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 (Steam)
Engine	Source engine
Platform(s)	Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
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 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. The game was released in in a bundle package known as The Orange Box for 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.

Gameplay

In Portal, players control Chell, 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 a 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. The device also acts as a less powerful version of Half-Life 2's gravity gun, which can grab and hold objects, though it is not able to 'punt' objects as the gravity gun can.

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. Players must either complete their set objectives or fail the test. Failure or refusal of a test likely results in death, although the consequences may not be permanent. In the Games Convention video, GLaDOS states that "an intubation associate will be dispatched to revive you with peptic salve and adrenaline" in case of consciousness loss, hinting that some care is taken to keep the test subject alive at least until the tests are over.

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.

Story

File:PortalPlayer.jpg

The female protagonist the player controls in Portal. In the screenshot, the player is viewing themselves through two adjacent portals. This third person view is only possible when looking through a portal.

Portal is set in the Half-Life universe. The game starts off as the main character (Chell) is waking from a stasis bed. GLaDOS informs the player of the test and proceeds to guide her through the introductory puzzles. At this time the player lacks the Portal Gun altogether. As the tests progress the player eventually acquires the first "portion" of the Portal Gun, allowing them to place blue portals but not orange ones; later Chell acquires an upgrade that allows her to place orange portals.

Initially the game appears to be a simple puzzle game with clean, friendly environments. The player is promised "moist, delicious cake" as a reward for successfully completing the tests, and this appears as an available (deactivated) component in the stage description. However, as the player works through the stages, GLaDOS's colorful dialogue begins to paint an unnerving picture of the type of research that occurs in the facility. She cheerfully informs the player 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 the player'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 the player exploring these areas and begins to hint that the player is ultimately disposable and will be dealt with.

After the final test, the player is sent to receive their cake, but is plunged into a furnace. 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. It tells the player that there will be a party held in her honor and urges her to "assume the party-escort submission position" on the floor. The player 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 the player follows eerie notes written on walls and uses the Portal Gun to work her way upward to the top of the facility.

Finally, the player confronts GLaDOS, a large machine hanging in a cylindrical shaft. As the player destroys various components of the machine, GLaDOS's personality disintegrates. When it is completely destroyed, the facility begins to shake and fall apart, and the player is lifted high into the shaft, blacking out. The player wakes on a pile of debris during the light of day behind the fence of Aperture Labs.

The credits roll as GLaDOS sings to a concluding report about the player. It reveals that GLaDOS enjoys the companionship of the test subjects and that it felt a particular fondness for the player. 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. After this, the title screen appears with a new background: a cake on a desk next to a radio and a Companion Cube.

Aperture Science Timeline

Easter egg found at Valve's ApertureScience.com website.

• 1953 - Aperture Science begins operations as a manufacturer of shower curtains. Early product line provides a very low-tech portal between the inside and outside of your shower. Very little science is actually involved. The name is chosen to make the curtains appear more hygienic.

• 1956 - Eisenhower administration awards Aperture a contract to provide shower curtains to all branches of the military except the Navy.

• 1957 - 1975 - Mostly shower curtains.

• 1978 - Aperture Founder and CEO, Cave Johnson, is exposed to mercury while secretly developing a dangerous mercury-injected rubber sheeting from which he plans to manufacture seven deadly shower curtains to be given as gifts to each member of the House Naval Appropriations committee.

• 1979 - Both of Cave Johnson's kidneys fail. Brain damaged, dying, and incapable of being convinced that time is not flowing backwards, Johnson lays out a three tiered R&D program. The results, he says, will 'guarantee the continued success of Aperture Science far into the fast-approaching distant past.'

Tier 1: The Heimlich Counter-Maneuver - A reliable technique for interrupting the life-saving Heimlich Maneuver.

Tier 2: The Take-A-Wish Foundation - A charitable organization that will purchase wishes from the parents of terminally ill children and redistribute them to wish-deprived but otherwise healthy adults.

Tier 3: 'Some kind of rip in the fabric of space... That would... Well, it'd be like, I don't know, something that would help with the shower curtains I guess. I haven't worked this idea out as much as the wish-taking one.'

• 1981 - Diligent Aperture engineers complete the Heimlich Counter-Maneuver and Take-A-Wish Foundation initiatives. The company announces products related to the research in a lavish, televised ceremony. These products become immediately wildly unpopular. After a string of very public choking and despondent sick child disasters, senior company officials are summoned before a Senate investigative committee. During these proceedings, and engineer mentions that some progress has been made on Tier 3, the 'man-sized ad hoc quantum tunnel through physical space with possible applications as a shower curtain.' The committee quickly permanently recessed, and Aperture is granted an open-ended contract to secretly continue research on the 'Portal' and Heimlich Counter-Maneuver projects.

• 1981 - 1985 - Work progresses on the 'Portal' project. Several high ranking Fatah personnel choke to death on lamb chunks despite the intervention of their bodyguards.

• 1986 - Word reaches Aperture management that another defense contractor called Black Mesa is working on a similar portal technology. In response to this news, Aperture begins developing the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GLaDOS), an artificially intelligent research assistant and disk operating system.

• 1996 - After a decade spent bringing the disk operating parts of GLaDOS to a state of more or less basic functionality, work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component.

• Several Years Later - The untested AI is activated for the first time as one of the planned activities of Aperture's first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work day.

In many ways, the initial test goes well...

[END]

Development

Portal is Valve's professionally-developed semi-sequel 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 Half-Life 2: Episode One, 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 89% based on 5 reviews. On Metacritic, the Windows version had an average score of 87 out of 100, based on 5 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