[I'M MAKING A NOTE HERE: HUGE SUCCESS]

[chronovore]

I finished Portal last night. It is as exceptional as everyone else is saying that it is. What have we learned from this? That if you give the resources of Valve for two years to a talented group of game modifiers who already have a good idea, they can make a great game that can be played through in about three hours.

Yes, it's that short.

However you can go back and play through it a few more times; listen to the Developer Commentary track and hear just how much work went into making it as polished as it is [AND IT IS AS SHINY AS A NINJA'S HEART], as well as tuck through some particularly difficult levels which have been further optimized to be Even More Cunningly Difficult. I suspect that if you go for Gold Award times on all the corresponding missions, you could end up playing for 100 hours.

Or going completely batshit insane.

I think I would have happily paid US$40 for the game alone and not felt ripped off. I would have paid US$20 and felt like it was the game of the year. As it is I'm stunned that for the first time in years I was able to finish a game without once consulting
GameFAQs.com and still felt very, very challenged during the entire experience.

Of note: There is a song at the end; it is wonderful. It was penned by Jonathan Coulton, and it makes for my favorite end-of-game sequence evar. I'm not linking to it because it has spoilers about the ending. As for the game writing itself, I hear ex-OldManMurray.com authors wrote the script. It shows; there isn't a huge amount of story, but it's very engaging and helps place you in the role of the [TEST SUBJECT].

Just don't turn off "Portal Funnel" in the Options. That's bad news for Test Chamber 18.

Comments

[quartzrelic.livejournal.com]

DITTO. Finished it this past weekend and joined the ranks of Portal lovers.

I was incredibly amused and even slightly moved by the ending!

[johntv.livejournal.com]

What is Portal Funnel? I'm saved at TC 17 now, I think. Only playing it on weekends with a friend, so can't get back to it until tomorrow night. AFAIK, I never touched any of the stuff in the Options screen, though.

[dragonmaster323.livejournal.com]

That game is [CRACK]. Honestly. The only thing more addictive than the game itself is that damn song. I downloaded it and have listened to it at least 2 times a day.

Blasted Coulton...
mmm... Delicious and moist cake...

[starchy.livejournal.com]

Have you SEEN the advanced version of TC18? Keericed! I can't even get to the hard part!

[stucco33.livejournal.com]

Dylan is playing it quite a lot and loves it. He was eagerly anticipating it for months.

Those same guys did an early version which seems to be good as well. What I find most amusing about the old version is that your character cannot jump (which makes level design more straightforward I guess) and therefore they decided you, as the main character, are Princess No-Knees.