So I finally played portal...

[MrGalactus]

... with the portal gun being nothing more than a gimmick.

Gimmick has to be one of the most misused word in the English vocabulary. I'm curious - where exactly do you draw the line between 'gimmick' and 'innovation'?

I would call it an interesting new puzzle mechanic first and foremost. They had the mechanic (which must've been a total ***** to code and make work properly) and they put it in a gun, then gave it a back story as a framework for a plot. Far from a gimmick.

I just liked it because it was impressive. I don't get how they made that portal thing work.

There's a lot of interesting stuff about how they managed it all if you play with the Developer's Commentary on. They also talk about why the levels are laid out as they are, too - for example, the room you start in is specifically designed to show clearly how Portals work: they made it so you can see yourself through both portals in that room because early playtesters were getting the impression that portals lead to entirely different areas, which is not the case.

Stuff like that, it's all worth a listen anyway.

I know what I'm doing this weekend.

 

[Continuity]

And I'm a bit confused, I can understand why people like it but as far as a, and I assume it is a puzzle game goes, it was a bit to easy. Only room 18 ever gave me a challenge, other than that it simply felt like walk here, drop a box there, and fling that turret there.

The ending sort of made up for it, but it feels like the game I played was not the game people have been telling me to play for ages...

So why, if anyone can explain it, did people love it so much... and why is being twice as long a selling point that excites people for portal 2 given how easy the first one was?

Well done you're late to the party and all the booze has been drunk and the cakes eaten... "why is this party so great? there is no booze and there are only crumbs!?"

Portal was a wildcard, they shoved it into the orange box almost as an afterthought to make up for the delay of episode 2... it wasn't really a main feature. Most people on first playing it had no idea that to expect, I thought it was some sort of FPS/adventure, I only figured out it was a puzzler when what I thought was the tutorial was still going on after 2 hours. It was a pleasant surprise and a cool premise, with tight well executed design, but to be frank i've never really considered it to be more than a concept demo.

 

[RA92]

Well done you're late to the party and all the booze has been drunk and the cakes eaten... "why is this party so great? there is no booze and there are only crumbs!?"

Hey, could have been much worse. He might have stormed in the forums screaming, "I just played Portal! Do you guys know that... the cake is a lie!"

... followed by a forum lynching.

 

[Erana]

But the storytelling was incredible.

Seriously. Its a room, a single character, a voiceover, and occasionally stationary things that shoot at you when you enter their narrow field of vision.

And yet they made such an incredible experience.

The game itself is respectable, but really really short and not too challenging. What made it so incredible was its minimalistic approach to pretty much everything.

And when the game first came out, GLaDOS was incredibly funny.
I remember showing the game to some completely non-gamer friends, who wound up holding the phone to some of her audio clips and sent really creepy GLaDOS voicemails to her boyfriend...
[small]College was weird...[/small]

But yeah, I can see where you'd feel like it was a letdown over all the hype, but if you try to remove the expectations from your experience, it should at least get credit for making such a fleshed out experience from such a short game.

 

[shrekfan246]

The Snipper of the Texts: The Fellowship of the Snip

I am very disappointed at the squandered opportunity for a "Fellowsnip".

The Chronicles of Snippia: The Voyage of the Dawn Snipper

Oh, man, I didn't even realize that while I was doing it. That would have made it infinitely more hilarious. Will this one help at all?

EDIT: Harumph, that one probably won't have much impact if it's not dawn where you are.

 

[SckizoBoy]

And when the game first came out, GLaDOS was incredibly funny.
I remember showing the game to some completely non-gamer friends, who wound up holding the phone to some of her audio clips and sent really creepy GLaDOS voicemails to her boyfriend...
[small]College was weird...[/small]

LOL, would've loved to see his reaction, especially if he wasn't a gamer...

OT: As Erana mentioned, it's about the humour and narrative. Factor them out and the game is just a linear series of puzzles. I only played it about a year and a half ago, and the praise was thoroughly earned.

Besides, in the gaming industry, since there're too many niches to cater to, someone's bound to feel let down. Hell, I thought that the entire Fable series was shit (though I might have a few more who agree than with Portal), so there's sure to be someone who looked at a portal gun and thought 'the fuck is this?' before promptly leaving to start a BlOps server. *shrug*

 

[Zantos]

I thought it was decent, but like any Valve game. It was taken as the second coming of Christ.

I still have the urge to kill something when I hear "the cake is a lie". Seriously, it's not fucking funny anymore.

I couldn't agree with these sentiments more if they were on fire. I keep being worried some bloody cult is going to start up and sacrifice me to Gabe Newell or something weird like that.