{"id":3509,"date":"2023-07-07T15:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T21:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=3509"},"modified":"2023-05-15T21:05:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T03:05:43","slug":"video-game-portal-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/07\/video-game-portal-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO GAME: Portal (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Portal\"Portal
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2007
\nRating: T
\nTime Played: 3 hours<\/p>\n

When it comes to video game mechanics, it feels like most of the foundational concepts were born in the early years and merely perfected over time. The endless puzzle possibilities of Tetris<\/em>. The platforming of Super Mario Bros<\/em>. The first-person-shooter perspective of Doom<\/em>. It still amazes me that a game made in 2007 could combine these foundational elements of video games into something truly original. Portal<\/em> is more than its gameplay, though, which is part of what makes its story so iconic\u2014enough to be part of some of the earliest memes.<\/p>\n

While the length of this game makes it feel more like a tech demo, the gradual reveal of the game’s story adds some heft to its impact. As the player slowly uncovers the reality of their situation and the insanity of the expertly written GLaDOS, the portal mechanics become less about solving puzzles and more about trying to survive. That the one-sided banter of the homicidal AI is as funny as it is helps to make this game less dark than it could have been. Just the comedy alone makes this game worth playing.<\/p>\n

My first play-through of this game was over a decade ago, so I gave the recent “with RTX” version a try. The 2007 graphics weren’t the greatest, but the RTX upgrade makes the game look better. Granted, it’s still not a 100% perfect game even with the graphical improvements. A few of the earlier puzzles require a bit of a sharp learning curve to solve, even for someone who has played through them once before and knew the solution. Fortunately, for those gamers much better at this type of game, there are now levels with increased difficulty for those masochists. Overall, though, Portal<\/em> is a foundational video game in many regards and should be played at least once.<\/p>\n

Innovative gameplay with hilariously written monologues, I give Portal<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portal Year: 2007 Rating: T Time Played: 3 hours When it comes to video game mechanics, it feels like most of the foundational concepts were born in the early years and merely perfected over time. The endless puzzle possibilities of Tetris. The platforming of Super Mario Bros. The first-person-shooter perspective of Doom. It still amazes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1900],"tags":[176,3396,104,3395,2915,2914,3394,8,3393,906],"class_list":["post-3509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-video-game","tag-176","tag-aperture-laboratories","tag-comedy","tag-glados","tag-physics","tag-portal","tag-puzzle-platformer","tag-review","tag-valve","tag-video-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3509"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3512,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509\/revisions\/3512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}