Portal is a puzzle game created by Valve that features the famous Portal Gun. You play Chell who is forced to complete tests made by GLaDOS, the twisted AI who controls Aperture Science. The first half of the game is just learning the basics, at first with just the blue portal, after with both portals, the blue and orange. Each test features different elements such as lethal water, energy spheres, moving platforms, and, of course, turrets.
Turrets. Annoying as heck.
The last part of the game is escaping the laboratory while solving quick , relatively easy puzzles. The game ends when you stumble upon GLaDOS's chambers and kill her by destroying different intelligent orbs attached to her, designed to make her stupid and slower. She dies, the room explodes and you crawl out, free at last. You collapse and the last moments of the game is drifting to and from consciousness while being dragged by something back into Aperture Science, setting the stage for Portal 2.
The last part of the game is escaping the laboratory while solving quick , relatively easy puzzles. The game ends when you stumble upon GLaDOS's chambers and kill her by destroying different intelligent orbs attached to her, designed to make her stupid and slower. She dies, the room explodes and you crawl out, free at last. You collapse and the last moments of the game is drifting to and from consciousness while being dragged by something back into Aperture Science, setting the stage for Portal 2.
GLaDOS, in the...metal.
In portal 2, Valve went all out. While the first one was around 2 hours long, the second is nearly ten times that length, allowing room for a stupid amount of mind-bending puzzles. It starts out easy enough with you being led by an AI named Wheatley trying to get out of Aperture Science. You do a number of puzzles without any problems until you stumble upon GLaDOS again. She's "sleeping" according to Wheatley, having never really died at your hands. She, of course, wakes up and makes you a test subject once again, giving you puzzles to solve.
Behold Wheatley, very funny and slightly retarded.
You make your way back to GLaDOS with the help of Wheatley, override her systems, replace her with Wheatley and save the day, all with the press of a button. Unfortunately the system is corrupted, making Wheatley evil. He turns GLaDOS into a potato and you barely escape into the old Apeture Science building, directly under the new one.
The foundation of Aperture Science.
At this point the really hard puzzles start, slightly frying your brain with multi-part puzzles. For many hours I sat staring at my monitor, drooling onto my keyboard while trying to figure out some of the puzzles. You meet up with GLaDOS half way through, carrying her for the rest of the game on your portal gun. Eventually you'll get to Wheatley and have a boss fight similar to Portal 1, but putting the tumor-like orbs on him instead of taking them off. You then portal to the moon like every other day and Wheatley is vanquished. GLaDOS is reinstalled and doesn't try to kill you this time. She lets you leave and the game ends with a credits song, just like the first one.
One step for you, one heck-of-a ride for Wheatley.
If you didn't think Portal 2 was hard enough, don't feel down. Portal 2 multiplayer is ten times harder. Since both you and a friend have to think as one, which is almost impossible, one of you will be solving the puzzles while the other one stares at the screen, waiting to be given orders. If that's not hard enough, the Steam Workshop holds a lot of puzzles that other people have created.
The friendly Peabody and the paranoid Atlas
In the end, Portal boils down to a hard first-person, puzzle-solving, brain-melting game with a good storyline, references to Black Mesa and funny dialogue. I think of Portal 1 and Portal 2 as one game, the first being too short for it to be a stand alone game. I highly recommend this game to smart and not-so-smart people alike, so buy this game and eat some cake while you're at it.
Overall Rating:
8/10
For a fun and truly unique puzzle game.
