Portal

[bylam]

So, it's a puzzle game in FPS viewpoint.
You use portals to solve problems, often using the Half Life 2 Physics engine to your advantage as well.
The game feels innovative to me, a breath of fresh air in a genre that needs it badly. No enemies, just you against the environment.
Bundled with the rest of the games in the Orange Box...it's worth the investment if you like FPS.
Has anyone else tried it? Agree/disagree?

 

[JrK]

No because we europeans have to wait EIGHT days to get it.

And goshdarned creditcards required otherwise, even for steam's paypal option.

 

[bylam]

Ah, I live in Norway and I have no trouble getting it of Steam. But I pre-ordered the orange box because my workplace has a massive TF2 fragfest every friday on our internal server.

 

[JrK]

How did you pay?

 

[bylam]

Visa Card.

 

[Texas Red]

No because we europeans have to wait EIGHT days to get it.

And goshdarned creditcards required otherwise, even for steam's paypal option.

Whenever they set up a European release date, I automatically add a few weeks to it for my country. When Bloodlines was out and I was eagerly waiting for it, the game didnt arrive for several MONTHS. Fallout: Tactics, for which I was also hyped, didnt even come to the shops.

 

[Vidken]

On the actual topic, I played through it and loved it... it just felt a bit short. I'd like to see the Portal content officially brought over to Garrysmod, since the current hack GM portal guns suck ass.

 

[HanoverF]

Very short (2-3 hours?), but stayed entertaining throughout, nice song at the end. Probably not worth the $20 steam thinks it's worth solo.

 

[whitemithrandir]

The ending song is awesome

 

[DarkUnderlord]

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/404612

 

[protobob]

I loved it. LOVE.

I've played it like 4 times now, beat all the advanced maps and I'm working on the challenge maps. 21 hours or so for me so far. Crazy.

LOVE IT.

It's wonderful.

Those turrets.
Her.
+
Gameplay.
=
YUM.

 

[Zomg]

Even the flash version feels like a standardized test I haven't studied for. Definitely gotta get the version with a whole other dimension added. It must be a really electric feeling when you internalize the logic of the portals - does the game ever open up into freeform maps or is it always one puzzle room after another?

 

[Claw]

All I can say to that is that Valve is quickly losing my goodwill. I'm waiting for a deal I deem acceptable.

 

[Zinc]

All I can say to that is that Valve is quickly losing my goodwill. I'm waiting for a deal I deem acceptable.

You, me, and millions of others.

 

[Hory]

Great concept, but it's too easy, too slow, and too short. The trailer seemed to have a lot more complex and fast puzzles. Hopefully the community will produce better levels.

 

[bossjimbob]

Bought the Orange Box for 360. Messed around with Portal for an hour. Really enjoyed it for all the reasons the OP mentioned. I heard it's really short, but worth playing through a few times because it throws timed challenges at you or something to that effect. With any luck, either the mod community or Valve will issue new puzzle packs. Definitely a breath of fresh air.

 

[Cycloptis]

The concept is great, and the game's difficulty ramps up towards the end, though not enough. Thankfully this game is a prime target for the community.

 

[Human Shield]

The advanced levels put the portal to better use.

 

[aweigh]

All I can say to that is that Valve is quickly losing my goodwill. I'm waiting for a deal I deem acceptable.

what do you mean?

 

[Greatatlantic]

Portal is short (3-4 hours main story arch, but also lets you redo some puzzles under more challenging cricumstances), but quite clever. The portal mechanic works flawlessly, and the art direction is very clever as well. I don't want to say to much about it, just suffice to say this is actually a "puzzle" game with spoilers, so watch out before reading any threads about it.

I'm not going to say its fantastic, it really is to short and doesn't have the sort of replayability one might expect. Still, its worth playing if you can get your hands on it for cheap enough.

 

[Zinc]

All I can say to that is that Valve is quickly losing my goodwill. I'm waiting for a deal I deem acceptable.

what do you mean?

Probably got something to do with the fact that they bundle a bunch of other crap which most people already have/don't want into this shitty "Orange Box" thing, rather than just letting people buy the games they want separately.

 

[Claw]

what do you mean?

I mean I already bought HL2 and Episode One, and Valve axed the "Black Box" which would've allowed me to buy Ep2, Portal and TF2 in a bundle without re-buying games I already have. It was a very deliberate decision to screw over their old customers, so fuck Valve.
Of course it's entirely possible to buy the games individually, but buying just Ep2 and FT2 would cost more than the whole bundle. UT3 is about to be released. I can wait.

PS: I also already played the precursor to Portal, so don't feel like I'm missing out on that.

PPS: Thanks for that link, DU. I first assumed it'd just be the one I already played.

 

[DemonKing]

It's pretty good - but don't expect a FPS - it really is a puzzle game, and not a particulaly hard one at that.

It's too short but it does have a rather wicked sense of humour to make up for it. :twisted:

 

[Zetor]

It's a good game. The puzzles in the "main game" are a bit on the easy side, but the challenges are very, very hard.

The story is surprisingly decent for a "puzzle game" (even though it poses a lot more questions than it answers), and it's consistently fun throughout. Not to mention Portal has one of the best credits sequences ever.

For me, Portal and TF2 together were worth the orange box cost. HL2/Ep1/Ep2 are meh, but I never actually played them before, so it's an okay experience (I don't know about anyone else, but I always found the HL series to be formulaic FPS fare, with a needlessly convoluted story).


-- Z.

 

[Hazelnut]

what do you mean?

I mean I already bought HL2 and Episode One, and Valve axed the "Black Box" which would've allowed me to buy Ep2, Portal and TF2 in a bundle without re-buying games I already have. It was a very deliberate decision to screw over their old customers, so fuck Valve.

Er, maybe I'm wrong (and I'm definitely too lazy to check), but I thought the Black Box was gonna be more expensive than the orange.. with more stuff in.