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Portal
 
List Price: $19.99  Product Description: Your name is Chell and GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is a computer AI that monitors, directs and misleads you in a kind of twisted experiment. You must rely on information from GLaDOS to survive as you navigate through a series of mostly doorless rooms using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device ("portal gun"). The portal gun creates two portal ends, both of which are simultaneously a potential entrance and exit. Objects, alive or otherwise, that travel through one end will exit the other at the same speed. Also, portals create a visual and physical connection between two different locations in 3D space. Their ends are restricted to planar surfaces, but if the portal ends are on nonparallel planes, bizarre twists in geometry and gravity can occur as you are immediately reoriented to be upright with respect to gravity after leaving a portal. You can pass through open portals at will, but barriers, known as "Material Emancipation Grids" or 'fizzlers' prevent you from carrying objects beyond them. Luckily certain objects, known as 'companion cubes' can be tossed through. Passage through these fields also closes any open portals, so it's important to look before you leap. It's your challenge to survive the hazards of the portals, including booby traps, hidden gun turrets and the treachery of GLaDOS in the search for eventual freedom. Amazon.com: Portal is an action/puzzle video game from Valve, creators of Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike. The winner of over 40 awards, including 15 Game of the Year honors, it is one of the most original games on any platform in years and offers gamers hours of unique gameplay. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal is designed to change the way players approach, manipulate and surmise the possibilities in a given environment; similar to how Half-Life 2’s Gravity Gun innovated new ways to leverage an object in any given situation. Players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuver objects, and themselves, through space.
Portal contains only two characters, the player-controlled Chell and GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), a computer AI that monitors, directs and misleads Chell in a kind of twisted experiment. It's not exactly a match made in heavenRegardless, Chell must rely on information provided by GLaDOS to survive as she navigates through a series of mostly doorless rooms using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device ("portal gun"). The portal gun creates two portal ends, one orange and the other blue. Both are simultaneously a potential entrance and exit and objects, alive or otherwise, that travel through one end will exit the other at the same speed. In addition, portals create a visual and physical connection between two different locations in 3D space. Their ends are restricted to planar surfaces, but if the portal ends are on nonparallel planes, bizarre twists in geometry and gravity can occur as the player character is immediately reoriented to be upright with respect to gravity after leaving a portal. Chell can pass through open portals at will, but barriers, known as "Material Emancipation Grids" or 'fizzlers' prevent players from carrying objects beyond them. Luckily certain objects, known as 'companion cubes' can be tossed through. Once through these can then be used as the player wishes. Passage through these fields also closes any open portals, so it's important to look before you leap. It's Chell's challenge and yours to survive the hazards of the portals, including bobby traps, hidden gun turrets and the treachery of GLaDOS in the search for eventual freedom. Features
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Customer Reviews:
Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-06
Good game, horrendous package.
I like the portal game. It is a good puzzle game. I like the concept of the wormhole. It is fun.
I hate Steam. Before installing portal, you have to install steam, and then download Portal and then install it, and then activate. It took me close to two hours to get it running. I am going to avoid valve games. I like the game, hate the way it gets installed.
Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-10
Portal
Awesome puzzle game using the H-L2 engine. It involves creating an "open" portal with one button, and an "exit" portal with another - use it to figure out you way around obstacles and enemies.
Sounds very simple; in reality, it's an intricately desiged, incredibly-challenging game that fails only because it's too short. There is a very loose story and a boss battle of sorts at the end that really pushes this game from four stars to five. Awesome ending credits, with brilliant music throughout. Definately not one to miss.
Rating:
Date: 2008-06-10
Surprisingly Fun
By the time you read this review, you will have already learned that Portal is a very short game. However, I can tell you that you should invest the modest price for the game and play it. It's a very fun and fresh concept. The game is entertaining; both in terms of actual gameplay and the undercurrent of humor. I haven't had this much fun with the non-play portion of the game since the No One Lives Forever franchise.
As for the shortness of the game. I actually found this to be fine. Had I paid $50 for Portal, I would have been disappointed... but of course, I did not. Had the game been priced higher with 3x the amount of game play, it would have become tiresome, but as it was, I was left wanting more at the end. In comparison, another game I liked a lot was the massive Oblivion (a game which also featured portals, but of a different variety). However, that game was so big, that I actually was getting tired of the game before I completed it. It has had no replay value and I've avoided the add-on/expansion packs. Portal, by comparison, never grew old at all, was fun and challenging throughout and had a fun and tidy conclusion. In many ways, this game left me wanting more games that are equally short and cheap.
Now, about the gameplay. This game is a FPPS (First Person Puzzle Solver). I must admit that that concept wouldn't be my type of thing normally. For me, when I'm engaged in a fun FPS game and then come to an obviously contrived puzzle that I must solve, I find it a frustrating and annoying divergence from the purpose of the game. However, in Portal, I never had that feeling. I embraced it whole-heartedly and enjoyed the experience. Although I'm not a great puzzle solver, I found nothing here to be so hard as to force me to look to external resources for solutions. I feel smarter having played the game, yet never felt like I was solving arbitrary meaningless puzzles. In other words, Portal is a game of puzzles, but it doesn't play or feel that way. For me, this is the great strength of the effort.
The bottom line for me is that I found Portal to be a very pleasant surprise and would recommend it to FPS players looking for a fun diversion.
Rating: 
Date: 2008-05-25
Mountain out of a Molehill
First, let me say that I don't appreciate not being informed by the product that it was an online game. I do not buy online-only games. And though this game can be played off-line, the player is forced to go to an online site to obtain the full program.
Then there is that online site's program that is now resident on my computer, taking up memory and really serving no function except to act as an intermediate between me and the product which I payed good money for. Found out about this condition when trying to initially install the program and was informed that I had a 'steam.dll error'. It took a little web surfing to discover that I needed to be online while installing.
Next is the size of the program. From the look and mechanics within the game, there is no apparent reason for the program to be in the multi-Gigabytes! And that wait while the online site downloads their program is no picnic either.
Then there is the play itself. After having the program crash several times around the 10th level, I finally was able to fix it by running the game in a window instead of fullscreen. Obviously there is some form of rendering problem, which is not the fault of the computer but the program.
So when I took a break from chasing this problem which there was apparently no advise available anywhere, and came back to play. The program informed me that I need to once again go to the on-line site. I could not figure why this was necessary. Thought it might have been because I did not fill out their survey, so I did that. And once again, tried to play the game.
Okay, I'm done. The game was rather short. And I know that there are additional levels which can be downloaded from the online site. But that means just more inconvenience. So I removed it and the online site's program from my 'puter. And will probably never load them up again.
Let me add, the game is rather beautiful and the potential play could be great. But not near what most of the rave reviews have given it. Could this all be just product hype by the industry to get us to accept this form of gaming? Not actually owning a game, but renting it piecemeal (remember that it costs most people to have an ISP).
Finally, I am not angry with the developers of this game, just disappointed. They have a great idea, it seems that they let someone talk them into this convoluted method of distribution. Probably driven by the fear of software piracy.
If this ever becomes a stand-alone game, I will probably revisited it. Until then, I have no further interest.
Rating:
Date: 2008-05-24
Awesome!!!
This game is so creative and fun! The gameplay is fresh and will get you thinking but not looking at gamefaqs. It is just a trainride of fun from start to finish. The dark humor is hilarious and the game is very memorable. downloadable levels extend the life. Even though it is not too long it just helps to get you to the awesome ending. Then see if you can beat the extras!
