Portal (video game)

For other uses, see Portal (video game) (disambiguation).

Portal
File:Portal Logo.jpg Portal is bundled as part of The Orange Box.
Developer(s)	Valve Corporation
Publisher(s)	Valve Corporation
Engine	Source engine
Platform(s)	Windows, Xbox 360, PS3
Release	PC (Retail): October 10 2007 October 10 2007 October 18 2007 October 18 2007 PC (Steam): Template:Country data World October 10 2007 Xbox 360: Template:Country data World October 10 2007 PS3: November 2007
Genre(s)	Puzzle, First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Portal is a single-player first-person action/puzzle video game developed by Valve. The game was released in a bundle package known as The Orange Box for PC and Xbox 360 on October 10 2007, and will be released for the PlayStation 3 sometime in November. The Windows version of the game is also available for download separately through Steam. The game consists of a series of puzzles which must be solved by teleporting the player's character and other simple objects using a single handheld device, with the goal of getting to an objective point. This "portal gun" and the unusual physics it creates are the main selling point of the game.

Gameplay

A typical Portal level with both the player's blue and orange portals opened.

In Portal, players control Chell Johnson, a test participant in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Gameplay revolves around the "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device" (also known as the "portal gun"), a handheld device that can create an intra-dimensional portal between flat planes, allowing instant travel and a visual and physical connection between any two different locations in 3D space. Portal ends are restricted to planar surfaces, but if the portal ends are on different planes, bizarre twists in geometry and gravity can occur, such as the player walking into the portal through a wall and "falling" up out of the floor several feet behind where she started. Only two portal ends may be open at a time, one orange and one blue in color. If a new portal end is created, it replaces the previous portal of the same color. Either color may be used as an entrance or exit portal.

Guided by a female electronic voice-over of a supercomputer named GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) players use the "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device" to perform a variety of tests, such as creating portals to knock over turrets and other objects or moving to a previously unreachable area. GLaDOS is voiced by singer/actress Ellen McLain.

In their initial preview of Portal, GameSpot gave an example of a gameplay scenario:

In other situations, you may be under fire by a gun droid. So all you need to do is shoot a portal open over the gun, then shoot a portal open beneath a crate, then watch the crate fall through the hole and crush the gun. It gets even crazier, and the diagrams shown in the trailer showed some incredibly crazy things that you can attempt, like creating a series of Portals so that you're constantly chasing yourself.

Two additional modes are unlocked upon completion of the main game. In Challenge mode, the player has to get through a floor in either as little time, with the least number of portals, or as few footsteps possible. In Advanced mode, the hardest levels of the game are made even harder with the addition of more obstacles and hazards.

Plot

File:PortalPlayer.jpg

The female protagonist the player controls in Portal. In the screenshot, the player, as Chell, is viewing herself through two adjacent portals. This second person view is only possible when looking through a portal, and a third person view is possible when entering the commmand "thirdperson" in the console when "sv_cheats" are on. Note the heel springs she is wearing.

Portal is set in the Half-Life universe, and is presented to the player through the game's audio messages and visual clues seen throughout the game. At the start of the game, Chell wakes from a stasis bed, though how she came to be there is initially unknown, wearing heel springs (to allow her to fall long distances without injuring herself.) GLaDOS informs her of the test and proceeds to guide her through the introductory test chambers. At this time Chell lacks the portal gun altogether. As the tests progress she eventually acquires the first "portion" of the portal gun, allowing her to place blue portals but not orange ones; later she acquires an upgrade that allows her to place orange portals.

Initially the test chambers are clean, friendly environments. Chell is promised "moist, delicious cake" as a reward for successfully completing the tests, and this appears as an available (deactivated) component in the stage descriptions. However, as Chell works through the stages, GLaDOS's colorful dialog begins to paint an unnerving picture of the type of research that occurs in the facility. She cheerfully informs Chell of various safety risks in each stage that could kill or seriously injure her. Glass walls in key areas of the stages allow observation of the subject by laboratory personnel, but the chairs are empty and no research personnel are seen. Some stages are broken, confirming Chell's suspicions by allowing her to explore behind the pristine test areas and into grimy areas which resemble a derelict factory. Prominent in these areas is graffiti from an unknown benefactor accusing GLaDOS of lying about the nature of the tests, and repeatedly claiming "the cake is a lie". GLaDOS becomes uncomfortable with Chell exploring these areas and begins to hint that Chell is ultimately disposable and will be dealt with.

After the final test, Chell is sent to receive her cake, but is plunged into a furnace (to be cake, as GLaDOS had accidentally admitted a few times in glitches resembling Freudian slips). She manages to escape into a maintenance area and GLaDOS begins to show agitation, claiming first that it was the real final test, and then that it was a joke. She tells Chell that there will be a party held in her honor and urges her to "assume the party-escort submission position" on the floor. Chell flees into the facility's numerous maintenance corridors, and GLaDOS becomes increasingly agitated. Roughly the second half of the game continues behind the walls of previous stages and the inner laboratories of Aperture Labs as Chell follows eerie notes written on walls and uses the portal gun to work her way upward to the top of the facility.

Finally, Chell confronts GLaDOS, a large machine hanging in a cylindrical shaft. As Chell destroys various components of the machine, GLaDOS's personality disintegrates. As she loses her sanity, she reveals that she killed everyone in the enrichment center by flooding it with nerve gas some unknown amount of time ago. When GLaDOS is completely destroyed, the facility begins to shake and fall apart, and Chell is lifted high into the shaft, blacking out. She wakes on a pile of debris during the light of day behind the fence of Aperture Labs.

The final scene shows the promised cake surrounded by various metallic "eye" components similar to those that were on GLaDOS. Some of the eyes activate and a robotic arm puts the candle out. The credits roll as GLaDOS gives a concluding report about Chell in the form of the song "Still Alive". It reveals that GLaDOS enjoys the companionship of the test subjects and that it felt a particular fondness for Chell. Although it is uncertain, the song implies that Chell has survived by lines refering to her in the future tense. After this, the title screen appears with a new background: a cake on a desk next to a radio and a Weighted Companion Cube.

Development

Portal is Valve's professionally-developed spiritual successor to the freeware Narbacular Drop, the 2005 independent game released by students of the DigiPen Institute of Technology; the original Drop team are now all employed at Valve. Certain elements, like the orange/blue system of identifying the two different portal ends a player can have open at a time (one connecting to the other), seem to have been retained.

The Portal team worked with Half-Life series writer Marc Laidlaw on fitting the game into the series' plot. Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek of the classic gaming commentary/comedy website Old Man Murray had been hired by Valve and put to work on the dialogue for Portal.

Portal, like other recent Valve releases, includes a commentary feature.

Regarding future Portal developments, Kim Swift said that it will depend on the community's reactions, saying "we're still playing it by ear at this point, figuring out if we want to do multiplayer next, or Portal 2, or release map packs."

Critical reception

As of October 10, 2007 on the review aggregator Game Rankings, the Windows version of the game had an average score of 90% based on 6 reviews. On Metacritic, the Windows version had an average score of 88 out of 100, based on 6 reviews.

Dan Adams of IGN awarded Portal an 8.2, praising its unique gameplay, but criticizing its short length.

See also

• Half-Life 2: Episode Two
• The Orange Box
• Narbacular Drop
• Team Fortress 2

External links

Official

• Official homepage - The Orange Box
• ApertureScience.com (Viral advertising, Alternate reality game)

Press

• Portal at 1UP.com
• Portal at Eurogamer
• Template:GameSpot
• Portal at IGN
• Portal at Wired