will open paths to facilitate the player's progression in the game.
Another example of physics as a gameplay element in Portal is the bouncing energy balls that player encounters in many of the game's puzzles. These energy balls are emitted from an origin point and have a lifespan of approximately 15 seconds. Only one per origin point may be in existence at a time, and once one has expired, its origin point emits a new one. The energy balls travel strictly in straight lines, bouncing off of any impacted surface proportional to the angle of incidence. The player must additionally beware of these energy balls, as any contact with one is fatal. At the same time, the player must often redirect the path of an energy ball using portals in order to direct it into colliding with a repository, which, when so activated, triggers necessary events, similar to buttons.
Contents 
Portal has 19 interesting puzzle chambers
Portal is composed of a story campaign, consisting of 19 chambers (environmental puzzles) and a large, continuous, unstructured sequence. Most players complete Portal's story campaign in roughly three hours.
Portal has 19 interesting puzzle chambers
In addition, Portal includes advanced and challenge maps, each of which is comprising of chambers 13 - 18 from the story campaign with modifications. The advanced maps are modified to be harder by reducing the number of possible solutions so that only the more difficult one(s) remain viable. Challenge maps are played under one of three minimization goals: time, steps, or portals created. Bronze, silver, and gold medals can be earned for completing each map in within a certain limitation threshold.
Portal also includes a developer commentary mode, which plays as the regular games does, except that nodes, each with an associated audio clip, are sprinkled throughout 11 or the 19 chambers, and the player may freely skip to any chamber containing nodes. In the audio clips, many of the Portal's designers provide insights into the level design, art direction, audio production, and technical challenges, among other issues that they grappled with while making Portal.
As with the other games in The Orange Box, Portal includes achievements.
Ending Credits
One of the most famous features of Portal, the game's ending credits are accompanied by the song 'Still Alive'. It was written by Jonathan Coulton - a singer/songwriter who makes refrences to games in his songs - and performed by Ellen McLain, the actress who provides the voice for GLaDOS. She maintains the same, cynical tone of GLaDOS's character for her singing part. The song was released as a free downloadable track for Rock Band on March 31, 2008.aperturescience.com
Before the release of Portal, the website aperturescience.com was discovered. The website contains a text prompt, similar to DOS operating systems. Typing "login" or "logon" will prompt the user for a username and password. Any username will give access if "portal" or "portals" is entered as the password. Once logged in, the user can access an application form consisting of a long series of questions. Many of these questions seem odd and/or reference cake.
During the questonnaire, certain letters will be blinking. Typing out these letters gives "thecakeisalie". Entering this when logged in or after finishing the application will give you a message from an employee of Aperture Science and a video feed of the holding cell where you start in Portal.
During Portal, the words "login: cjohnson password: tier3" can be found scribbled on a wall. When logging into the website with this info, you get access to a history of Aperture Science.
Aperture was founded by Cave Johnson and was originally a manufacturer of shower curtains. At some point, Cave Johnson went crazy believed that time had begun flowing backwards, which is why he had a team develop a "reverse heimlich maneuver".
| Game Name | Portal |
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| Original US Release |
Oct. 9, 2007
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
know the real date? |
| Aliases | |
| ESRB |
ESRB: T
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Trivia
What function does GLaDOS's Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit perform?
- Prevents GLaDOS from releasing deadly neurotoxins
- Makes shoes for orphans
- Party planning
- Generates massive amounts of sarcasm
- Computes the ideal cake recipe
User Reviews
| Platform | User Reviews | Avg. Score |
|---|---|---|
| All Reviews | 21 reviews |
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| PC | 21 reviews |
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| Add your own user review | ||
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