Portal

Innovation in gaming is something we all appraise. Sometimes just tiny little details of brand new content make up for a purchase, and in the case of Portal the innovation meter can be taken to a whole other level. It's safe to say Portal is like nothing you've ever seen, we hear and read that a lot, but now it might be the right thing to say indeed. It's a first-person shooter, so what else could make up to make this game so different, and so good? Well, some things, actually.

Yes, it's a first-person shooter, I trust you have already bumped into some games of this kind in your life; if you love 'em or hate 'em it's a whole other story, and to tell you the truth, in this case it's not even important because this game strays away too much from the average first-person games we're accustomed. This is a mixture of first-person shooter, puzzle and platforming. You don't really shoot people or anything, what you actually shoot are the walls. You have two beams, the blue-beam and the orange-beam, these two beams create a dimensional link between each other wherever you may have placed them; so let's say you are in a very large room and you shoot one beam at the beginning and one at the end of this room, by shooting the two beams a portal is created in the locations you placed them, by only stepping into the portal created by these two beams you get teletransported from one side to the other of the room. It's a very simple and innovative system that leaves room for numberless possibilities in crafting challenges and making puzzles. Sometimes you need to not only get through the portal yourself, but objects or any other kind of stuff, like rays if light or energy, in order to advance in the multiple puzzles found throughout the game.

The puzzles are fun and they aren't exactly hard, they're tricky, you might have a little trouble with some of them, but once you get the general idea of the concept it will be a pleasure to stay thinking about ways to advance. The game is very addictive and insanely good, but also very short, you can easily finish it in one day especially with the increasing difficulty as the game passes leaving you eagerly waiting for more and more challenges; and since you'll be easily hocked to the game, you'll finish it in no time.

The story is about a human who awakes in a laboratory and soon finds out that she has been taken to be the victim of an experiment, she must proceed through chambers as a voice of someone identified as GLaDOS gives her instructions and tips on how to proceed; and there you go, performing the tests you're asked to, and advancing. The dialogs received special treatment, actually only GLaDOS and some little turret robots talk, but when the do, it surely is memorable. The little turret robots will eventually talk in their cute funny way; but GLaDOS will speak several very funny lines all the time as the story unfolds, she will give you some hilarious short phrases while you're facing the challenges given, she sometimes gets moody and speaks in a darker mysterious way, with jokes that are quite frightening, especially more in the end. It's funny to say it, but they really portrayed a strong personality of a computer based system.

There aren't really enemies to be fought, only the turrets, which by the way, are really tough; they fire an incredible amount of shots if you're in their line of sight, so if you stay in front of one of them for even a little bit you're sure to be dead in a blink of an eye. The only way to beat them is using the portals and cubes found all over the game, you find a way to throw the cubes at them using the portals and knock 'em down; once down, they're not a threat anymore. The graphics are basic and it's way more likely to be impressed by the physics rather than graphical beauty, but even so, it's an undeniable truth that the effect of a portal forming in front of you in a wall is quite unique and makes up for the design of the rest.

Even with the biggest flaw of the game being the fact that it is very short, you can have some extra fun with the advanced challenges. There you face the later stages of the game in a harder difficulty; the increase of difficulty can come in some minor modifications in the maps and in three types of challenges. The first is the challenge that sets you a time limit to complete your goal. The second limits you in how many steps you're allowed to take. The third limits you in how many portals you're allowed to create. In each of these three challenge situations you can get a trophy; which can be gold, silver or bronze depending on how good you did.

What impresses the most is the game's apparent simplicity, it just takes two types of beams creating portals in very simple designed maps. But beneath all this simplicity, we have very complex puzzles and a very engaging gameplay. Maybe it's the complexity masqueraded as simplicity that makes this game so charming. You go expecting something, and ends up with something completely different, something bigger, and better.

All right, I'm sure you're at least a little curious to find out what is the deal of this game. If you give this game a try you won't feel disappointed, I guarantee you. The only bad thing about it is its length, the game is short but it's intense and will keep you immersed in it for as long as you play. The concept is incredibly interesting and we can only hope that they can bring another game like this in the near future with much more length, challenges, maps and jokes. For now, we can enjoy this simple, and brief, but amazingly satisfying experience.