Does Portal hold up?
Why even bother asking?
Shut this whole article down.
Of course it holds up.
But obviously that is not the case, because we’re talking about Portal.
If anything it’s even better than I remember.
It’s fuckin' Portal.
Portal is not that.
You should go and play Portal right now.
Push toddlers aside and blast through red lights if necessary.
You play Portal now and you might’t conceive of it existing in 2007.
There must be some mistake.
Except it did not, and nothing really like it has really come along since.
I’ve teed this up enough, so should actually talk about the game.
The gradual increase in complexity, and the marvellous tool that is the portal gun, allows you toplay.
You spit portals everywhere to see what they do.
Within the game you become a daring expert, the Indiana Jones of applied physics.
After a little while, you realise you never actually see another living person in the place.
After another little while, you find dens.
And then there’s GLaDOS, the only person (??)
How is it possible that a single-line joke written in almost 15 years ago has only becomemorefunny?
Comedy usually ages faster than yoghurt left in the sun!
There are so many good things.
The way the robotic turrets chirp things like “There you are!”
moments before gunning you down.
The escalating mentions of neurotoxin.
But somehow this hasn’t ruined Portal at all.
A lodestar for game design.
The best there was and is, but I hope not the best there ever will be.
It’s fuckin' Portal.
