Valve have been making some pretty cool games for well over ten years by now, most popular of which was the Sci-Fi First Person Shooter, Half Life. Admittedly back in 1998 when Half-Life was first released I was probably drooling over Grim Fandango or some other point and click affair. I didn't really get into playing FPS' until the past few years.

It took many years of slaving away to build a competent PC before I really gave a hoot about modern gaming and was introduced to a game that was different to the many run of the mill shooters that are out there (I'm not going to mention any names, Master Chief) but this game had the puzzles I loved from my formative years on Monkey Island or - god forbid - Leisure Suit Larry, as well as this it had all the run n' gun fun that the kids crave these days. The game, You ask? Why it was Half-Life 2.
Yes, since that initial recommendation I was sucked into the Half-Life series and fast forward a few years I now have an impressive list of games on offer in my Steam Account (the revolutionary game purchase system, www.steampowered.com) and the latest of which is a quirky first person game called Portal.

Portal is somewhat of an enigma, it's first person sure, but you don't actually shoot anything...technically. You have a portal gun (or Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device if you want to get technical) which with a left click shoots out a blue portal, the right mouse button emits an orange portal, these link up and provide the player with a very different way of approaching puzzles and moving around.

Now Valve is well known for their in game physics, something most games developers slave over and hardly ever get right, thankfully Valve have got it right and have applied it well in Portal. If you were to say set one of the portals high up on the wall above you and put the other portal at the bottom of a three storey pit then this is where the physics you learnt in school get's put to good and dare I say, Fun, use. You jump down into the first portal at the bottom of the pit and once you enter it you are flung at great speed from the other portal you put up on the wall initially.

It's interesting approaches to the usual video game cliché of a huge unsurpassable chasm that sets Portal apart. But it's no one trick pony by any means, the story is enjoyable too. Without spoiling too much you assume the role of a scientific test subject and put through a series of "test chambers" to show how portals can be used, guided along by a robotic female voice. The computer's voice, the only speaking character in the game, is humorous with it's instructions and confusion when you decide it's time to escape this lab rat existence.

Portal started out as a tech demo for future "episodes" of the Half-Life series and was seen as a bonus when Valve recently released the Orange Box, a bundle of all Half-Life 2's games including the original and two episodic sequels, but also the sequel to popular online multiplayer game Team Fortress 2. I'm not much of a online gamer but even I can see that five games for a great price is a great way to get new players into the series and Valve's style itself. This has been made clearer with the choice to allow modern Next Gen consoles like the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 come to the party. In summary Portal has gained the most praise from a box of equally great games and even garnered a cult following (let's just say the phrase "The Cake is a Lie" is shaping up to be a new catchphrase for the geek masses) with it's beautifully simplistic graphics, brilliant voice acting and innovative gameplay it's no surprise there are online petitions being formed as I type ordering a second helping of Portal.

I bought Portal via Steam for the PC and it handled smoothly even on my aging 7800GT graphics card, the game can be bought separately on Steam ofr PC only whilst console versions and PC owners can purchase it as part of the Orange Box.

This Review was done by Mister Drumz, more game reviews can be found at his blog Mister Drumz @ Blogger.com