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The Importance of Portal
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:28 AM
from the these-points-of-data-make-a-beautiful-line dept.
from the these-points-of-data-make-a-beautiful-line dept.
Team Fortress 2 and Episode Two may have been more anticipated elements of Valve's Orange Box offering, but it's the charmingly small Portal that's been getting a lot of attention in the last few days. MTV's Multiplayer blog thinks the game has the move of the year, and the Gamers with Jobs site offers up a convincing argument why Portal represents a significant step forward for storytelling in games: "Portal is an object lesson in interactive storytelling. We in the media are so fond of shaking our heads, scratching our beards and looking for the "art" in videogames. Well it's time for us all to shut the hell up. This is it. It's in this finely crafted, lovingly rendered piece of short-story literature. Honestly, I'd be surprised if the authors themselves see it as the accomplishment it is. It's a simple set of mechanics, a few pages of sound-booth dialog, a handful of textures and repetitive level designs. But then, a novel is only made up of 26 letters, black ink and white paper. And most artists of lasting brilliance don't recognize the importance of their own work. And how many now-revered musicians and painters died unknown and broke?" If you still haven't heard it, Jonathan Coulton's 'Still Alive' (the ending theme to Portal) has been in my head for over a week now. Just try to get it out of yours.
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The Orange Box Review 358 comments
"PC Gaming is dying," the analysts tell us. "The Massive genre is the only viable business model left," websites report. That they're off the mark is obvious to anyone that's actually played a PC game in the last few years; games like Sam and Max , Battlefield 2 , or any of the numerous puzzle titles available online prove the flexibility and strength of the PC platform. Then, every once in a while, you get an offering like the Orange Box. A value-packed storm of content from Valve, this single sku offers five complete games at an amazing price. That would be great, even if the games weren't any good ... but they are. They're very, very, very good. Read on for my impressions of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and (the cake is a lie) Portal.
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The best of the Orange Box (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The best of the Orange Box (Score:5, Informative)
The major thing is that the puzzles aren't the generic jumping puzzles, nor can they be solved by blindly rushing in and shooting everything in sight. Portal can require a bunch of strategy (planning out where to shoot portals to accomplish the goal without getting hurt), a bit of trickery and timing (involves shooting a portal in mid-air so you can rocket to the next place and shoot the next portal where you couldn't before you started), etc. Heck, some of the puzzles you can't solve the traditional way.
And yes, the puzzles aren't overly complicated, but they do require some planning, some figuring out, and the best thing - I don't think it's possible to get yourself stuck! (Major no-no in puzzle games is to work yourself into a spot where you can't get out of because you forgot to pick up the whatzit 3 levels back). Valve really did spend a lot of time making sure a mistake won't make the puzzles suddenly unsolvable.
So while I guess it may be a general trend, I hope developers realize that it shouldn't be possible to get stuck if you happen to not notice the whatzit (if item X is needed near the end, you give the player less and less subtle clues they need X to continue later...).
Otherwise, this will be the end of the puzzle genre again.
Re:The best of the Orange Box (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't know about you, but it seems to me based on various things in Portal, that it's set in the same universe as Half-Life. The mention of black mesa not withstanding, the sentry turrets are awfully close to the ones from Half-Life.
For all you Quake trick jumpers (Score:3, Interesting)
For any fellow Quake players who enjoy trick maps: get Portal now! This has to be the most fun I've had since beating maps like rjartvf1 for the first time. Okay, so the maps don't involve a super large amount of it, but the potential is endless for map
Re:The best of the Orange Box (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't really have a good term for the game, though on the basis of similar discussions we might call it a "first-person-puzzle-suspense-tragicomedy."
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I'm almost camera shy!
Portal 2D (Score:5, Interesting)
Obligatory mention of the freeware predecessor (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narbacular_Drop [wikipedia.org]
http://www.nuclearmonkeysoftware.com/ [nuclearmon...ftware.com]
The Importance of (Insert Random Game Here) (Score:3, Insightful)
Storytelling, depth, intrigue, and good writing are important, and have been forever.
Portal has succeeded to meet these age-old criteria. It is a quality piece of work. This has always been 'important' with respect to any product. So.. yea.
Author is off... (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree with a lot of the commentary on portal, and at the end of the game I was wondering "did anyone actually stop when they got burned to death?".
But this author is too impressed with himself. Portal shows what kind of game can be produced when the production team isn't trying to make an "epic" game... have you ever compared the list of credits for half-life and hl:ep2? See how many more people are involved? Is the game that much better because of it? Valve is producing episodes instead of new games because people want more of the story, and it's not a bad thing, but the company seems to be adding more and more people to produce what is effectively a shorter version of HL2 each time... and they don't need to develop the engine or tools!
The new weapon added is nice, but it's not revolutionary. Other than the weapon, this game was just more of the same... story telling, driving a vehicle, shutting off force fields, crawling in tunnels. Can't valve do that more, and more quickly, than two years per episode?
However, portal made the orange box worth it.
One other thing about valve not making a lot of progress... Counter-Strike: Source has been unaltered for a long time. Not to say it's not still fun, but why haven't there been at least some new things added to keep it fresh? Maybe change out some weapons, or add a few new ones? Remove or balance the overpowered weapons?
Last time I checked CS:S had over 20,000 active game servers on the net. That's got to be close to or THE most popular team based shooter around.
What are all those people doing?
As to the end of portal, I think it fits in the half-life continuity before the events at Black Mesa in HL1, and probably prior to the incident with Borealis. I base this on the outdoor view of the building at the end of the game. I would actually have been pleased to end up on board a ship instead of outside a building
GlaDOS is the best computer villain since Shodan.
I think if Valve is smart they'll release a Portal 2, as well as increase the crossover between Portal and Half-life. Maybe Gordon will discover a portal gun onboard the Borealis, or maybe he'll meet the female heroine of Portal. Wondering where Portal and Half-life 2 meet will add a lot of freshness to the HL2 story and game.
I can't wait to see what games people develop with the portal generation code in the half-life SDK.
Erik
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Similarities with the work of Shigeru Miyamoto (Score:4, Informative)
This was a triumph. (Score:3, Informative)
Best end credits ever.
Portal GotY? (Score:3, Interesting)
Does it run on Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
It'll work under the latest Wine (Score:3, Informative)
I've been playing through it using the latest Wine on Ubuntu, using the Ubuntu Feisty package from Wine's website.
I can confirm that it works just fine and is playable. I've not actually seen what it looks like in Windows, but I suspect the graphics have
play more than once (Score:3, Insightful)
the story that is presented to you at the begining is as simple as it should be, since you are actually in a test enviroment. the truth is never fully revealed. you have to break the walls and try to discover the truth behind this perfect, clean enviroment. and as always in distopian sci-fi, the truth is much more crude and evil. and perhaps that isn't even the whole truth.
the simple fact that at the end you can beat the test masters is a 180 shift in storytelling. it's another level of freedom to turn the test around and defeat the testers.
very very few games can capture your imagination as this...
the answer to the question "is this art?" is a simple one. How Portal made you feel ? If you felt something, it's art.
I played the beta UT3 demo, and despite the awsome graphics, I didn't felt anything.
the team behind half life 2, ep 1 and 2 and portal are true artist. you really feel something when you play those games.
and also, the cake is a lie. (this is another example that Portal is art. this phrase will be in our minds forever.)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I've played Portal... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you can't see how a small team creating a fun, unique, and interesting game relying on mechanics instead of thousands of man-hours worth of art might be important to an industry currently weighted down by a thousand similar "next gen" "HD" games that play like bad renditions of the same things we played ten years ago, you need to rethink your hobbies.
For the last ten years or so the gaming industry has seemed to be all about franchises, once-a-year iterations of games with little content and less innovation.
Portal isn't about the plot--the plot helps it be endearing, but as you say it's "not-so-indepth." That doesn't mean it's bad (as you seem to imply), it just means that it's light. It's a humorous game. Nobody is claiming it's Faulkner. What it is is a capably done small-team game with mechanics which can lead to a thousand iterations of interesting puzzles (there are already a few custom maps with interesting puzzles involved). There are already several custom maps.
There is no video game written as well as East of Eden or Blood Meridian. That's not the point of video games; the point of video games is gameplay, and Portal is an absolute masterpiece of gameplay in an industry where that virtue has been forgotten. It's challenging (try the advanced levels and extra challenges if you don't think so) and unique. In addition to that, it's got a well-presented, witty storyline with more funny-per-minute than any game I've played--without resorting to the asinine juvenile humor most "funny" games rely on.
Hiding in your last statement, of course, there's a lesson about preconceptions. I leave that for you to find.
Re:For the what!? (Score:4, Insightful)
The importance of Tetris is the the ART!? Are you kidding?
It has less story than most games. The pieces are all just squares. There is only 1 way to interact with the environment.
The only thing that might qualify it as art is the AMAZING music in the game. I didn't realize that was taken from 19th century Russian composers [wikipedia.org].
Now, whether you consider Tetris art, and whether you think the situation is comparable isn't really the point. The point is that simple is not bad, and simple certainly does not indicate a lack of art. If anything, it's the reverse--"trying to cram in too much content" often indicates lack of art.
Re:For the what!? (Score:5, Insightful)
The way the madness of the computer slowly becomes apparent and the way that she relentlessly screws with your mind -- from telling you that the Weighted Companion Cube will not stab you and cannot talk, but if it does you should just ignore it to the whole cake obsession to the callous way in which she highlights unnecessarily deadly parts of the test and so on -- are both masterful examples of storytelling.
It's good because it doesn't slap you in the face with what's going on. It's also a great example of good dark comedy writing.
"Have I lied to you? I mean, in this room? Trust me."
"That thing you broke isn't important to me. Not any more. It's the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit; it makes shoes for orphans. Nice job breaking it, hero."
"Cake, and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test. Thank you for helping us help you help us all!"
"Although the euthanizing process is remarkably painful, 8 out of 10 Aperture Science engineers believe that the companion cube is most likely incapable of feeling much pain."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The importance of Portal is the the ART!? Are you kidding?
It has less story than most games. The areas are all virtually identical. There is only 1 way to interact with the environment.
I think it was Erik Satie who said that he considered a piece of his music to be complete not when he could think of no more notes to add, but when he could not think of any more notes to remove.
Think on.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The 'crouch' key is your friend. I mean, it's no weighted companion cube, but it's a good friend nonetheless.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)