Portal Stories: Mel is a mod that has left me sort of conflicted. As a lifetime fan of Portal I've always heard that this mod was one of the best there was for the game and that it was pretty much on-par with the actual releases and their stories, and somehow I managed to delay it so far into my life that even more modifications have come around to make a run for Mel's money, but alas, I finally dug in and played it... And I think it's okay?

Mel is a bait-and-switch mod that at first hides in the facade of being yet another Portal prequel mod and then gets sidetracked to be more like the average campaign for these games, you're actually trapped in this large and cold facility and your objective is to get through many test chambers and climb your way up until you can technologically murder the technological murderer that wants to kill you (technologically), in this case being AEGIS, a pretty underwhelming replacement for GLaDOS. You're accompanied by Virgil, a Maintenance Core that fell down all the way to Old Aperture and is trying to get out, this guy is the Wheatley replacement and a pretty average guy at that I'd say, sad to say that he will never be him as he's a pretty boring companion overall.

And so the journey begins, you have to climb all the way up to the surface while leading on a Core that might as well just be some average ass guy as he blabbers on about so many things, I think a part of this is where the humor kinda falls flat compared to Portal 2's ironic, sarcastic yet effective jokes and humor in its script, Mel's writing is nowhere near that so seeing them try is cute but ultimately it does feel like they're trying too much to accomplish the same things Portal 2 did back in the day. So that's enough about the plot and characters of the work, I sadly cannot expect much considering Portal 2 is my favorite game of all time so not much in that regard will really please me.

The test chambers and puzzles in this mod are most popular for their rampant difficulty compared to the base game and the rest of mods out there, so bad that they had to make a whole new mode of nerfed test chambers because people complained about it too much I guess, I played the entire game in this "Advanced Mode" which is comprised of the original mod before the nerfs and while I thought some puzzles were really nervewracking and some took me a while, in general I think I do understand why people complained about them and why maybe adding the nerfed mode was a good option. I am uncertain how common this is in puzzle games in general but there's a very weird balance between tests that are actually very hard to do, versus ones that you can figure out very easily and don't take nearly as long as the other ones, and then some gimmicky ones put in the mix every now and then, in Advanced Mode there's this sort of inconsistency when it comes to the chambers themselves that vary in difficulty so much that it's hard to actually find satisfaction in completing a lot of them because they're either too hard or too easy, it also isn't really gradual as the entire game is consistently inconsistent when it comes to it, and after sort of playing through some chapters in Story Mode to get some achievements, I think I'd much rather have those that are pretty much more straightforward and don't require fourth dimension thinking to then swap to the easiest puzzle you've ever beaten in your life. Then there's also some more open-ended puzzles akin to those of Chapter 6 "The Fall" in Portal 2, this time they're in the facility and they're just okay, when they're too open there's a lot more decorations in a lot of places which lead me to some confusions and getting lost while playing.

Now, I'll be completely honest and fair. This is just me nitpicking as a very big Portal fan, the project in itself has an immense amount of care put into it from the soundtrack, the ambience, the mapping work, art and everything just being practically a love letter from notorious people in the community released completely for free (something that can't be said for the OTHER mod) and it shows, it's a pretty cool end result that translated in probably one of the most iconic full-conversion story mods in PC gaming for years to come. And to that I think Portal Stories: Mel might be worth your time if you're interested in it, it has some cool and easy achievements as well that will only really require you to replay some sections of the game. Overall, as there is no overarching gimmick or anything of the sort I'd just mark this up as more Portal 2 designed for people who liked the original and are seeking for more, and I think that's cool, this has set the bar pretty high up in that regard.

If you're itching for more Portal action, but can't wait for Valve to figure out how to count to 3, then look no further than Portal Stories: Mel. A community-made mod, this short, yet sweet storyline takes place before the events of Portal 2.

The puzzles are tricky, sometimes frustratingly so. Don't hop into this right after finishing Portal 2 expecting to breeze through it (especially not Advanced Mode). The storyline is decent, as is the voice-acting - not amazing, but good enough to get you across the finish line. The best part? It's free!

100%: You'll have to explore some tucked-away nooks and crannies to find all the hidden secrets, but nothing too difficult.