Portal: Still Alive [Review]
Where to begin? Portal, released as part of The Orange Box (360/PS3/PC) was quite possibly the game of the year for 2007. When I first finished the original and was rewarded with the much lauded “Still Alive”, penned by Jonathan Coulton but performed by the one and only “GLaDOS”, I immediately tore into the extra challenges that were unlocked: advance maps, time runs, minimum steps/portals runs — it was the mechanic that hooked me initially. Sadly, that lasted only one afternoon. I quickly grew tired of the increasingly difficult puzzles presented to me and without the psychotic AI goading me along, there was little incentive to keep playing.
Thus, it was hard to deny mixed emotions when I sat down to play Portal: Still Alive, the Valve developed and Microsoft published game released this past Wednesday for Xbox Live Arcade which includes all of the original Portal plus 14 new maps (sadly, without any GLaDOS) modeled after Portal: The Flash Version MapPack (an expansion for the free Portal flash game that was released last year and then adapted for the PC Portal). What could I expect from the new levels other than brain teasers? What about the humor?! Hit the break for the full review.
After running through the initial 19 levels (and of course, the lengthy backend), I was once again ready to play new challenges in Portal and enjoy the skills I had mastered during the main game. All in all, the “Still Alive” levels — 14 levels, some short, some not so short — were a mixed bag of difficulty. Though new additions like laser walls and electricity fields helped to add fresh challenges, they felt rather novice in difficulty after playing through the original “advanced level” challenges in The Orange Box.
Good thing is, there’s a whole ton of people out there who haven’t ever played through this game — and XBLA is the perfect place for a title like this. Like the PC’s Steam downloadable game service and The Orange Box before it, Valve’s giving customers a great deal: 1200 spacebucks ($15) gets you the original Portal in full with new achievements, new levels and new advance maps to play through.
As far as gameplay goes, nothing has changed. You’re still a test subject inside of an Aperture Science facility, there’s still an AI with snarky commentary, there are still gun turrets with loads of personality — you get the idea. Main game aside, the new levels are sometimes (and I stress sometimes) remarkably fun. The aforementioned laser walls and electricity fields do add welcome new elements to a game much lauded for being intuitive yet challenging, though longer and more complex levels would have been a more welcome addition to veteran players like myself.
Though devoid of GLaDOS’ companionship, the levels present complex yet elegant puzzles that demand your full comprehension of every element within the Aperture Science world, but regularly end after you’ve figured out one or two fairly simple ingredients, leaving you wanting for more of something that simply isn’t there (and knowing Valve, won’t be arriving any time soon). The problem with the equation here is that this feels like fanservice to a crowd that already bought the bulk of this release a year ago — the equivalent of releasing Super Mario Bros. 1 in Winter of 1986 with “The Lost Levels” packed in and selling it to… who exactly? The people who bought it the previous year or those who haven’t played the original?
Since I’ve played the original game so thoroughly though, I invited over a couple friends who don’t own any of the current-gen consoles to see how they’d react to Portal: Still Alive. While one of my two test subjects reacted to the dual-analog stick controls poorly (a decidedly large turnoff for those inexperienced with anything beyond N64/Dreamcast), they both seemed to really enjoy the mix of puzzles and humor. I sat them down at the very beginning and after an hour of solid play (with them passing the controller back and forth), they saved it at level 15 so that we could all go to our respective places for the evening — though now we would all be late. Clearly they enjoyed themselves.
If you’ve never played Portal and you own a decent PC or an Xbox 360/Playstation 3, shame on you. However, for your impudence, Valve’s rewarded you by releasing one of the best games of 2007 for a great price with additional content — enjoy! To those of you that own The Orange Box/Portal and thirst for more, this may not be the Gatorade you’re looking for.
Other Stuff You Might Wanna Know:
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: 10/23/08 (XBLA)
Available for: Xbox 360
Price: 1200 Spacebucks ($15)
Rating: (Buy It, Don’t Buy It, **Demo It): *Buy It
*(if you haven’t already played Portal)
