[MEDIUM SPOILERS]
Portal, developed by Valve, is a first person puzzle game that revolves around using and shooting portals to traverse through a test facility. It was originally developed for Windows, XBOX 360, and PS3, but has since been ported to Mac OS, Android, and Nintendo Switch. The gameplay is split into stages, or “test rooms”, where the player must manipulate objects such as buttons, cube, and balls of light to activate moving platforms, open doors, and reach the elevator that takes them to the next room. The game seamlessly integrates the gameplay with the narrative of the game, weaving together in-world onboarding with new mechanics. The mechanics and setting of the puzzles enable the player to feel like they’re learning to do things that they shouldn’t be able to do, which is essential to the plot.
From the beginning, the player discovers the mechanics through in-universe, diegetic cues. For example, the AI overseeing the test chambers, GLaDOS, explains snarkily how momentum is preserved through portals: “In layman’s terms: speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.” This clues the player into how they can use portals to overcome obstacles and reach high places, through the use of the test proctor GLaDOS. Throughout, GLaDOS also makes silly comments about how unsafe the lab is, for example: “Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an ‘unsatisfactory’ mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck!” Through this, the first environmental hazard, toxic liquid, is framed as an in-universe “test” rather than an arbitrary obstacle. It also tells the player more about the world they’re in, revealing that maybe this lab isn’t exactly what it seems. For me, this feels like I’m succeeding against the odds and against a slightly adversarial “test proctor”.
[the warnings on the wall of room 8, where there is the first environmental hazard]
In the escape section, the gameplay stays the same, while the framing changes completely, giving the player the feeling that they’re breaking the rules. At the end of the last test chamber, the platform the player is on is plunged into fire. To survive, the player has to use the skills they’ve learned and the portal gun to go against the instructions and escape through the operational rooms of the facility. This sequence uses established mechanics in a new context to give the player a feeling of heightened stakes. This creates a new kind of fun, fulfilling the fantasy of an escape sequence.
[the player being plunged into fire after completing the last stage]
The escape sequence breaks the pattern of the previous puzzles, since the game is no longer verifying that you’re going the right way. Previous puzzles have a neat ending, where they enter the elevator and go to the next room, letting the player know that they’ve gotten the correct solution. In this section, the player has free reign, breaking outside the box of verifiable solutions, doing whatever they can to survive.
[the player using the preservation of momentum to reach a place where they “shouldn’t be” during the escape sequence]
Though this game has little overt violence, and does not ask the player to be violent towards other humans, it may be triggering for players who have had poor experiences in the medical system, especially mental health institutions. Throughout, GLaDOS gaslights the player, pretending that it is not trying to harm the player. For example, after the first stage with toxic liquid, GLaDOS says “Please note that any appearance of danger is merely a device to enhance your testing experience,” which is a lie. This gaslighting, removal autonomy, and test-subject dynamic is reminiscent of the way mental health institutions sometimes remove agency from people who have been institutionalized, framing it as “for their own good”. As a designer, this means that one should be thoughtful as to how violence shows up not just in obvious ways, like with bullets and bombs, but in more subtle, social, and emotional ways.
[the elevator from room to room, which has padded walls somewhat similar to solitary confinement rooms]
