by Joe Louie
Staff Writer

Today started out so easy. Get out of the relaxation chamber, listen to the oddly friendly computer voice over the intercom, throw my coffee cup and the radio into the toilet, walk through a fiery gate ripping a hole in space and time to escape my glass prison, put a box on a giant red button, and enter the elevator right after my fillings are vaporized out of my head by a wall of energy. And now, here I stand, staring down a hallway with beams of red light shining across hunting for me while small robotic laser-guided egg, shaped-machine gun turrets are asking me nicely where I’ve gone and if I would please come back out. What exactly did I sign on for, and why am I a girl?

I have two defenses, hopefully intertwined unerringly: my wits and a gun that tears the universe a new one and then tears another new one to connect to the now slightly older new one. I shoot a hole behind the laser turret, and turn to my right and fire again, creating the second hole in the wall next to me. I reach my arm through, watch it pop out down the hall and step through and grab the small egg shaped death device from behind. I toss it back through the wormhole behind me, and see it fall and fire at random. Somehow, I can even ignore its pitiful cries and its claims that it doesn’t hate me.

Okay, that may have been a little hard to follow. That’s really because the game is that far from normal. “Portal” is filled with innovative level design and intriguing puzzles that will keep you on your toes and thinking for a few hours. The biggest drawback to the game is that it’s really short. Beatable within a few hours for what could be considered the story mode. Additional challenges are included as well, which have been compensating for the length of the overall game.

Visually, the game is wonderful. Overall, the attention to detail is very good. The physics engine that they’ve used makes the game feel as real as you can get when you’re running around with a wormhole generator. Everything ties together and is surprisingly easy to maneuver, if not simply disorienting as you attempt to make yourself upright when you pop out of a hole.

Aside from the imaginative design and well-done graphics and control, the game is funny. It’s written by the same group of guys who wrote “Psychonauts,” and it’s just better if you really pay attention to the writing on the walls and what’s being said. Jonathan Coulton crafted a song for it as well, which is included with the cake at the end of the game.

I give “Portal” a 10 out of 10. It exemplifies what a first person shooter puzzle game is. Oh, and some other stuff came out with “Portal” in The Orange Box. I haven’t gotten around to those yet.