Recent reviews by TheXthDoctor

I'm really surprised by all the negative reviews on this mod. I thoroughly enjoyed the heck out of it as I was playing through. The puzzles were well-thought out, especially toward the end. The "ULCER" sequence was infuriating, but had that kind of DKCountry minecart feel where even mistakes that lead instantly to death can be fixed almost instantly. Actually, failure in test chambers seemed very forgiving in general because of the numerous--and unusually specific--respawn checkpoints.

I'm seeing the top complaint is usually related to the voice acting. Sure, it's not GLaDOS or Wheatley, but you know what? It's different. It's a good different. Nigel (voiced by Chris Moral) introduced a character that actually seems to care about the player (who, as far as I know goes unnamed, but bares a striking resemblance to Chell once you can finally see yourself through portals), but still maintains that subtelty that you may or may not be killed at the end of testing. It's like an American Wheatley, but smarter and less potential to turn power-mad.

The music is another great part of the game. The vast majority of the music used in test chambers is completely original, and very reminiscent of the Portal 2 soundtrack. There's not much else to say about it; I just like it, and music is a great selling point for me in general.

However, the game is obviously nowhere near perfect. I do have two big complaints: the length of the game, and the ending. In total, there's 25 actual test chambers--a group of 16 followed by another group of 9. There's a handful of puzzles between chambers here and there, and a few at the beginning before you actually hit "Test Chamber 01" with the big white sign as we're all used to. The game length is comparable to that of Portal 1. Although I spent just over 3 hours playing, the amount of time spent dying because of dumb mistakes artificially inflated what would otherwise be a 1-1.5 hour game. The inflation isn't the problem. With the generous checkpoint system, I'd actually say dying frequently isn't a bad design flaw, because you can almost instantly get up and try again. The problem is that there is a lot more potential to this game than you see in its 25 test chambers. The gun you're given only uses the repulsion and propulsion gels (blue and orange, respectively). You could easily double the length of the game by integrating the use of the conversion gel (to place portals) and cleansing gel (water), and making puzzles with them accordingly. Unfortunately, a lot of puzzle elements relied on just setting up long jumps (a strip of orange and a spot of blue) in order to be able to cross larger gaps.

(SPOILER? alert, skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid) My second complaint, the end of the game, is because of how dissapointing is was. There was no significant boss battle outside of painting a small handful of turrets blue so they don't shoot you as you're forced to cross into their line of sight. The end consists of a mandatory platform ride into your death by fire, and it is completely inescapable and followed by a metal remix of "Still Alive" for the credits. At least, you finally get your "cake," but instead of cake this game has Citranium, "Science in a can!" (Aperture's version of what looks like orange soda). Because of this disappointing ending, the ENTIRE SECOND ROUND OF TEST CHAMBERS has absolutely no point to them. The first part of the game has a legitimate (and somewhat recycled) motive: prevent reactor meltdown. Nigel wants to make sure you're capable of it, but after you finish the shutdown of the old reactor, there's no motivation to continue. Escape? There's no promise of that. (The supposed escape sequence leads to a fake outdoors area that's actually just more test chambers) Citranium? Cake is a better motivational plot tool. You have your suspicions that Nigel is going to kill you, but Portal has a history of giving you an out instead of just killing you straight out. Instead of hope for survival, the game forces your inevitable sub-4000 degrees Kelvin death, and that's it. Disappointing. (Later edit: Okay, so there is an alternate ending, but it's not much better and at least hints at a sequel. I would probably also play that because I'd like to see what else can be done with the mechanics introduced by the paint gun.)

Personally, I recommend it. Even with its problems, it's still a fun game that feels like it belongs in the Portal universe. It's a cheap mod (maybe not cheap compared to other mods, but I'm not complaining about getting a game for under $5), and I'd like to see more paint gun gimmicks in the future.