Portal

by Valve

• Award-winning, innovative gameplay
• The first first-person puzzle action adventure game
• Two bonus games introduce new play challenges
• Support for level editing and mod creation - build your own Portal puzzles
• Hours of single player gaming

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00140P9G0
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches ; 6.1 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: April 8, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,272 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Portal is an action/puzzle video game from Valve, creators of Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike. The winner of over 40 awards, including 15 Game of the Year honors, it is one of the most original games on any platform in years and offers gamers hours of unique gameplay. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal is designed to change the way players approach, manipulate and surmise the possibilities in a given environment; similar to how Half-Life 2’s Gravity Gun innovated new ways to leverage an object in any given situation. Players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuver objects, and themselves, through space.

The new physics of fun

Use the portal gun to create your path. View larger.

Every portal has two ends. View larger.

Toss companion cubes through portals. View larger.

The Story
Portal contains only two characters, the player-controlled Chell and GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), a computer AI that monitors, directs and misleads Chell in a kind of twisted experiment. It's not exactly a match made in heaven

Regardless, Chell must rely on information provided by GLaDOS to survive as she navigates through a series of mostly doorless rooms using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device ("portal gun"). The portal gun creates two portal ends, one orange and the other blue. Both are simultaneously a potential entrance and exit and objects, alive or otherwise, that travel through one end will exit the other at the same speed. In addition, portals create a visual and physical connection between two different locations in 3D space. Their ends are restricted to planar surfaces, but if the portal ends are on nonparallel planes, bizarre twists in geometry and gravity can occur as the player character is immediately reoriented to be upright with respect to gravity after leaving a portal. Chell can pass through open portals at will, but barriers, known as "Material Emancipation Grids" or 'fizzlers' prevent players from carrying objects beyond them. Luckily certain objects, known as 'companion cubes' can be tossed through. Once through these can then be used as the player wishes. Passage through these fields also closes any open portals, so it's important to look before you leap. It's Chell's challenge and yours to survive the hazards of the portals, including bobby traps, hidden gun turrets and the treachery of GLaDOS in the search for eventual freedom.

Features

• Award-winning, innovative gameplay.
• The first first-person puzzle action adventure game.
• Two bonus games introduce new play challenges.
• Support for level editing and mod creation – build your own Portal puzzles.
• Hours of single player gaming.
• Makes you feel smart!

System Requirements:

	Minimum Specifications:	Recommended Specifications:
OS:	Windows Vista/XP/2000
Processor:	1.7 Ghz Processor	Pentium 4 Processor (3.0 Ghz or better)
RAM:	512 MB RAM	1 GB RAM
Video Card:	DirectX 8 level Graphics card	DirectX 9 level Graphics card
Other:	DVD-ROM Drive/Mouse/Keyboard/Internet Connection

 

Product Description

Portal is a new single player game from Valve, creators of Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has earned over 15 Game of the Year Awards and offers gamers hours of unique gameplay.The game is designed to change the way players approach, manipulate and surmise the possibilities in a given environment; similar to how Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun innovated new ways to leverage an object in any given situation. Players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuvering objects, and themselves, through space.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very fun but short (or perhaps just concentrated) April 28, 2008

By Mike Garrison

Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

The game is a blast to play, if you are into physics-based puzzles. I'm not going to describe it, because it's well-described elsewhere (Wikipedia, for instance). So the question comes down to, "Is it worth buying?" And the answer is a qualified yes.

The game is short. Yes, really short. Compared to the typical puzzle game ("Myst", etc.), you blast through this in half the time (or less). But what is cut out is all the "envirnoment exploration". It has just as many puzzles as the typical puzzle game, but none of that walking around and looking at the scenery stuff. No bits where you have to go to island A to get the key that opens a lock in island B, which gives you the answer to a puzzle back on island A again, etc.

But it's not sudoku, either. GLaDOS is hilarious and menacing at the same time. Even with no other visible characters to interact with, the plot is a surprisingly important part of the experience. You start to get emotionally attached to the idea that you are a lab rat trying to get out of the maze before you get euthanized.

So, yes, it's worth the money. It's short, but intense. In the same way that an hour-long movie might be better than that same movie stretched out to three hours, I'm not sure the game would have worked if it was much longer than it is. In fact, I bought the whole "Orange Box" just to try this game, and I'm happy with the purchase. (That doesn't mean I'm not also going to play Half-Life, eventually.)

If I want to just kill hours on the computer, I can play solitaire. What I wanted was what I got -- an exciting and challenging set of puzzles with a surprisingly compelling plot as a bonus.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Valve makes yet another original game October 10, 2008

By Blackout

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Portal is one of the best games I've played in a long time. When you first start the game it opens up with you waking in a small room with walls of blue glass and strange (happy) music playing and you really do wonder where am I?

...that was just to get you started, but here's the real review.
Now you have to understand that unlike other puzzle games portal is not frustrating, what do I mean by that? Well let's take a game like mist for example. When you play mist, unless you're a super genius you're going to be throwing down your mouse every couple seconds. But now with portal, Valve makes the chambers just easy enough for you to not get frustrated. (don't get me wrong they take some skill to learn. But if you think they're too easy then play the advanced chambers that you unlock at the end.)

For the first 15 chambers the game seems to have no other story then that you're some lady participating in a test at a laboratory. But then we come to the 16'th chamber (your training for turrets) now I'm not going to spoil what happens but the game suddenly takes a humorous and somewhat disturbing turn in the story. Also you may have heard about some references to the Half-Life games and curiously wondered what they were. It's not really a big deal in this game though, but Valve has stated that in the future Portal games there will be more hints at Half-life.
Sadly portal is a somewhat short game and even though Valve has achievements, advanced maps, (which I will tell about later) and even challenges (which I couldn't complete) the game just falls short of replay value.... So I would suggest that you purchase Portal in The Orange Box as you'll be playing a series if games (not just portal) like Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and of course the long awaited Half-life 2: Episode 2.

Now I've almost finished my review, (my second shortest yet) I come to one of the most important parts of my review (I stress that.) *drum roll* THE HORRIBLE INSTALLATION!!!! Now if you have played other valve games you will understand that you must both install portal and the program (that we hate for the first few months) called Steam. Now Steam isn't bad software(no spyware no spam...nothing) it's just that being forced to install steam them download the game and finally play it while connected to the internet is somewhat frustrating to some people. But when you start to realize the potential steam has you slowly change your mind. You might ask "what the heck is "steam"??" well it's a program where you download games off the internet, like Call of Duty and Crisis. (NOTE: That's only a few of the games available on Steam.) There's so many things to do on Steam that your head will spin. For instance, the Steam Community and Free mods to download. So all though you'll be frustrated for a while you'll soon realize that Steam is great.

-Have fun playing
Blackout<twm> (that's my steam community name) Read more ›

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good game, horrendous package. July 6, 2008

By Armando L. Franco Carrillo

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Portal is a good puzzle game. I like the concept of the wormhole. It is fun. It took me a couple of days to complete it, and then I did the whole thing in two hours non-stop.

I hated Steam. Before installing Portal, you have to install Steam, then download Portal and then install it, and then activate. It took me close to two hours to get it running.

I loved the game, hated the way it gets installed.

UPDATE: After several years, and using it repeatedly, I have come to like Steam. I used it to get Portal II on its release date. So I have upgraded my rating from 3 to 5 stars. It's the best 3D maze game ever.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredibly funny head trip. March 4, 2010

By Reggie

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

If any one reading this remembers the tv show from the 70's called "The Bionic Woman," there is an episode in this show called "Doomsday is Tomorrow" (you can watch it on youtube) where the Bionic Woman is trapped in a building and has to outsmart and fight against a super computer named Alex 700. As I played Portal, it gave me the sense of being placed in this kind of deadly situation just as the Bionic Woman was in. Portal is a very cool gaming experience, and once you figure out what you can do to advance through the game while creating portals, you will feel really smart and good about yourself. A brilliantly funny head trip that is short and sweet. When Valve finally come out with Half Life 2 episode 3, I hope that they surprise me by incorporating the portal gun along with the gravity gun. I can't imagine what kind of creative mayhem I could get away with by using both technology together, but I can imagine that it would be fun. Which is what games are meant to be.... fun. Just as Portal is. Kudos to the team that put this one together. Well done.