This review contains spoilers
Note: This review is a part of my review for Portal: Companion Collection that covers the Portal games individually
I feel that one of the first lines in the end credits song of Portal sums it up the best: (in a robot voice) “this was a triumph.” And it is absolutely true; Portal is an unabashed triumph of puzzle games. What Portal does is blend a mind-bending, space-warping, teleportation-related concept with a whole lot of heart and humor creating a mix that is equal parts fun, whimsical, and light-hearted as it is brimming with intellect and thoughtfulness. There is so much to unpack in Portal, and surprisingly there is so much of it that is good and some of it that is even amazing. Since there is so much, I’ll only cover the more major, upfront and center components of Portal and elaborate my thoughts on said topics.
Portal thrives on simplicity. This is a statement that applies to Portal in every conceivable way, from the puzzle design to the art style to the graphics to the world itself. And it is for this reason that Portal fares so well against the rest of the genre; Portal strips the concept of puzzle game down to its bare minimum and rebuilds it from the ground up with a new layer of simplicity, with a simple story and a simple concept and a simple visual style, infused with a simple personality which combines with all the aforementioned simplicities to form a simple but memorable gaming experience.
The most apparent influence of the bareness of the game is present in the puzzles, where the stages are small, contained, direct, and easy to read. In fact, each puzzle is contained in a single room, many of which are referred to as test chambers. There is typically minimal space or details to get in the way of the problem-solving and overwhelm or obstruct the analytical vision of the player. The puzzles are often straight-forward, easy to navigate, and utilize the skills that you have previously learned with a little bit of outside-the-box thinking. The game is also astoundingly good at teaching these mechanics, as it alludes to features in ways such as a verbal instruction, on-screen prompt, or structural hint. There are no unreasonably hard stages or unexplained and unintuitive mechanics, because everything is designed in such a way that there are no questions asked and just questions solved. Each problem is palpable, pristine, poised, paved, and posed to perfection.
For a game so old and experimental, Portal looks so shockingly good that it almost feels like a crime. The world of Portal is an industrial one; rooms are plastered with white walls and filled with mechanical platforms and all sorts of machines and substances and objects. The world is dominated by technology and the individuals of the world feel an obligation to this technology, to science, and to progress it further. Of course, this ties into the story, where this strange dedication to technological advancement leads to the downfall of humanity, where the humanity that once controlled and had a grip on their devices has faded away under the grasp of technology, a complete 180 in the food chain of control and superiority. Ultimately, Portal is about a warning on the dangers of a technology advanced far past our own knowledge and intellect, but it also sort of embraces the will and dedication of humanity as a species, willing to fight for what we stubbornly believe is right and morally correct. It is a bizarrely heartwarming tale set in a city of stone, extracting optimism from the most pessimistic and careless.
But, despite all the praise that I have given everything else, I undoubtedly believe that the most notable, commendable, and best part of Portal is its personality. The main antagonist of Portal, whose name isn’t even directly mentioned in the game, is a rogue robot called GLaDOS whose plan is to ensure that she kills humans after assisting her with testing and stays in charge of the Aperture Science facility. What sets Portal apart from anything with a similar premise though is the vast amount of wit and humor throughout. GLaDOS is mostly monotone, constantly wisecracking, and always insulting the unnamed protagonist with a sense of dry humor that never gets old. And it’s not just GLaDOS, because there are a whole lot of smaller gags, which include announced responses to toilet flushing and trapping yourself, and even a whole lot of witty remarks by a bunch of smaller robots. But that doesn't mean that Portal isn’t serious, because it is when it wants to be. The game hints at the insidious true nature of Aperture multiple times before the big reveal often forcing you to see how fishy the entire place is. And the minor nudges and big reveals are off-putting: there are incoherent scribbles on the walls reflective of unhinged insanity and derailed derangement, the rooms are baked in hues of red and black and are much more unpolished and unfinished than the white, inviting, sort of deceptively comforting test chambers with their clean walls and clean shapes and welcoming emptiness. And despite how disparate these tones are, they oddly do not clash but rather merge, not just smoothly transitioning but almost as if blending the two into a single bipolar but cohesive product.
And there’s still so much more to cover and say about Portal, but anything past this point would be an overlong ramble of weak elaborations and explanations alongside a continually decreasing level of quality. There’s not much I can say to do justice to Portal and its legacy of inspiration, where its influences on the more recent puzzle games of indie games and the game industry overall are as prominent and abundant as they are clear, strong, and rich. Even if the puzzles do grow slightly tacking and confusing at times, there are infinitely many satisfying moments and mechanics that render most criticisms and issues negligent. Every success is accompanied with a powerful rush of dopamine, pushing you forward with an immense and intense motivation towards another inevitable and imminent accomplishment. There is real emotion in Portal, and as the credits rolled and the ending song played I was as satisfied from finishing as I was sorrow and regretful to leave it all behind. Since I can’t add anything new or any new praise to the conversation, I’m just going to leave it on this optimistic note: Portal is a masterpiece of gaming and a work of art.
I feel that one of the first lines in the end credits song of Portal sums it up the best: (in a robot voice) “this was a triumph.” And it is absolutely true; Portal is an unabashed triumph of puzzle games. What Portal does is blend a mind-bending, space-warping, teleportation-related concept with a whole lot of heart and humor creating a mix that is equal parts fun, whimsical, and light-hearted as it is brimming with intellect and thoughtfulness. There is so much to unpack in Portal, and surprisingly there is so much of it that is good and some of it that is even amazing. Since there is so much, I’ll only cover the more major, upfront and center components of Portal and elaborate my thoughts on said topics.
Portal thrives on simplicity. This is a statement that applies to Portal in every conceivable way, from the puzzle design to the art style to the graphics to the world itself. And it is for this reason that Portal fares so well against the rest of the genre; Portal strips the concept of puzzle game down to its bare minimum and rebuilds it from the ground up with a new layer of simplicity, with a simple story and a simple concept and a simple visual style, infused with a simple personality which combines with all the aforementioned simplicities to form a simple but memorable gaming experience.
The most apparent influence of the bareness of the game is present in the puzzles, where the stages are small, contained, direct, and easy to read. In fact, each puzzle is contained in a single room, many of which are referred to as test chambers. There is typically minimal space or details to get in the way of the problem-solving and overwhelm or obstruct the analytical vision of the player. The puzzles are often straight-forward, easy to navigate, and utilize the skills that you have previously learned with a little bit of outside-the-box thinking. The game is also astoundingly good at teaching these mechanics, as it alludes to features in ways such as a verbal instruction, on-screen prompt, or structural hint. There are no unreasonably hard stages or unexplained and unintuitive mechanics, because everything is designed in such a way that there are no questions asked and just questions solved. Each problem is palpable, pristine, poised, paved, and posed to perfection.
For a game so old and experimental, Portal looks so shockingly good that it almost feels like a crime. The world of Portal is an industrial one; rooms are plastered with white walls and filled with mechanical platforms and all sorts of machines and substances and objects. The world is dominated by technology and the individuals of the world feel an obligation to this technology, to science, and to progress it further. Of course, this ties into the story, where this strange dedication to technological advancement leads to the downfall of humanity, where the humanity that once controlled and had a grip on their devices has faded away under the grasp of technology, a complete 180 in the food chain of control and superiority. Ultimately, Portal is about a warning on the dangers of a technology advanced far past our own knowledge and intellect, but it also sort of embraces the will and dedication of humanity as a species, willing to fight for what we stubbornly believe is right and morally correct. It is a bizarrely heartwarming tale set in a city of stone, extracting optimism from the most pessimistic and careless.
But, despite all the praise that I have given everything else, I undoubtedly believe that the most notable, commendable, and best part of Portal is its personality. The main antagonist of Portal, whose name isn’t even directly mentioned in the game, is a rogue robot called GLaDOS whose plan is to ensure that she kills humans after assisting her with testing and stays in charge of the Aperture Science facility. What sets Portal apart from anything with a similar premise though is the vast amount of wit and humor throughout. GLaDOS is mostly monotone, constantly wisecracking, and always insulting the unnamed protagonist with a sense of dry humor that never gets old. And it’s not just GLaDOS, because there are a whole lot of smaller gags, which include announced responses to toilet flushing and trapping yourself, and even a whole lot of witty remarks by a bunch of smaller robots. But that doesn't mean that Portal isn’t serious, because it is when it wants to be. The game hints at the insidious true nature of Aperture multiple times before the big reveal often forcing you to see how fishy the entire place is. And the minor nudges and big reveals are off-putting: there are incoherent scribbles on the walls reflective of unhinged insanity and derailed derangement, the rooms are baked in hues of red and black and are much more unpolished and unfinished than the white, inviting, sort of deceptively comforting test chambers with their clean walls and clean shapes and welcoming emptiness. And despite how disparate these tones are, they oddly do not clash but rather merge, not just smoothly transitioning but almost as if blending the two into a single bipolar but cohesive product.
And there’s still so much more to cover and say about Portal, but anything past this point would be an overlong ramble of weak elaborations and explanations alongside a continually decreasing level of quality. There’s not much I can say to do justice to Portal and its legacy of inspiration, where its influences on the more recent puzzle games of indie games and the game industry overall are as prominent and abundant as they are clear, strong, and rich. Even if the puzzles do grow slightly tacking and confusing at times, there are infinitely many satisfying moments and mechanics that render most criticisms and issues negligent. Every success is accompanied with a powerful rush of dopamine, pushing you forward with an immense and intense motivation towards another inevitable and imminent accomplishment. There is real emotion in Portal, and as the credits rolled and the ending song played I was as satisfied from finishing as I was sorrow and regretful to leave it all behind. Since I can’t add anything new or any new praise to the conversation, I’m just going to leave it on this optimistic note: Portal is a masterpiece of gaming and a work of art.