Portal Is Even Better When It’s FREE!
I first played “Portal” about two years ago, about the same time that I first heard of Jonathan Coulton. His song “Still Alive” made me want to try Portal because I knew that he wrote it for the game. I really enjoyed the game, with its spatial puzzles and funny dialog.
I finished Portal and then got a free copy of “Half-Life 2″ on the Steam network, but because the Steam client was such a resource hog, I deleted it after finishing Half-Life. Now I wish that I had not because Valve is offering Portal for free on Steam until May 24th.
I gave Portal another try this week since I had already played BioShock 2 to death. But first I had to install the Steam client all over again. Once I figured out where to download it and got it installed, getting my free copy of Portal was pretty easy. It just took an entire day to download through Steam.
Portal is just as fun as I remember it. It’s also just as short! I finished all nineteen levels in two and a half hours. It’s pretty easy when you know how to solve all the puzzles. Even though it has been two years since I last visited the Aperture Science Research Center, it all came back pretty quickly.
The six bonus rooms that are set apart from the main storyline are much harder. It took me longer to solve the level 18 bonus map than it did to complete the entire game. That level is a really hard! I died countless times. Then there are the custom maps that you can download from the Internet.
For example, there are forty maps in the Flash Map pack from WeCreateStuff.com, adapted from their Flash-based 2D Portal game. I’ve read on many Portal forums that these are some of the best maps available outside of the original game. Unfortunately, the Flash maps require a copy of Half-Life 2 to run.
It kind of makes me upset that I deleted that game a long time ago, since I would really like to play those maps now. I had to start a new account on Steam because I couldn’t locate my old one, but I might be able to find references to it in old e-mails. If it still exists, maybe I can move my old Half-Life 2 registration to my new account?
Portal is still free for a few more days. If you’ve never played it, I would highly recommend downloading a copy and giving it a shot. The game is challenging, especially if you’ve never played it before. The best part is the enemy AI named GLaDOS. She has a lot of personality, for a computer, and really brings a lot of life to the game. And hey, it’s free!
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