Portal: Still Alive - Review

Added October 27th, 2008 by Justin McBride

Last year, gamers were treated to a bit of a surprise hit in the form of Portal, one of the five games bundled in the Orange Box. It won many awards and mountains of praise for its relatively simplistic but amazingly deep puzzle gameplay and pitch black humor. It was challenging, addictive, repeatedly hilarious and most of all, incredibly fun. Well, Xbox 360 owning Portal fans have much to rejoice about now that Portal: Still Alive has made its way to the Xbox Live Arcade. Including everything that made the stellar original shine and more is always a good way to go when it comes to re-releases, but for those who have already experienced Portal when it was part of the Orange Box, is it worth 1200 Microsoft points? Well, there’s only one way to find out…

For those of you who haven’t yet played Portal (and shame on you!), you’re in for a pleasant surprise. The original Portal, which casts you as a female Aperture Science test subject named Chell, is included. All of the mind bending puzzles, GLaDOS’s deadpan but consistently hilarious dialogue and excellent plot twists remain fully intact. To make it through the 19 Test Chambers unharmed, you are armed with a special gun that has the power to create twin glowing portals on certain sections of the surrounding walls, floor and ceiling. You’ll have to figure out how to use to avoid obstacles and progress to the safety of the elevator at the end of each stage, which can and will test your puzzle solving skills in the best ways possible.

 Your trip through the game’s 19 Test Chambers will be a short one, clocking in between two and three hours, which actually suits this version more than it did the original, given its Xbox Live Arcade trappings. Good thing there’s an almost limitless replay factor in the additional challenges waiting for you. To spice up this re-release, Valve has added several new challenge maps (14 to be exact) for seasoned Portal veterans and newcomers alike to chew on long after the main storyline is complete. These levels range in difficulty, from easy to mind-numbingly hard. They don’t just start easy and grow progressively harder as you complete them either; the challenge varies wildly from level to level, always keeping you on your toes and your mind sharp.

These challenge maps also track your stats in three areas, including how many times you fired the portal gun, how many steps you took and amount of time to complete each level. Each level has its own goals for you to meet in gold, silver and bronze tiers, presenting you with a medal for successful completion. I can already see how this will appear to manic completionists and through the magic of leaderboards.  It should be fun to use scores as bragging rights and attempt to beat your friends’ scores as well.

Unfortunately, in keeping with promises made earlier in this title’s development, Portal: Still Alive does not expand on the original storyline whatsoever. The slightly malevolent and constantly humorous guidance of GLaDOS is nowhere to be found in the new challenge maps, which is a disappointment. Without these two things, Portal loses some of what made it great -- its incredible personality. Granted, these new challenges are every bit as entertaining as the original maps but without the sense that Big Brother is watching and recording your every move, the game loses some of its urgency.

The good thing is this is still Portal after all, and the new challenges capture the essence of Portal’s finely tuned and incredibly rewarding puzzle gameplay. While I wouldn’t go quite as far as to say these levels surpass the original 19 test chambers in terms of creativity and unique challenge, the team behind these levels should be very proud of what they’ve accomplished here.

As far as the graphics are concerned, nothing much has changed from the original. Test Chambers, new and old, retain the sterile and pristine look and feel.  The visual effects are still great. It’s not visually amazing in the same way Gears of War or Bioshock might be but, even a year later, this is still a great looking title. The audio is relatively simplistic. Everything sounds as you’d likely expect it would so there’s nothing really mind-blowing there.  The best audio work in the game, by far, comes from GLaDOS, who shines with distinct character due to sharp writing and great voice work. It’s also worth noting that Portal still has one of the most creative ending songs to ever be featured in a game.

All things considered, Portal: Still Alive is a stellar game and a great entry point for newcomers to its unique brand of first-person puzzle gameplay. For the uninitiated, this is the best way to experience Portal, as absolutely nothing is lost in translation from its Orange Box iteration to the Xbox Live Arcade. Those of you who have played Portal already have a rather difficult choice to make. Is this worth $15? Admittedly, it does sting a bit that Xbox 360 owners have to pay for content PC gaming Portal owners have been experiencing for free and ultimately, it all boils down to whether or not you're okay with that. If the prospect of extending your experience with the added challenge maps or just the mere fact that you'll have more Portal to play makes you giddy inside then, by all means, get this game; if not, then you may want to look elsewhere.

At the end of the day, as I've said many times before, this is an amazing game. There's no excuse not to try it out, should you have the 629 MB of space on your Xbox 360's hard drive. It's without a doubt one of the best Xbox Live Arcade games to date and one of the best gaming experiences to come along in a long while. Even a year later, Portal's impact on the gaming industry still resonates quite strongly with gamers the world over. If you have 1200 Microsoft points to spare, Portal: Still Alive is an excellent title to spend them on.