Long before I decided to become a game reviewer, I used to jot down brief thoughts on the games I was completing in order to capture my feelings for personal archival purposes. Since then, I’ve of course evolved my craft into full-fledged write-ups, but I do think there is enough merit to some of these earlier critiques to warrant their publication, especially for titles I do not intend on replaying (in the near future at least). While I’ve thrown in some minor revisions, this is one of them.
GRAPHICS
-Graphics are simple, but everything is well-textured. Levels are made to look like an amalgamation between one of those padded rooms in an insane asylum and a cubicle. Tiles have a dirty marble shine to them.
-Color grading reminds me a lot of that scene in The Incredibles where Bob is talking to his boss: greyscaled and depressing.
-Terrible screen tear when turning camera, especially while in the elevator and immediate exit room.
-Love the sparks that fly when you fire the portal ray on non-portalizing material.
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GAMEPLAY
-The learning design is very good- this is what The Witness should have employed rather than a pointless open world. Each level doesn't feel hard because it employs mechanics from the prior ones.
-There is no run feature, meaning you have to do stupid constant jumping to move faster (think the stupid rolling from Ocarina of Time, only worse). Platforms also move slow, meaning you have to wait longer than you might have wanted to time jumps and stuff.
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STORY
-The writing is genius. It's a satirical jab at the corporate atmosphere, similar to Office Space, but even if you've worked a terrible non-corporate job you will be able to relate to the various jabs: employee safety, employee record/grade, employee manuals/guides, etc...
-No backstory at all on the protagonist Chell. Game does offer some backstory on the facility. I guess it doesn't matter in the end since Portal is about gameplay over story, but I would have liked something at least.
-A lot of complaints about the runtime. The main story took me about 3 hours to beat, and the 8 "advanced" missions took me an extra 1.5-2 hours, meaning I invested about 5 hours into the game. To be honest, I actually feel the short length worked as the game starts to drag, especially in the third act where you're moving through the maintenance area.
There is technically more content in the form of challenges (least portals, least time, least jumping) for 8 levels, but I didn't really bother with them since they were a chore in the same vein as the time trials from Donkey Kong Country Returns.
GRAPHICS
-Graphics are simple, but everything is well-textured. Levels are made to look like an amalgamation between one of those padded rooms in an insane asylum and a cubicle. Tiles have a dirty marble shine to them.
-Color grading reminds me a lot of that scene in The Incredibles where Bob is talking to his boss: greyscaled and depressing.
-Terrible screen tear when turning camera, especially while in the elevator and immediate exit room.
-Love the sparks that fly when you fire the portal ray on non-portalizing material.
-
GAMEPLAY
-The learning design is very good- this is what The Witness should have employed rather than a pointless open world. Each level doesn't feel hard because it employs mechanics from the prior ones.
-There is no run feature, meaning you have to do stupid constant jumping to move faster (think the stupid rolling from Ocarina of Time, only worse). Platforms also move slow, meaning you have to wait longer than you might have wanted to time jumps and stuff.
-
STORY
-The writing is genius. It's a satirical jab at the corporate atmosphere, similar to Office Space, but even if you've worked a terrible non-corporate job you will be able to relate to the various jabs: employee safety, employee record/grade, employee manuals/guides, etc...
-No backstory at all on the protagonist Chell. Game does offer some backstory on the facility. I guess it doesn't matter in the end since Portal is about gameplay over story, but I would have liked something at least.
-A lot of complaints about the runtime. The main story took me about 3 hours to beat, and the 8 "advanced" missions took me an extra 1.5-2 hours, meaning I invested about 5 hours into the game. To be honest, I actually feel the short length worked as the game starts to drag, especially in the third act where you're moving through the maintenance area.
There is technically more content in the form of challenges (least portals, least time, least jumping) for 8 levels, but I didn't really bother with them since they were a chore in the same vein as the time trials from Donkey Kong Country Returns.