I really like Portal. I like the setting, the story, the characters, the gameplay. I find the entire thing a great time. The main problem with Portal is how short it is. When I got to Chamber #11, I was bearly over 20 mins in. And I feel like about 5-7 of them were figuring out how to play on keyboard and mouse (I’m bad, I know).

What I really like about Portal is its simplicity. The rooms are minimalist in design, and the core of the gameplay (walk out of map at point A and walk back in at point B) would not lead people to believe that the game can throw some really complicated problems at the player… later. I feel as though the no/single portal part of the game goes for a bit too long. Not to say that the game doesn’t slouch during the “tutorial”; I mean, it uses gameplay, actual gameplay, to teach the mechanics. No wall of text, or the game stopping every .4 seconds to remind me how to jump, just figure it out; that’s what I really love.

Another thing I love is the A.I. GLaDOS. It (or she, depends on how you view the computer) has some AMAZING lines and great delivery. The slap-together-with-no-review vibe of her test dialogue gives a certain depth to the surrounds and to Aperture Science as a whole. I can’t wait to get to the ending.