Even though I’ve played games exclusively on a PC all my life, I had somehow never come across Portal before this. I had heard of the game but never came around to playing it till now. However, because of my experience with PC controls, Portal didn’t seem too hard to me. The graphics certainly seemed ancient compared to contemporary games but when I went and checked the release date (October 10, 2007), it all made sense. In fact, the graphics are quite respectable considering the game-development technology of 2007.

The game started off with us in a weird, small room, hinting at a very standard abducted-lab-rat narrative. As I progressed through the levels, it only made even more sense because of the constant, albeit hilarious, disregard GLaDOS shows for the safety and life of the test subject Chell—who is controlled by us, the player. I actually really enjoyed the sarcastic comments she makes throughout the chambers as they breathe some life into the dead facility setting.

Before exiting the room, I managed to see a reflection of the player in the window of the door. This initiated a mini-game for me where I then spent 5 whole minutes trying to check if the player’s model actually rotated when you looked around or if it was fixed to look forwards. My testing kept suggesting the latter but then I saw that there were 2 portals in play there which were skewing perspective and then I just gave up trying to wrap my head around it. So that part was fun.

The test chambers itself weren’t that hard, for a puzzle game. Not yet anyway. I ended up playing till chamber 14 before realizing where I was because I was enjoying the challenges. Even without GLaDOS’ instructions, I thought the challenge rooms were pretty straight-forward as to what we needed to do or where the portals needed to be placed to finish the level. Nonetheless, I enjoyed trying to figure out whether GLaDOS was actually being helpful or if she was just trying to get us killed by deceiving us. Turns out, she’s a bit of both.

As for the visual and sound effects of the game, I would say the developers did a decent job since they had me firing the blue portal inside my elevator for about 40 seconds because I enjoyed the particles flying off as the portal failed to come into existence. The color of the rooms was pretty basic but I guess it made sense as it contributed to the whole ‘test chamber’ vibe of the levels. The toxic water on the ground, however, could have used better work. It just looked like slimy puke until you went inside it. If you tried falling in, you would find yourself submerged in a green cloud (which ACTUALLY seemed poisonous) before you respawned.

All in all, I really enjoyed my first time playing Portal and can’t wait to finish the remaining chambers later on!