Rounding out our third event will be one of the greatest games ever created. There really isn’t any legroom to deny this fact, and trust me, it is a fact. The game in question, of course, is Valve’s 2007 super-duper amazing game Portal.
The above video is simply a trailer for the game in its unfinished form, but you can already see that your socks will be blown off. Like, right off. Those socks will hit the wall with a SLAP and then fall to the ground in a steaming pile.
In my gamer brain, I have a hard time understanding that you, the reader, have not heard about this game. If, however, you have come to this page bereft of the knowledge of this masterpiece, well buckle up and I will tell you a story.
Portal takes place in an Aperture Science test facility quaintly described as the “Enrichment Center.” The game starts with the main – non-speaking – character, Chell, waking up in what appears to be her “room” at the center. As a test subject, she is in line to try out Aperture Science’s newest, most-awesomest invention: the portal gun, a device that creates instant “doorways” between two different areas. Chell leaves her room and makes her way into the first testing area by instruction of GLaDOS, a seemingly omnipresent overseer of the complex. GLaDOS, or Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, happens to be a slightly cynical and deranged AI that guides Chell through the Enrichment Center. Chell finds the portal gun, starts her way through various test chambers, and soon discovers that being a guinea pig for Aperture Science may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Like Mirror’s Edge, Portal is a first person game that isn’t about shooting dudes all day. At its core, Portal is an exemplary puzzle game. It’s pretty much the best puzzler ever. I suppose Tetris has some merit, but it’s no Portal. If you watched the video, you can see that the game revolves around creating and managing the portals made by Chell. You can make two portals at a time, and once they are created, they are linked until another is shot out. That’s really about it, but the incredible variation of scenarios Valve uses for puzzles with these two portals is fantastic.
Portal is scheduled to be the last game that we play, with hopes that will be about six or seven pm on Saturday. GET EXCITED FOR THIS GAME.
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