Playing this again en 2024 and it’s still one of the best games I’ve ever played. The only “bad” thing I could say about Portal is that the game is very short. But every second is worth it. Sometimes, it’s better to have a short perfect game, rather than a longer game full of fillers, just to add gameplay hours. So the length of Portal it’s not even a bad thing.
The game is perfect. The writing is amazing. The way you start the game thinking you are a simple test subject in a really fun puzzle game, only to slowly find out that Glados is a psycho and your life is actually in danger, that’s perfect.
The gameplay is fun. It’s amazing that this game consist, basically, on three mechanichs, besides walking: jump, crouch and use portals. With those simple ingredients, they give you an amazing gameplay experience, just perfect.
I know I sound repetitive saying “perfect” for each aspect of this game, but it just is.
The contrast between the sterile, clean and tidy of the test chambers and the “behind the scenes”, when you sneak into behind the chambers and everything looks dirty, rotten, scary, is amazing. The writing in the walls really makes you wanna know what the hell happened there. Who wrote all of those things? What are they really doing in Aperture? How the hell did you get there? And they don’t actually give you direct answers, and I think that’s great too.
And what can I say about the ending song, “Still alive”. An instant classic. Fun fact: here in Rosario, Argentina, the company that provides electricity (EPE) uses that song as the wainting tune when you call them to make a complaint (which you do quite often, because they don’t have a very good service, honestly).
Anyways, I enjoyed this game as much as I did ten or so years ago when I first played it. Next stop: replaying Portal 2.