This thing is extremely overrated

[frostdiamond]

I just finished the game last night and yes, while some of its puzzles are moderately OK, I didn't have any "wow" or "this is brilliant" moments.

I feel the game didn't do a great job explaining how the "physics" of portals work to new players. Yes the "speedy thing goes in, speedy things comes out" remark was humorous, but the momentum jump concept was far from intuitive.

Over time, the game becomes easier, not because its puzzles start to make sense, but because one know knows how the game mechnics work.

Wikipedia suggests that many gamers have told Valve that they felt worse when incinerating the weighted companion cube than harvesting Little Sisters from BioShock. I laughed upon reading this. If this is not Fanboism, I don't know what is. It's a lifeless, voiceless cube that you put on a button to open a door, for god's sake.

The most amount of fun I've had in this game was the final confrontation with Glados. This was also Glados' most personal moment where she would spit out the most amount of interesting monologues, however the enjoyment of this section was hindered by the countdown clock, especially for first-time player who need to focus on directing missles at said antagonist and figure out how to obtain each of personality cores that MYSTERIOUSLY land at illogical positions. Let's face it, this was Valve's desperate yet LAZY attempt at increasing the difficulty of this final level--------tell me, shouldn't the cores fall to the ground due to gravity and physics, two elements this game so proudly represents? What's with the cores being lifted and handled by a magical hand-----or green-ish energy, for that matter?

To me, the game is a 7 out of 10 at the moment.

[holly’s tea]

Portal 2 is harder, features 4 Portals ;) good luck

[p]

I rate the game 8.5 and I just finished it today, I can't wait to get Portal 2.

[frostdiamond]

Originally posted by Wheatley GLaDOS:

I rate the game 8.5 and I just finished it today, I can't wait to get Portal 2.

Your handler suggests so, too. I'm glad you are having fun.

[Vex Hilarius]

Try Portal 2. After completing that one for the first time Portal 1 seemed like just a protoype to the full adventure that was Portal 2. The onty thing that Portal 1 has that Portal 2 does not is a mildly creepy atmosphere.

[Cunning Condor]

Coming from Portal 2, I was alos underwhelmed with this game initially. It felt more like a tech demo while Portal 2 would be the final game. I'm trying it out another time to see if my thoughts on it have changed at all.

[Officer Kevlar]

You do understand that you are talking about a game that is 9 years old? If you were to play space invaders now (one of the highest grossing games of all time) would you be saying something similar
"Space invaders is so over-rated. The physics are poor. The graphics are terrible. The story isn't very well written. The game mechanics aren't properly explained. And if anyone says different they are fanbois".

When portal came out, it was very original. The concept was new and interesting and the atm,osphear was good too. Sure it is short but when I bought it, it came bundled in the Orange Box (portal, Half Life 2 etc) so it wasn't expensive or anywhere near the full price of a AAA game.

The companion cube thing was a meme of the time. It is highly unlikely that a newcomer to the game would understand why people were going on about the cube so much.

I think the way the game slowly shows you the portal physics is excellent. I hate tutorials and tutorial missions and many people these days have the attention span of a Jamacan flea so expecting them to sit and listen to Glados explain portal physics is a bad idea. In all honesty though, the portal physics are simple and easy to learn so they don't require anything more than was done in the game.

Finally, complaining about a magic green energy beam which lifts the Glados cores while playing a game with portals is daft. If you can suspend your disbelief for one, why not the other? If portals can exist, then why not some kind of energy lifting device?

The final fight with Glados is meant to test what you have learned through the game while giving you limited time to do it. The cores didn't mysteriously land at illogical places, Glados put them there to stop you from getting them. Having the cores just drop to the floor would be boring and overly easy in a game which is already fairly easy.

[frostdiamond]

Originally posted by Youtube Monotizing was a Bubble:

Coming from Portal 2, I was alos underwhelmed with this game initially. It felt more like a tech demo while Portal 2 would be the final game. I'm trying it out another time to see if my thoughts on it have changed at all.

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198048244390/recommended/620/

Originally posted by Arcade:

Try Portal 2. After completing that one for the first time Portal 1 seemed like just a protoype to the full adventure that was Portal 2. The onty thing that Portal 1 has that Portal 2 does not is a mildly creepy atmosphere.

Indeed, Portal 2 is miles better than Portal. I'm about 3 hours in, but wrote my review after playing for 80 minutes:

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198048244390/recommended/620/

[frostdiamond]

Originally posted by Officer Kevlar:

You do understand that you are talking about a game that is 9 years old? If you were to play space invaders now (one of the highest grossing games of all time) would you be saying something similar
"Space invaders is so over-rated. The physics are poor. The graphics are terrible. The story isn't very well written. The game mechanics aren't properly explained. And if anyone says different they are fanbois".

When portal came out, it was very original. The concept was new and interesting and the atm,osphear was good too. Sure it is short but when I bought it, it came bundled in the Orange Box (portal, Half Life 2 etc) so it wasn't expensive or anywhere near the full price of a AAA game.

The companion cube thing was a meme of the time. It is highly unlikely that a newcomer to the game would understand why people were going on about the cube so much.

I think the way the game slowly shows you the portal physics is excellent. I hate tutorials and tutorial missions and many people these days have the attention span of a Jamacan flea so expecting them to sit and listen to Glados explain portal physics is a bad idea. In all honesty though, the portal physics are simple and easy to learn so they don't require anything more than was done in the game.

Finally, complaining about a magic green energy beam which lifts the Glados cores while playing a game with portals is daft. If you can suspend your disbelief for one, why not the other? If portals can exist, then why not some kind of energy lifting device?

The final fight with Glados is meant to test what you have learned through the game while giving you limited time to do it. The cores didn't mysteriously land at illogical places, Glados put them there to stop you from getting them. Having the cores just drop to the floor would be boring and overly easy in a game which is already fairly easy.

Your opinions were respectable until you started defending the cores being lifted by green energy. The portal gun is an experimental weapon by science, not by supernatural power. Through our Portal 2, it's both shown and implied that GlaDOS needs to move physical objects with mechanical arms, or the environments or of her own; she cannot simply lift up objects like a bloody mage, which is exactly what you are suggesting.

Let's face it. Valve could've made the cores landed at difficult-to-reach places without resorting to such cheap / lazy method that is the green energy. There is no way to dodge this bullet.

[Officer Kevlar]

Originally posted by frostdiamond:

Your opinions were respectable until you started defending the cores being lifted by green energy. The portal gun is an experimental weapon by science, not by supernatural power. Through our Portal 2, it's both shown and implied that GlaDOS needs to move physical objects with mechanical arms, or the environments or of her own; she cannot simply lift up objects like a bloody mage, which is exactly what you are suggesting.

Let's face it. Valve could've made the cores landed at difficult-to-reach places without resorting to such cheap / lazy method that is the green energy. There is no way to dodge this bullet.

I agree that Valve could have done more with the cores, but I disagree with you when you say that the green energy is magic when the other stuff is science.

There is nothing in the game (that I can recall) which explains the "science" of the portal gun. There are also plenty of other sci-fi games/movies/tv shows which have tractor beams or magnetic grappler beams or whatever else they may have been called. It is not far fetched to say that one of these tractor beams exist in the portal univers.

The fact that Glados has to use robotic arms in Portal 2 can easily be explained by the fact that in Portal 1, Glados is in a fully functioning Aperture Science facility, housed in a room which was specifically built for her (possibly with the aformentioned tractor beams to allow her to pick up/move objects). In Portal 2, the facility has fallen into a very decayed and crumbling state, meaning that some or much of the equipment is no longer functioning.

[frostdiamond]

LOL by fanboi I meant precisely people like you.

[Thogmar]

Well you've done an extremely good job of proving that you have no idea of what you're talking about regarding Portal. And spouted a bunch of usual "fanboy hate" gibberish that unimaginative internet goonball are known to do even though it's mainly in their tiny imaginations
And you're looking backwards from the perspective of games in Portal's FUTURE, not it's competition at the time or in the past. .
So hurrah I guess.

[KillerBeer01]

I'd grant you one point that the green field might seem out of place for a nitpicky player. It didn't bother *me* when I was playing, but I'd agree that in otherwise mechanical setting of Portal 1, this new power can be perceived as rather sudden.

Only... there *are* transporting fields in Portal 2. And, considering that Aperture haven't been evolving between first and second games' timelines (rather, other way around), and that they were included in 1950's puzzles, they technically had to exist already during Portal 1 events.

So... nuh.

[Skytrill]

I've just finished it again and...... I don't get any of your arguments. After the end credit (I've just been though hl2-ep1-ep2 again), I felt this is Valve's best game and make me wonder why didn't Valve had spread more IPs. The game is short but it wouldn't have been as good and intense if longer. It's one of the only game that really make someone feels smart after solving a puzzle. In my book it's a masterpiece and it brings one of the most memorable gaming character of our time. While Portal 2 is a much bigger production, got way more depth and last much longer, it doesn't have the same feeling of isolation and creepiness as the first one.

For someone reading this that had never played any of the Portal games, I'd say start with the first at all cost. It's a bit like Arkham asylum vs Arkham city. The 2nd is got more depth but the first one got the charm. If you start with the 2nd right away, playing the first one later on will feel too primitive.

For op: the game did great into teaching what portal does, it's not rocket science either. Your last point about cores floating in the air while valid, could apply to pretty much every other games in history. Why does Mario jump to high? How can Samus roll into a ball? How can such thing as a gravity gun even work? It's a game, and the purpose of a good game is to give a challenge, so shovel the sand out of your gina and you'll be fine.