In my previous post I took you down memory lane and my first experience with Portal way back in the distant past of 2009.

I want to try and write intelligently about Portal and my experience of playing it in the present day. Whether I achieve that I’m not sure. I’ll give it my best shot.

Obviously the hardware I’m playing Portal on is vastly different to my first time playing the game.

Back then I played the game on a Xbox 360 connected to a 1080p HD tv (which was 48in iirc). Whilst this time I’m playing Portal on a Nintendo Switch Lite.

How I’m playing the game is also very different. In 2009 I was between jobs. So after walking the wolf pack (I miss those three so much), and the chores that needed doing round the house. I was able to spend a considerable amount of time playing the game in a single session.

Now with the Switch Lite my gaming patterns have changed considerably. My gaming patterns are more like when I played a lot of handheld games on my handheld consoles. Sneaking in a half hour of play between doing something else, or playing whilst the tv has The Big Bang Theory on in the background. I’d say on the commute into work. But I drive these days instead of catching an over priced train.

I can’t say that if I owned a full blown Switch that this would change. I know it wouldn’t as I owned one and I used it solely as a handheld console.

Since downloading Portal onto my Switch Lite I’ve played through the first 15 test chambers aka levels (?) just as described above. Five minutes here, twenty there.

I actually think Portal works quite well played like this. It’s almost as if Portal was designed to be played like this. The test chambers seem the perfect length (at the moment) for a pick up and play for five minutes between doing something else.

I would have loved to be able to play through with the Developer Commentary switched on from the start. Sadly you have to unlock the commentary by completing the test chambers first.

There are bonus maps, which are from the Portal Still Alive release of the game on the 360 (if my Google skills haven’t let me down). Which is a nice touch, and added value. Even better you don’t have to unlock them to play. My play through of these new to me maps will be the subject of another post for sure.

As I venture back into the Aperture Science Laboratories it felt as if I hadn’t been away.

Obviously I still remember the major twists and turns within the overall story arc as it is. So there will be no major surprises. You can never recapture that first time experience. Still it’s been long enough that the test chambers seem familiar but fresh.

As you progress through the test chambers you gradually get taught new key skills that will be needed to complete the more complicated test chambers later on. Along with gaining your portal gun and the ability to create multiple portals.

As I said in the previous post Portal makes great use of the environment to tell what little story it has. As the wall of graffiti pictured above shows. It also does a great job of embedding clues to solving the puzzle, warnings, or at least the “skill” you should be using for a test chamber.

I feel there is at least one, if not two more posts to come on this. So I’m going to leave it there for the moment. Play some more Portal, the odd board game, gather my thoughts on what I’ve played in Portal, then write a post.

In the meantime what do you think of these two posts so far? Let me know in the comments.