By Schism | 17/08/2009 - 18:27:18 | Views: 1511
It’s not a very long game, and that’s a good thing if you ask me. After 18 chambers of puzzling you can get kind of tired of all that thinking and puzzling. But when you reach #19, that’s where it gets really interesting. Here’s where the actual story starts and where it’s more than puzzling. You can finally begin the very short road towards ‘the understanding’. It’s all about getting to know more of the mystery of the abandoned Aperture Science Laboratories. But before you know it, the game is over (no not in the fire) and you still have dozens of questions.
That’s where the unofficial Portal mod called "Portal : Prelude" comes in... as far that's possible.
"The Enrichment Center is committed to the well being of all participants. Cake and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test. Thank you for helping us help you help us all."
When we got that first slice of Portal-pie, we all knew that Valve showed us that there could be serious FPS without the real ‘shooting’. Some people like Nicolas Grevet aka NykO18 really loved the taste of Portal and used their skills to do something serious around this mysterious game.
In January 2008 Nicolas was still searching for a new project to work on when his eye fell on Portal. It was out for over 4 months and no-one had done something big with it. Also the mysterious story behind Portal was kinda vague, so a prequel would be perfect. At this time there was no news of Valve working on an official prequel, but 5 months later it was there. A later news-update suggested that it also could be a sequel. But this wouldn't stop him from finishing the mod.
With 2 other designers, Nicolas was able to create 19 chambers and fully test, debug and polish them before the release 9 months later. The result is a completely finished mod of Portal, and not one of low quality. The fact that Nicolas did all this in his spare time (being a student and employee doesn’t leave you much time) is remarkable because Prelude has more or less the same playtime as Portal and didn’t lose any gaming quality. Although it’s harder than Portal and you’ll feel that it’s not a Valve production it’s still worth the download, definitely if you are one of those Portal freaks that are eager to try other difficulties, chambers and to learn more about the mystery.
You can find more about the mod itself on the next page
"Spectacular. You appear to understand how a portal affects forward momentum, or to be more precise, how it does not. Momentum, a function of mass and velocity, is conserved between portals. In layman's terms, speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out."
Now that you have more notion about the developers and the idea behind Portal : Prelude, let’s have a look at the mod itself, the story and the gameplay.
The facility seems more ‘alive’ by that, for as far that can be. Instructions by the employees are not as monotone like those of GlaDOS and that’s what makes it less boring. Don’t get me wrong please, Portal isn't boring but the Aperture facility is. The funny thing is that you can actually see some of the employees through blurred windows. Although they’re all static, like they’re rusted to the chairs or floor. It gives the same abandoned look as Portal, except for the final stage where you hand in the Portal gun and actually go through a section where there are employees working and celebrating the end of the testing. I thought the prequel would be way more dynamic than that, with employees working all over the place because GlaDOS wasn't up yet. But Prelude has just the same desolation as Portal. It would really give a livelier swing to the mod if there would be some human movement besides the one of Abby herself and just one single wave from an employee through the whole game.
"And now for something completely different."
Of course it are not the same chambers as in Portal, but all customs made by the Prelude develop team. It’s fun to try other chambers like in map packs, but the story is what it makes different from a regular map pack.
Stuff like timed walls and ceilings that come down and crush you, special energetic walls that beam you to hell, twisted gravity fields, and what not are used in Prelude. All those give a more independent feeling when playing, and not that familiar ‘Valve’ feeling that we all know so good.
It's like going to another country where it's warm and sunny but the only problem is that sunscreen is way too expensive so people rather burn than hand out all their money. If the previous is unclear, let me just give some examples : You can sometimes find a bug and complete the chamber a little bit easier than meant to be. You also have to push it as far as you can with some chambers or else you won’t be able to get to the exit. Going into a portal when falling down, standing on the edge of platforms to get a little bit further and make it to the other side or just to miss the destructive path of those energy balls are some of them. In general, some chambers are kinda far fetched and unnecessary.
Want some cake ? Go to the next page !
"The cake is a lie"
Again, cake and a party are promised when finishing the course. It seems like that was always a tradition of Aperture and not something that GlaDOS made up to motivate you 'till death. After "anesthetizing" your trusted Companion Cube and handing in the Portal gun, you can go and celebrate the testing. But then again, when you walk in the room where they're waiting for you with balloons, party hats, and a big cake, they tell you that there won't be a party and cake. Because GlaDOS is minutes from being plugged in for the first time, they won't want to miss it. You'll have to ... well... I'm really not at liberty to say. In the meantime... this is where I get off.
So with this review of Portal : Prelude almost done, here are some general thoughts.
It's a clean mod, you can see that there's been a lot of work put in to it. Although an exciting brain training-game never could do you harm, Prelude is kind of far fetched if you ask me. I had to use the official walkthrough (available on their website) because of the complexity of the chambers, but I'm not reviewing myself. This is more than thinking alone, this is thinking and trying 'till it works because you have to be precise much of the time.. and sometimes not! I came across a few bugs that would let you to finish the stages a bit easier. Also, the voices that are recorded for the employees could be done much better. It still sounds robotic, especially the cursing. The commentary that's included is only in French, but the subtitles are available in English (thank God for that).
Like in Portal, the real story starts in the last stages. The rest of the chambers is all puzzling and listening to Mike, Erik and Peter. But I have to admit that it's really fascinating and addictive to get to know more of the story when you're near the end.
The Companion Cube on the right picture is representing the rating of this mod. If you're not crazy about it, anesthetize it and save your bandwidth. Else if you're a Portal-maniac, keep it and love it with all your heart! But get ready to think with portals please or else you won't make it!
... btw, after playing this you'll see that Half-Life and Portal's stories are related in a way, I won't tell you more...
I meant the next page, there's your cake.
