Portal Takes the Cake
As the curtains draw on 2007 the question rises like applause. It's been a good year for writing in games, and a good year for the industry in general, but which single title deserves the ultimate appellation?
I don't know whether the majority of reviewers will shout Bioshock or wave copies of Halo 3 over the enthroned fanboys, but the right answer is Portal, one of the most perfectly executed titles ever. Only Portal combines innovative gameplay, engrossing characters and dialog so memorable its lines have embedded themselves in gamer culture.
Let's take that first point. Have you ever seen an FPS puzzle game before? I don't mean a shooter that happens to contain a few puzzles. The only gun you carry in Portal is the one that makes them, so it's much more a puzzle game than a shooter, yet it feels right at home in The Orange Box next to perhaps the greatest FPS franchise of all time. And aside from the genre bending, just look at the weirdness you get to wreak with those portals: dropping sitting objects through the floor and out a wall to topple a turret, jumping up through a portal to step on a ledge on a wall or flinging yourself off a ledge and through the floor to soar out a wall and onto a high catwalk. When you wondered if you could drain a toxic pool by shooting a portal down into it you were thinking with portals.
But portal isn't just a toy, a Rubic's cube for gamers; it contains some of the quirkiest villains to ever grace the gamescreen and generates emotional attachment to an inanimate object. I can't recall an antagonist whose primary character trait was passive aggression before GLaDOS, a trait she takes so far it borders on schizophrenia. She lies, lies about lying, admits her lies, recants a few, and all the while she's really quite pleasant about it. And if her cloud of dark humor wasn't enough, there were the childlike turrets that you wanted to hug if they weren't shooting you.
Perhaps the greatest character of all, though, is the one that has no lines, doesn't emote or for that matter do much of anything because it's a weighted companion cube. Through what appears to be sheer alchemy the mix of lines spoken about the cube, its usefulness and its heart-decals bring life to a block. Players fell in love with the WCC, evidenced by the plush dolls and related swag available for purchase. G4 nominated it for their "Best New Character Award" (GLaDOS was the winner).
And speaking of lines, Portal's dialog will be quoted for years to come. Ask yourself when you last heard a friend quote a pithy line from Bioshock. For all Bioshock's impressive dialog, probably never. Now, when did you last hear "the cake is a lie?" Or, "keep on trying till you run out of cake?" Days or maybe even a matter of hours, and it might have been you saying it.
2007 was a great year for quality games, especially on the PC, but Portal deserves the trophy ... and the cake.
I don't know whether the majority of reviewers will shout Bioshock or wave copies of Halo 3 over the enthroned fanboys, but the right answer is Portal, one of the most perfectly executed titles ever. Only Portal combines innovative gameplay, engrossing characters and dialog so memorable its lines have embedded themselves in gamer culture.
Let's take that first point. Have you ever seen an FPS puzzle game before? I don't mean a shooter that happens to contain a few puzzles. The only gun you carry in Portal is the one that makes them, so it's much more a puzzle game than a shooter, yet it feels right at home in The Orange Box next to perhaps the greatest FPS franchise of all time. And aside from the genre bending, just look at the weirdness you get to wreak with those portals: dropping sitting objects through the floor and out a wall to topple a turret, jumping up through a portal to step on a ledge on a wall or flinging yourself off a ledge and through the floor to soar out a wall and onto a high catwalk. When you wondered if you could drain a toxic pool by shooting a portal down into it you were thinking with portals.
But portal isn't just a toy, a Rubic's cube for gamers; it contains some of the quirkiest villains to ever grace the gamescreen and generates emotional attachment to an inanimate object. I can't recall an antagonist whose primary character trait was passive aggression before GLaDOS, a trait she takes so far it borders on schizophrenia. She lies, lies about lying, admits her lies, recants a few, and all the while she's really quite pleasant about it. And if her cloud of dark humor wasn't enough, there were the childlike turrets that you wanted to hug if they weren't shooting you.
Perhaps the greatest character of all, though, is the one that has no lines, doesn't emote or for that matter do much of anything because it's a weighted companion cube. Through what appears to be sheer alchemy the mix of lines spoken about the cube, its usefulness and its heart-decals bring life to a block. Players fell in love with the WCC, evidenced by the plush dolls and related swag available for purchase. G4 nominated it for their "Best New Character Award" (GLaDOS was the winner).
And speaking of lines, Portal's dialog will be quoted for years to come. Ask yourself when you last heard a friend quote a pithy line from Bioshock. For all Bioshock's impressive dialog, probably never. Now, when did you last hear "the cake is a lie?" Or, "keep on trying till you run out of cake?" Days or maybe even a matter of hours, and it might have been you saying it.
2007 was a great year for quality games, especially on the PC, but Portal deserves the trophy ... and the cake.
posted by Christopher A. Dellario at 2:07 PM
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