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cweilee's The Orange Box (Portal) (360)
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| [January 13, 2008 09:20:32 PM]
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GAMEPLAY
The story continues to be simple, which is a test subject trying to escape The Aperture Science Laboratories. However, the characters continue to grow more interesting by the minute because I eventually find out that there is no one in the Aperture Science Laboratories, and GLaDOS was the only one left. She is the central unit of the laboratories. This means she runs everything, and the test was her idea. That theory, however, was not completely proven at the end of the game. GLaDOS remains to be humorous, but becomes more sadistic as the game goes on. She threatens to "Bake her, then there will be cake." (GLaDOS) I was becoming more determine to find her and destroy her. Eventually I escaped the test location, but must escape from the actual facility. GLaDOS becomes friendly because she doesn't want me to escape. Eventually, I reached her and found out that she is composed of many branch unit, and must destroy the branch unit to kill her completely. The test subject escapes. The character are explored throughout the game, but not deep enough.
The game remain fun to play. It still engages me to think in different ways, since it is a game style that I have never played before. The physics part of the game is really great because the makers of the game actually took into the fact that gravity and momentum are conserved as the test subject goes into the portal. As GLaDOS said: "speedy goes in, speedy goes out," which is a very good representation of the physics part of the game. The back seating play of the game continues as everyone want to solve the puzzles because it is so stimulating to the brain. I just hope that they explained more about the connection between Aperture Science Laboratories and Black Mesa. Other than that, I was really glad that played this game because it was so innovating.
DESIGN
This game was simply put-innovative. Valve Software wanted to created a new kind of puzzle game, and to my opinion, they did a pretty good job. This new way of thinking should be incorporated into their future game as a new weapon or new feature. The only flaw of this game is that since it is an experimental game, it was short for a first person shooter. I wished that I could have played more of the game and that they make it longer. By the end of the game, I was not satisfied, I wanted more puzzles, and more in depth story line. I enjoyed the challenges that the game presented to me because I was tired of going into a FPS and just shoot everything that moves. The innovation not only is the best aspect of the game, but also is what keeps the game interesting.
They were really successful at making the game world creepy. No one likes to be alone, and that is exactly what portal offers, a lonely world. There is absolutely no one else in the test center other than the test subject. Even the only other character, GLaDOS, is a computer. There was another "character" called the weighted companion cube. It was an interesting character because it was inanimate, but GLaDOS insists that it is real. At the very start of the game, a radio was playing a song, as if to make the player feel comfortable, but it did exactly the opposite. I felt increasingly uncomfortable with the environment. The game world was quite monotone and unfamiliar, which also contributed to the strangeness of the world. As I went on to play the game, writing on walls starts to surface. It says "The cake is a lie," which is exactly what GLaDOS promised the player at the start of the game. I started to suspect GLaDOS real intentions. Eventually, I finished the tests (Test 19), GLaDOS wanted to murder me since the test was over. The game was eerie with a touch of humor.
The use of game space was important since it is a puzzle game. One of the features of the game is that the player must open the portals at the right places. For example, in order to kill a sentry gun, I had to open a portal right above the sentry gun, and another one right below a weighted cube. If one of the portal is misplaced, the cube will simply miss the sentry gun. The momentum part of the game forces the player to aim the portals in the right places so that we can fall from a high enough place and get shot out of the other portal, since momentum is conserved.
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| [January 12, 2008 09:41:15 PM]
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SUMMARY
Portal follows an experiment in progress performed by Aperture Science Laboratories, where the player is the test subject. The test subject were to perform a series of puzzle with the help of a portal gun. The portal gun allows the test subject open two portal, which on serves as an entrance and the other serves as an exit. Using that knowledge, the player must try to escape.
GAMEPLAY
The game was eerie to say the least. The fact that the test subject was the only human character in the game contributed to the eerie part. However, when GLaDOS (the computer voice that talks to you occasionally) joins in the game, the game becomes humorous while still retaining the creepiness. GLaDOS sounds child-like and a sociopath. She annoyed me most of the time, but once in a while she would say something really funny. Little was known about the test subject (me), and I wished that the game would tell me a little bit more about the test subject and Aperture Science Laboratories. The character exploration is shallow, but the game is mainly focused on the gameplay.
The story is told through GLaDOS. She will talk about the experiment once in a while, but rarely talks about Aperture Science Laboratories. However, at a certain point of the game, I saw a slideshow with the name Black Mesa on it, and that is how I know that the game is somehow connected to the Half Life series. Other than that, little is known about the stories. Although, the story is not too deeply explored, the gameplay is where the game shines. The gameplay was quite innovative in that, the player needs a whole new way of thinking. Opening portals at the right places, and understanding simple laws of physics is required. For example, falling from a high place into a portal will shoot you out the other portal. It was quite fun to play, I enjoyed the experience.
Although the story is not deep, the gameplay made me want to keep playing. It was so interesting and such a new way of thinking that it won me over with the first few puzzles. People would be really intrigue because there was nothing to kill and no guns involved, which is strange for a first person shooter. Friends would help me solve puzzles that are hard to solve, they also enjoyed the back seat gaming experience. My experience is that the opening of portal will become a second nature to the player.
Eventually, GLaDOS will try to murder me, and I was like "NO WAY." (roughly a direct quote from the game) At this point, the story gets a bit more interesting. The game takes an interesting turn because now, the test subject is not in a testing environment, and now I must try to escape on my own. I stopped here. I will continue to play. Since, I played through the whole game already, I will defeat GLaDOS again, and played from the beginning again, which will be covered at the second entry.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 12th, 2008 at 21:45:38.
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cweilee's The Orange Box (Portal) (360)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 12 January, 2008
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