The sequel: One of the most wildly inventive and original titles of our generation, the Portal games are based entirely around a central conceit and a series of puzzles which can only be solved by a deceptively simple central gimmick. The player character is equipped with only one weapon, a gun which can produce "portals" for you to travel through. Zap one on the wall next to you, one next to that far-off platform, and you can pop through to said platform. Although more often than not you'll be doing confusing physics puzzles involving jumping down long holes to catapult yourself even longer distances out the other side, or dropping boxes onto gun turrets. And then you don't even get the long-promised cake at the end as a reward for all that strenuous mental activity. What a rip. Still, at least the songs on the credits are good. The original: Except Portal isn't wildly inventive and original at all! Well, it is technically, but the people who made it had already come up with their unique idea years before. Prior to being folded into Valve the makers of Portal were a small indie studio called Nuclear Monkey Software, which they formed whilst studying at the DigiPen Institute of Technology. Their senior game project was a title called Narbacular Drop, where the player controls two interconnected portals that can be placed on any non-metallic surface. Sounds familiar, huh? Almost everything else was completely different - that trademark sense of humour wasn't quite in place, and instead of the sleek sci-fi setting you played as a fantasy princess captured by a demon breaking out of her prison with the portals - but the central mechanics, right down to the portals being blue and orange? Totally the same. So totally a sequel, right?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
