How difficult is this game?

[VortigauntLover]

I finally cleared the hard drive space for this game and it's starting the veeerry looooooong and slooooww download process :hmph:

Anyway, how hard is this game? Anything that will really stump me? Are there difficulty levels, if so what kind? Will I need lightning fast reflexes? Oh, and how long is it?

Thanks, can't wait. I listened to the end song on YouTube and it was fantastic!

"Maybe Black Mesa....that was a joke, haha, fat chance"

 

[Dekstar]

If you listened to the end song before playing the game, you just ruined it.


For shame.

 

[tetsuo2040]

If you listened to the end song before playing the game, you just ruined it.


For shame.

Yep. No point playing it now.

Uninstall thx.

 

[Zenith Lee]

For a puzzle game, the default levels are pretty easy. The first 10 levels pretty much guide you through all the game mechanics in a very "hold-your-hand" manner. Some will require reflexes though, there are a few timed puzzles. Always mind your surroundings.

The real challenges comes from the "medal" maps, after you beat the game once.

Oh, and Yes, you ruined the game already by listening to the credits song before you play.

 

[Absinthe]

A lot of the chambers in the first "half" of the game are mainly introductory in getting you familiar with techniques. I'd say it gets more challenging by the last few chambers. It's not so much difficult as much as it requires patience to figure everything out and solving the puzzles effectively.

I'd say things only get really hard when you start trying to get gold in a lot of the challenge maps. You might want to kick something.

 

[jiroscop]

Hi, there!
I am new here and I love Portal. The main game itself is prety easy actualy! Play it for mastering the technique and ofcourse for the great humor. I hope this is only a demo for this revolutionary game mechanique(Narbacular Drop meat Source ) I think Valve is going to create big game with portal gun after the good reception of Portal.

 

[Jintor]

Newsflash: Portal is the big game. They'll probably just build on it.

 

[VortigauntLover]

I don't care if I ruined myself with the end song (how can it possibly spoil anything anyway. It's extremely addictive but pretty much nonsense, I mean it's pretty obvious you're gonna end up killing the robot woman voice, unless there's something else in the song that I'll figure out half-way through my playthrough, although I'm still not sure whether is not the cake is really a lie...I'll wait till I play the game for that). I always somehow manage to get my games ruined by accident.

Examples:

I found out that *EPISODE TWO VERY ENDING SPOILERS FOR REAL*

Spoiler

Eli got his brain teh eaten

as Episode Two was 90% downloaded, because I was browsing another forum and some moron has posted "Episode one spoilers" and seeing as how I'd beaten EP1 a year ago I highlighted, and it turned out he had misidentified them and they actually ending spoilers of EP2! :hmph:

I was playing the Zelda game for Wii and I thought I was close to the end so I so asked on a board if I was. They said I was on the third to last dungeon, but then I got a PM. I open it and there's huge ending spoilers in giant font and pictures of the ending scene. Before I could exit out of the PM it was too late and I had seen it all

Not a game but I was reading a post on another message board and someone posted a link to their brand new 5000 dollar computer. I clicked on it and there was the last page of the final Harry Potter book scanned and in image form. I accidentally read too much of it before I realized what it was and so that was spoiled.

Pretty much everything I play nowadays has been spoiled ;( besides, I'm into Portal for the gameplay. Episode Two semi-spoilers Portal anyway. :O

Yep. No point playing it now.

Uninstall thx.

Yep, by listening to the end song I have completely experienced the entire game, every single detail of the story and I now completely know how to solve every puzzle in the game

:|

P.S. 20% downloaded....

 

[Absinthe]

But the song really is awesome and you probably have deflated your experience somewhat now.

 

[VortigauntLover]

But the song really is awesome and you probably have deflated your experience somewhat now.

How?

I'd like to see the logic behind that :rolling:

 

[FriedchikenCamo]

Well, by playing through the game, you get a sense of how psychotic GlaDOS is, and the intensity of the final scene makes a nice contrast to the song's whimsical tone.

I don't think you spoiled the game for yourself though. I also tend to stumble upon spoilers accidentally, but apparently *that scene* in Ep2 came as a complete surprise, so I was lucky with the Orange Box with regard to playing in a virgin state.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Well, when you have finished the game, done with the maniacal overtones and are like 'phew... that was awesome' Here comes this great end-song. A total surprise. You've heard that it was awesome, but you can't get the complete experience unless you've earned it. It's like eating the cake before the dinner.

 

[Garbel]

It's like eating the cake before the dinner

It's a lie

 

[Cheomesh]

The game story maps where incredibly simple. Almost inane.

 

[Oppressor]

You'll have to use your brain, thats for sure. And see how well you adapt to all things you learn at each level.

 

[flamekiller]

I wouldn't say hearing Still Alive before playing the game ruined anything for me. Maybe, as FriedChiken said, I didn't get the contrast between GLaDOS's personality and the whimsical tone of the song to its full effect, but it certainly didn't spoil the game.

As for the actual gameplay, no, it wasn't epically challenging. Some parts were difficult, certainly, but they were solved with a little persistence. The special challenges are more difficult. Some of the "difficult" ones aren't so much, and some of them I have no idea what to do. When it comes to fewest steps, fewest portals, shortest time ... yeesh. That's when (the latter, particularly) precision and fast reflexes are gonna come into play.

More thoughts, I'll spoiler-tag it just to be safe, but I don't think it's particularly spoilerific:

Spoiler

Foreshadowing seems to be a major undertone or theme throughout the game. Even early on, we can see how GLaDOS is going insane (if she isn't there already), and it sort of compounds on itself. I think this applies to the game as a whole - the more difficult challenges are just a glimpse at what's to come. Plus, I think it was mentioned in the commentary (which I haven't listened to much of yet) that Portal was an experiment in a type of gameplay for future development. I think it's safe to say we should expect more. All that also sounded better in my brain, but it's 3 am, so ...

 

[jiroscop]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=c0KP0836S8k
Video walkthrough for test chamb 18 with only 5 portals. The game have more possibilities then I thought. The wall climb is a glitch but the firs half is amazing.

 

[Bulletbrain]

"Still Alive" is the icing on the (non-existing) cake. The lyrics are MUCH more enjoyable if you have beaten the game cause you know exactly what it means.

As for the difficulty, I'd have to say.... not very. At least on the normal levels. Advanced and Challenge maps are tough though.