I'm glad I went into Portal knowing next to nothing about it, because it ended up being so much more than I was expecting.
What I did expect was a fantastic puzzle game: I love how every puzzle felt challenging or at the very least interesting while encountering it for the first time, all the while effortlessly teaching you more about the mechanics without explicitly telling you what to do.
The first 19 rooms almost feel like a tutorial in hindsight, since the latter half of the game has you on your own even more and is even less hands on in guiding you.
This brings me to what I didn't expect: Breaking out of the test chambers.
The gradual mood shift Portal managed to put me through was really cool to experience.
It went from being sterile and a bit goofy to dropping less and less subtle hints about something being wrong and eventually became pretty creepy once outside of the chambers.
The tense atmosphere combined with the well written dialogue from GLaDOS held my attention all the way to the end, so much so that I completed the game in one sitting.
To be fair, that's not exactly hard as Portal is a relatively short game.
I'm honestly not sure how to feel about its length, because on one hand the gameplay is just so engaging and polished that I wish it would go on forever, but on the other hand it makes for an incredible short story and ends on a high note before it has the chance to become stale.
Lastly, I wish the loading "screens" were less obvious.
I admit this is a very minor nitpick, but having a message pop up that grinds everything to a halt for a couple of seconds so many times just ruined the immersion a little bit.
I think a more subtle approach could have been beneficial, but I'm not sure how realistic that would have been to implement of course.
All of that is to say, I definitely understand the status Portal has and I'm looking forward to playing the sequel!
What I did expect was a fantastic puzzle game: I love how every puzzle felt challenging or at the very least interesting while encountering it for the first time, all the while effortlessly teaching you more about the mechanics without explicitly telling you what to do.
The first 19 rooms almost feel like a tutorial in hindsight, since the latter half of the game has you on your own even more and is even less hands on in guiding you.
This brings me to what I didn't expect: Breaking out of the test chambers.
The gradual mood shift Portal managed to put me through was really cool to experience.
It went from being sterile and a bit goofy to dropping less and less subtle hints about something being wrong and eventually became pretty creepy once outside of the chambers.
The tense atmosphere combined with the well written dialogue from GLaDOS held my attention all the way to the end, so much so that I completed the game in one sitting.
To be fair, that's not exactly hard as Portal is a relatively short game.
I'm honestly not sure how to feel about its length, because on one hand the gameplay is just so engaging and polished that I wish it would go on forever, but on the other hand it makes for an incredible short story and ends on a high note before it has the chance to become stale.
Lastly, I wish the loading "screens" were less obvious.
I admit this is a very minor nitpick, but having a message pop up that grinds everything to a halt for a couple of seconds so many times just ruined the immersion a little bit.
I think a more subtle approach could have been beneficial, but I'm not sure how realistic that would have been to implement of course.
All of that is to say, I definitely understand the status Portal has and I'm looking forward to playing the sequel!