Remember Portal, eh? What a brilliant game that was. Do you remember when you first played it?
Expecting little more than a glorified display of a funky new physics engine toy, we were given the perfect video game: a brilliant fuse of logic, story, mechanics and quirky end-game music. Ah, yes. What a game.
Or, maybe you’ve never heard of Portal. You wouldn’t be the first to scratch their head at this, especially as the long-awaited sequel, Portal 2, is released this week on a wave of publicity.
Portal was no ordinary video game. No, sir. Created by Valve, the makers of Left 4 Dead and the ground breaking Half Life series, Portal started its public life as a short video demonstration. In other words, footage of a game no one can play showing off a nifty new trick. In this case the trick was portals; placing them around the room and passing through them like a doorway, avoiding huge obstacles in the process.
Needless to say the internet got pretty excited. Valve has a reputation for brilliant games, for true innovation, and being tied to the genre-busting Half Life 2, this Portal preview whetted a lot of appetites.
Months turned into a year or so and eventually, in late 2007, Valve released The Orange Box: a collection of five games; Half Life 2 and its two additional episodes, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. A bargain, even at £40.
Despite the console debut of the award winning PC masterpiece, Half Life 2, Portal quickly became the stand-out hit of The Orange Box. And it was justified. Many expected nothing more than a slice of Half Life 2 with a new gun to try out but what we got was a stand-alone, involved, beautifully written, puzzle masterpiece.
A first-person perspective logic puzzler, Portal has you making your way through a series of scientific tests, slowly gaining a better understanding of your only tool – the portal gun.
Each sterile, robotic test chamber gives way to another, more devilish puzzle room. All the while you’re encouraged, or not, by a soulless, synthesized voice; seemingly automated, but ultimately a vindictive, patronising bitch. She keeps promising you cake as you risk your life, messing with momentum, but there is no cake. The cake is a lie. Anyway, take a look at this neat introduction to the game.
The learning curve is perfectly crafted; at no point does a puzzle seem too far-fetched. Yet, by the last chamber, you’re flinging yourself through portals dozens of feet in the air and toying with gravity like it was your play-thing.
And the end! Oh, that ending! There will be no spoilers here but, sufficed to say, you’re asked to use your initiative, when you do it feels great. Brilliantly, the whole game is over in four or five hours; it’s beautifully compact. To top it all off, at the very end you’re rewarded with a fantastic, cheerful guitar ditty with words to sing along to about the whole experience.
This song, Still Alive, is huge in Geekdom. It’s been covered and performed countless times and it’s even on Rock Band.
Portal took the gaming world by storm. A small, sexy, peaceful storm that nobody really expected. It’s taken numerous awards; including dozens of ‘games of the year’, and best everything from writing to soundtrack. It also comes highly recommended as THE game to show to your girlfriend to get her into gaming, provided she can work first-person controls. Portal is deservedly well loved and respected.
So what does all of this mean? Well, it means, put simply, that Portal 2 has a lot to live up to. It has to be good on every level; game design, character, pace, learning curve, physics engine, scale, music, visuals, everything! Anything less would be a heavy tarnish on gaming’s golden child. It’s a huge ask for a video game.
This sequel is also a full-sized video game. It’s not a small addition to a multipack anymore, it has to stand entirely on its own two feet. Plus it has to expand the magic into a compelling multiplayer mode. Part of Portal’s beauty was its compact size, that it didn’t bore or overwhelm you.
Plus, it’s not as if sequels have a good reputation; Star Wars Episodes 1, 2 and 3, The Matrix monstrosities, Indiana Jones and some stupid alien plotline. Point made.
Electronic Arts is pushing Portal 2 quite heavily with the protagonists, two quirky robots (pictured above), being used as the faces of the campaign. The TV spots are comical but, then, Valve always excels with humour.
Bus ads, billboards, websites blasted with Portal 2 artwork. It seems a lot for a sequel to a game not many people who read bus ads will have heard of.
Yeah, OK, Portal isn’t as famous as your Just Cause titles, Lara Croft, Call Of Duty, Mario or Halo games. That doesn’t matter. It’s a far better game; it’s not another mindless shooting game, it’s so unashamedly Valve with its independent attitude to game making, it’s a gamer’s game that happens to be wholly accessible.
Portal was a triumph. Make a note here; huge success. It’s hard to overstate its satisfaction. Now, in a legitimate attempt to further this magic, Portal 2 needs to be better. If that’s even possible.
