The rules of the “favorite game series” posts, as I understand them, is that there must have been more than one game, the games must have the series name in the title, I must have played them, and if another in that series were to be made, I would definitely play that.
Replaying the first few hours of FGS #5, Dungeon Siege, confirmed that I’m still a big fan of party based isometric RPGs, even when they are insanely difficult. Replaying Portal reminded me just how much I value great writing in video games.
Both Portal games are traditional (and short) puzzle games that follow the traditional rhythms of puzzle games. Set the stage with a novel mechanic (portals that connect two places in the first game; paints with various abilities in the second; inter-dimensional cameras in the cancelled prequel), then gradually add more tools to the toolbox until at the end, the player is confidently and creatively combining all the elements to solve incredibly difficult puzzles.
If this were all to Portal, it would not have have been nearly as compelling. When Gabe Newell hired the Narbacular Drop team straight from college based on their killer demo, he knew he had the core of a really good puzzle game. Around that game, the team built a much simpler shell, the monochromatic Aperture Science labs, and added the key element that would make Portal and its sequel so memorable: Old Man Murray.
Old Man Murray was a game news and review site written by Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw. Their sense of humor and critical look at game and level design transformed game journalism. When they were handed the writing duties for Portal, they removed the entire story about a no-kneed princess stuck in a castle and replaced it with GlaDOS, a psychotic artificial intelligence who wants to crush your spirit and then kill you. With neurotoxin.
Portal 2 expanded the world by bringing you back for even more “testing”, but this time, GlaDOS, still recovering from the thrashing you gave her at the end of the first game, becomes your unlikely ally against an even more hilariously devious foe, while providing an unasked for but increasingly bizarre backstory of Aperture Labs’ founder, Cave Johnson, voiced by national treasure and yellow M&M J.K.Simmons.
The Portal games changed puzzle games and writing in games forever. If there’s ever a Portal 3, I’m first in line.
