Volume 9: Short, and very sweet
I think I surprised even myself when I realised I hadn’t played Portal. At this point, it’s impossible to not know about; Portal’s managed to graduate from being influential to borderline synonymous with how the industry is viewed by people from every angle. While I was at Gamescom, I saw a sign for a restaurant joking about how “the cake is a lie” outside the venue. This was, without a doubt, the biggest gap in my experience based purely on cultural impact, and I’m pleased to say I loved it. No controversy from me this time around.
The real trial of writing about Portal is working out exactly what new I can bring to the table, but that speaks to the universal appeal of what Valve threw out there. And it does feel like Valve threw it out; I was struck by how bizarrely clunky the UI is outside of the game itself. It feels like less of a game, more like a test program I accidentally installed. The lack of flair in presentation puts the focus squarely on the game part.
Just as well then Portal is literally about testing. Aperture Science is a genius backdrop, allowing the titular portals to be explored in a bespoke environment that suits them, rather than a narrative lens. You wake up, portals. With how each room of the game exists to show you a different aspect of the portals, I managed to beat the whole game in one long sitting, and by the time I finished, I just wanted more.
Portal’s difficulty curve might be one of the smoothest I’ve ever experienced, and it comes down to restraint. Every room in Portal has a very clear objective, and from knowing the objective, it becomes possible to intuit the solution without any prodding at all. There’s a giant gap in the floor which you can’t cross, shoot a portal on the wall above you, and one down into the hole in front of you. You’ve now discovered momentum. That’s a tool you can save for later, and completely turns your perspective on its head. By the time you finish the game, you feel like a genius.
Everything in Portal is an opportunity. While most puzzles might have a dedicated solution, it never feels like “point Portal Gun here”. Portal understands the fundamental design of video games, and the exact way to make play as satisfying as possible, especially when it comes to breaking out of bounds. The entire second act begins with you shooting a portal at a wayward bit of scenery to avoid certain death, before descending into the mechanical horrors that tie all of the test chambers together. While Portal initially sticks to clean and clear visual communication, there is a brilliantly stark contrast that scratches the opposite itch of exploring somewhere you shouldn’t be. Breaking out of bounds is one of the sacred joys of video games, and Portal aces that.
Of course, we are meant to explore it, it’s part of the story, but it nails the feeling of being trapped somewhere you shouldn’t be. Where each test chamber felt finely tuned to be a solvable puzzle, every room in the back of Aperture feels the opposite. While there are places to shoot portals, I find Portal started feeling a lot scrappier with solutions. With the same reactive physics that got you through walled off test chambers, you start breaking glass pipes through increasingly hostile architecture, dealing with genuine threats rather than controlled environments.
Those “controlled environments” aren’t safe, but you at least know where you can stand without getting shot at or crushed. Much safer than exposed pistons, either way.
The bridge between these two sides is obviously the Portal Gun, but I’d be remiss not to mention GladOS as well. She’s a delightfully evil character who exists just to harass, and she adds the little bit of friction I felt was needed. Portal’s flavour is pointed, and any additions to the gameplay are particular. There are mild suggestions of something more going on, but it’s completely left to the imagination. I don’t care, I’m shooting portals.
GladOS harasses me for not solving a puzzle fast enough, I don’t care where she came from or who built her. I also don’t care about the origins of Aperture Science or why I’m the one going through this, I have a cool gun to make portals. This is why Portal stuck out to me so much on a first playthrough. I’m not opposed to having explanations, but there is no part of Portal that asks me to care about it. Within 5 minutes, I’ve got every tool I need to beat the game. Why would I want to slow down and have someone exposit about the tragic backstory of the scientists who made it? They’re dead.
I initially had planned to incorporate both Portal and Portal 2 into this piece, but I can’t find myself really caring about the second one anywhere near as much. Where Portal lets me sit and stew in my imagination, Portal 2 feeds me a bit too much and gets in the way of its own mechanics. You have frankly one of the coolest game mechanics of all time, why would I want to walk down a hall listening to Stephen Merchant prattle on about how to get out of here for minutes at a time? All I need is GladOS giving me the occasional bit of snark, nothing else.
Portal’s appeal to me is that it doesn’t follow the convention of needing plot to justify itself. The second game goes all in on having a developed narrative for Aperture Science and protagonist Chell, but it all feels superfluous to what I want to do. Apparently Portal and Half-Life exist in the same connected universe, cool. Let me make portals now, please.
As far as the consensus on both games goes, I’m pretty sure both are pretty well liked, but I do certainly fall more on the side of the original. The second game is still good purely on the basis that the first one does the heavy lifting.
Portal is a rare instance of an idea being completely and totally explored to its logical conclusion. Many games are guilty of introducing an incredibly cool idea to only use it for a level or two, where Portal introduces the one idea and shows you everything you can do with it. Outside of unintended exploits, Portal almost feels like a dare from Valve to get people to create their own puzzle games from their one idea. Portal essentially hands the community a blank canvas for them to play with, and the game exists as a playable demo of “something cool we made earlier”.
And it’s funny, I suppose. I could take or leave the narrative, but I know I want to dip into that co-op campaign of Portal 2. Just give me more! If playing the original has taught me anything, it’s seriously never too late to play.
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