No Business Naming Things

I broke down and bought the Orange Box over the weekend. The curiosity I felt for Portal had reached levels I could no longer ignore and I snatched it up on a whim as we passed through EB Games. I haven’t touched any of the other Orange Box content yet, so I can only really comment on Portal. Also remember that I have the much maligned PS3 version.

First, the negatives. The load times are shockingly bad. Going between levels might pass for reasonable these days but restoring from a save has to take a good 30 seconds. I can’t fathom the amount of state its trying to restore - the game isn’t exactly full of branching pathes. Secondly, there is noticible slowdown at some very unfortunate times. Those times usually involve a rocket coming towards you. It hasn’t cost me yet but it’s really disorienting. Saying something other than the Aperture gun is disorienting in Portal is doing a disservice to the Aperture gun but it’s still true. Luckily there are only a few places where the rocket comes into play.

Now, the positives. Every. Damn. Thing. Else. This game is quite fantastic. The portal mechanic never gets old, the puzzles keep getting more challenging without getting stupid, the change of theme and pace near the end feels fresh, and most of all the writing and voice acting for GLaDOS is probably the best I’ve ever experienced in a game. I love black humor and she had it in spades - I actually killed myself on several occasions so I could hear her lines again. Related to GLaDOS are the voices of the sentry guns which are truely twisted. Having cute sentries with the voices of children trying to mow you down was great. Lastly, the final fight with GLaDOS and the subsequent credit sequence was just about as good as they get.

I can’t wait for Portal 2!