Okay... so I was in the mood to try something new and know that once I started "Half-Life 2: Episode 2" I'd be hooked for a long, long time. I also wasn't quite in the mood for a dark, nerve-wracking FPS so I tried "Portal" (another part of the Orange Box).
It was billed as a "FPS Puzzle Game" and it is... but it's also a bone fide FPS in its own right. After about the first 25% of the game, guess what: it turns into a dark, nerve wracking FPS. ;^) The premise is simple: you got a "gun" that can shoot portable holes onto acceptable surfaces. Left click shoots a blue hole and right shoots a yellow. Jump through either and come out the other. You can also pick up and use boxes (as steps, switch weights and shields). There are energy balls which need to be directed (often with quick-switch-portal-action) to sockets. There are only two kinds of "enemy" in the game - both rare and both completely stationary robots (you mostly have to portal in behind them and knock them over or place a portal over them and drop a box on them or just place a portal under them and let them fall). Your travels are accompanied by a deranged female-voiced computer who says you'll get cake and warns you repeatedly not to take advice from any of the crates you'll encounter. What's impressive is how downright creepy this gets despite the ridiculous things she says. In fact the game gets more and creepy as it progresses. The challenges get more, well, challenging but never frustratingly so. If you're good with FPSs, that is. Many of the later challenges involve you quick shooting portals to pick up speed so that you can rocket out of a last portal and reach a remote area. I honestly have no idea how this game could be played with a console controller... mouse look just seems so completely necessary for it. The last sections of the game threaten tedium but never seriously since the game is so short: I beat the main game in 3.6 hours. There's an additional 6 "master levels" to attempt and once you beat a chapter you can run through it again with Valve's impressive "Developer Commentary" feature enabled - so I'd say all told it'll be easy to get 10 hours of fun out of "Portal". But even if it were only four hours tops, it's a great four hours and as essentially an "extra" in one of the best gaming deals of the decade it's almost decadent. "Team Fortress 2" alone is worth the price of admission and "Portal" is creamy icing on top of that cake. The three "Half-Life 2" games are a 7-course feast on top of that. "Portal" is definitely something special and not to be missed: don't let all of the other stuff push it out of mind. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion 8 - Build next generation apps today, with easy PDF and Ajax features - download now http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/coldfusion/cf8_beta_whatsnew_052907.pdf Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:244183 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
