Review: Portal: Still Alive (X360)

Back at E3 '08, VALVe surprised and excited many gamers by announcing Portal: Still Alive, and expansion for the award-winning Portal, which was one of the five fantastic games in The Orange Box. The day has finally come, and Portal: Still Alive is finally released.

First: Portal by itself was an absolutely fantastic game. It was fun, challenging and humorous all at the same time. The Portal Gun was something that hadn't been seen in games before. You played as Chell, a female Test Subject for Aperture Science. Throughout the game, you were guided by the often witty and sarcastic GLADoS, a talking supercomputer who would taunt, threaten and applaud you, sometimes all at once.

Portal: Still Alive is not a full-out sequel. It's an expansion of sorts. It adds 14 new Challenge Maps in the game, all of which amazingly creative and super fun to play. The maps are based off a fan-made map pack which was based on Portal: The Flash Version, so if you play through P:TFV, you not only get the general gist of Portal itself, but you also get a sneak-peek of sorts at P:SA.

Since it's based on the Flash version, which had several hazards that weren't in the original Portal, a few of those hazards are in P:SA. In turn, P:SA "feels" a lot different than Portal. P:SA requires an entirely different way of solving the puzzles, so you'll have to learn to "Think With Portals" all over again. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing. The thing that I always liked about Portal was that it never seemed to get so frustrating that I would want to quit, and the same goes for P:SA. Even though it can get frustrating, it's never too much.

Now for the bad. For one, it's an Xbox Live exclusive, at least for a while. It's also the biggest XBLA game right now (it's about 630Mb). This isn't necessarily bad, but it can take up quite a bit of space if you don't have a very big Hard Drive. Next, since it's basically just a Map Pack, GLADoS isn't in any of the 14 new Challenge Maps. A lot of people will say that since it doesn't have GLADoS, then it's no good. That is not true. It's still amazingly fun, just not as humorous. The last thing is a problem that everyone had with the first: it's ridiculously short. Most people can beat Portal in about 3 hours. I beat P:SA in a little over two.

Portal: Still Alive is a fantastic game, and an even more fantastic deal. 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15) may seem a little steep, but it's well worth it. If you haven't played Portal then this is a definite buy, and if you have played it, then you should still buy this, as even though it contributes nothing to the storyline, it's still a fantastic game, and on top of that, the original Portal in it's entirety is also in there. 5 out of 5.