Ahh, it’s finally here, the end of Portal. Where we get to go outside the tests, go against GLaDOS, and defeat her. The only things between us and the credits are the 2 longest levels in the game, and I mean longest. These last levels easily take more time than chambers 00-15 combined. Not that it was a bad thing. I really enjoyed the longer levels, it felt like I was progressing, not just in terms of the intricacy of the puzzles, but the amount of them I need to solve in order to complete the chamber.

What made the last level so memorable was the drastic change in atmosphere. We go from the cool, white, sterile environment of the testing chambers to the hot, red, rusty environment of the behind the scenes. And then back to the white walls, but this time on the other side of the glass, in the offices of Aperture Science. In the red area, the constant noise of the machinery made the experience more unnerving and really sold the idea of how broken the facility is.

GlaDOS is wonderful. I loved the boss battle (which I admit was a little repetitive, but hey, video game boss) and I loved to see how the different cores affected GLaDOS’s personality. I especially loved the Anger Core (it was the only voice in the game not done by GLaDOS’s voice actor). The timer also gave a sense of urgency and made the process of figuring out where the optimum placement the portals should be more challenging. After the battle, the ending was amazing, having you be dragged back down by some machine after being able to see the outside for the first time. It sets up the idea of the sequel (Which you should play) perfectly.

Now onto the credits. First, I have to mention the song, “Still Alive”, which is so good and brings in both GLaDOS’s humor and sociopathy. The after credit’s scene, while being the pay off to the “cake” meme, also shows how even when an A.I. is defeated, it still will come back. Again, a hint that a sequel exists (which, I will say again, you should play)

Overall, Portal is an excellent game full of humor, physics puzzles, and a mystery that you find out exists as you play.