So overall here what I want to say about this series of maps is they are very impressively designed. Especially in the visual department. The work done to make these maps look the way they do is so incredible. The visual design here is really the prominent stand out feature of this map series, and the re-imagining of the events and set pieces leading up to the final boss is really impressive, and that is why I stuck through these maps to the end. That said, it's unfortunate that all of that eye candy and incredible conceptualization comes at the cost of one of Portal's cardinal design tenets. Visual queues.

This all applied mainly to maps 4 onward and somewhat to map 3. These maps are so stuffed with details that is bloats the design of them to such a degree that most of the time, primarily in later levels, you have no Idea what you should be doing. The main offender of this is the burning offices. They are so visually overcrowded and claustrophobic that you could be wondering around there for hours before you find out what you are supposed to do. In fact, I just now came back to these levels after a few years when that exact level made me simply stop playing them. While I understand the desire and dedication to making the experience as immersive and visually dense as the creator clearly wanted, after a point it interferes with the necessary visual distinctions that Portal levels require.

By extension, it seems this desire to stuff the levels with visuals also resulted in the loss of an ability to teach players new mechanics. This resulted in some of the most frustrating moments of Portal gameplay I've ever experienced. I've never ever been so angry at a puzzle game before. There are many times, especially in the later chapters, where you are expected to do brand new maneuvers never taught to you by any map before, and while that may seem appealing to hear, it's actually resulted in possibly the most obtuse expectations of a player I've ever encountered when playing a portal map, and it was not in a good way. Case in point is the repulsion gel run you are expected to do before reaching the excursion funnel leading to Wheatley. That solution was not given a single moment where it was taught or even hinted at being expected of you prior. I simply spent a good half an hour pacing the platform, and seeing arrows but not understanding what they were actually pointing to or how to actually get to where they were pointing, because in that instance, a specific action was required of you that you have probably never done before in your entire experience playing Portal maps, and it is never taught to you in the final, or any prior part.

This is not the only time this happens. In the later maps, you have to do more brainy maneuvers that are not visually choreographed to you effectively enough, or even taught to you beforehand. You are simply plopped into those situations and are expected to simply know what to do. Now I understand this is where a certain degree of subjectivity in problem solving comes in. Some people may just simply like to run around an environment like that and mess around for a while until they reach a solution, or may simply be the diamond coated, sharpest tools in the shed. But for me, it was one of the most infuriating things I've ever experienced, and this comes AFTER over 300 hours logged into this game. I would much prefer these things at least be visually choreographed to the player as at least a suggestion so that the solution comes off as novel rather than obscure. It's also an absolute shame that the re-imagining of the Wheatley fight suffers from this problem as well. Because aside from what you have to do to reach the button on the right side of the arena being something I wouldn't in my wildest dreams have imagined to do, the final fight is an incredibly executed and visually amazing idea.

tl:dr these maps are paradoxes for me. The over all solutions and design of these maps is incredible, but for a first time play, these maps are a nightmare due to a lack of visual queues and teaching moments.