Concept: Beauty In Simplicity -- Portal Mini-Review

Although the present gaming era is one of huge budgets and epic productions, there has been a sizable insurgency of simple yet fun gameplay-oriented titles.

These games are most readily available via digital distribution avenues such as Xbox Live Arcade or the good old internet, and are most often created by small, independent developers.

Games such as these, which are rarely technical marvels, usually thrive on the strength of one or two key gameplay concepts, which are either completely fresh ideas or are purposefully pushed to their limits, squeezing as much raw gaming utopia out of them as possible.

A recently released retail "box" included a gaming experience much like these simple flash titles or thumbdrive-sized downloads, but also happened to be created by a big-name development studio, and happened to run on a sophisticated 3D game engine.

The package, of course, is the critically-acclaimed Orange Box, and the specific game in question is the brilliant Portal. Portal, even though it is essentially a series of rooms that all set the same goal for the player (find a way to the exit), relies on a fresh new concept with nearly infinite possibilities. Yes, Prey made use of portals long before Valve's first-person puzzle game, but Portal has now given the player the freedom to navigate space in just about any way imaginable.

This game is not an exercise in "walk through portal A and exit portal B FTW"--it is a complex, thought-provoking process of flying through portal after portal, making use of elevation, momentum and general laws of physics to access areas that otherwise seem impossible to reach.

Just like other, more simple concept games, the joy of Portal lies in the manipulation of the tools and gameplay mechanics offered to the user, with all else becoming unnecessary. It is an idea-driven game, rather than a content-driven one, and it works. To me, >Portal could even be equated to the timeless classic Tetris in this regard.

Even without the excellent voice acting and dry humor found in the game, Portal stands as a great example of a well-developed concept driving a game to greatness. It is a joy to play, from beginning to end.

Like the song says, "This game is a triumph. I'm making a note here: huge success. It's hard to overstate our satisfaction."

Portals and Whatnot

Summer is upon us, and thusly I find my thoughts turning once again to portals. Oh sweet slipgate, how I long for thy totally neato manipulation properties. Seriously, watch this damn video if you haven't seen it 47 times already in the month it's already been up, and tell me you wouldn't punch an infant child right in it's face for a portal gun.

Valve's Portal

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All I have to say is start lining up the babies. My question is, what's the deal with the robot voice girl? I like what she's saying, but wouldn't voice synthesis have made a little bit more progress by the time we have portable hole technology? The stupid Eliza voice that used to get packaged with old Macs was better than this. I used to sit around in the computer lab in high school and make her talk about sex acts all day. God that was one hot-ass text-to-speech converter. I'd like to get my zero-point energy manipulator in HER portal...