As much as I enjoyed playing Portal, I really think I got a lot more out of it by watching my friends play. On three separate occasions, I tossed the controller at someone and told them to try it out. One of them, my boyfriend, is a game designer and hardcore gamer. It's his 360 I game on. Another, also male, is an occasional hardcore gamer, in that when he has time, he'll play the hell out of a game, but doesn't follow the industry in any way. He has a PS2, but no Xbox. The other one is female and loves playing games on the Wii, but had never tried a nextgen FPS game before.
I threw the controller at them, they asked me what to do and I said "Play." That's one of Portal's strengths, really. Anyone can pick it up and learn within a few minutes how to interact with the game world. The control scheme is very simple and when new things are introduced it's done very gradually, giving the player a chance to get used to it before it becomes vital for survival.
The puzzles were the same way, introducing new mechanics very slowly, one piece at a time until you had to start combining things together to solve them. Never once did I see anyone get frustrated with the difficulty of the game. In fact it was just the opposite, everyone said they had to force themselves to put it down so that they could be social, but being the awful influence I was, I told them to continue and no one hesitated. The puzzles are just challenging enough that you feel proud for finishing them. And because of your past experience with the other levels, you know that the answer has to be easy enough that if you just look hard enough you'll be able to figure it out.
Everybody loved the AI, of course. However, only the hardcore gamer didn't really listen to it as much at the start. The other two listened fairly intently to everything GlaDos said. In fact, the hardcore gamer was the only one who attempted to bring the cube through the force field in the "impossible" test. The others actually stated out loud "Hmmm...I can't take the cube through the field," because although it was never explicitly stated that the cube couldn't go through, GlaDos had said that any non-authorized objects will be vaporized by the field (including teeth). I asked my boyfriend about it afterwards and he says that it's probably because he's so used to the run and gun FPS style that he really didn't stop to listen to any implied directions.
Everyone's favourite line was, by far, "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out." It's just plain funny, really:)
When I was watching others, I also really got a chance to appreciate the excellent level design. When you finish a challenge, you're automatically facing the way you need to head next. It was also only by watching my friends that I started noticing the small hints and markers ALL over the place and paying attention to those really made it a lot easier to get through the game. Not to mention the extra runs that are available once you've finished the game, where you can play for fastest time, fewest portals and fewest steps. You really have to look at each level in a different light after that. Even the smallest changes they make to the advanced versions of the maps, it really makes you look back at the first run through, wondering how you could have been stumped and taken so long on it!
I think that Portal was the right game at the right time. A couple of years ago a game like this probably would have gone unnoticed, except for a cult following. But with the big push these days for accessibility to non-hardcore gamers, it really hit the sweet spot for being something that anyone can play and enjoy. Being bundled with the Orange Box sure helped since it's not likely something people would have taken a risk on by itself. Plus it comes at a time when most people have decided on Xbox vs. Playstation, with Xbox seeming to take the lead, the audience is sizeable and has moved past the early-adopter hardcore players to where most gamers have moved on to a next gen system.
Regardless, I'm happy to see this kind of success for a company that decided to take a risk. We need more of those!
I threw the controller at them, they asked me what to do and I said "Play." That's one of Portal's strengths, really. Anyone can pick it up and learn within a few minutes how to interact with the game world. The control scheme is very simple and when new things are introduced it's done very gradually, giving the player a chance to get used to it before it becomes vital for survival.
The puzzles were the same way, introducing new mechanics very slowly, one piece at a time until you had to start combining things together to solve them. Never once did I see anyone get frustrated with the difficulty of the game. In fact it was just the opposite, everyone said they had to force themselves to put it down so that they could be social, but being the awful influence I was, I told them to continue and no one hesitated. The puzzles are just challenging enough that you feel proud for finishing them. And because of your past experience with the other levels, you know that the answer has to be easy enough that if you just look hard enough you'll be able to figure it out.
Everybody loved the AI, of course. However, only the hardcore gamer didn't really listen to it as much at the start. The other two listened fairly intently to everything GlaDos said. In fact, the hardcore gamer was the only one who attempted to bring the cube through the force field in the "impossible" test. The others actually stated out loud "Hmmm...I can't take the cube through the field," because although it was never explicitly stated that the cube couldn't go through, GlaDos had said that any non-authorized objects will be vaporized by the field (including teeth). I asked my boyfriend about it afterwards and he says that it's probably because he's so used to the run and gun FPS style that he really didn't stop to listen to any implied directions.
Everyone's favourite line was, by far, "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out." It's just plain funny, really:)
When I was watching others, I also really got a chance to appreciate the excellent level design. When you finish a challenge, you're automatically facing the way you need to head next. It was also only by watching my friends that I started noticing the small hints and markers ALL over the place and paying attention to those really made it a lot easier to get through the game. Not to mention the extra runs that are available once you've finished the game, where you can play for fastest time, fewest portals and fewest steps. You really have to look at each level in a different light after that. Even the smallest changes they make to the advanced versions of the maps, it really makes you look back at the first run through, wondering how you could have been stumped and taken so long on it!
I think that Portal was the right game at the right time. A couple of years ago a game like this probably would have gone unnoticed, except for a cult following. But with the big push these days for accessibility to non-hardcore gamers, it really hit the sweet spot for being something that anyone can play and enjoy. Being bundled with the Orange Box sure helped since it's not likely something people would have taken a risk on by itself. Plus it comes at a time when most people have decided on Xbox vs. Playstation, with Xbox seeming to take the lead, the audience is sizeable and has moved past the early-adopter hardcore players to where most gamers have moved on to a next gen system.
Regardless, I'm happy to see this kind of success for a company that decided to take a risk. We need more of those!
