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Portal on Mac Impressions
JudoChinX
May 14, 2010
Portal was originally released alongside Half-Life 2: Episode 2 in Valve's Orange Box. Still considered one of the best deals in gaming, the Orange Box offered several games for the price of one. Portal was the unexpected hit in this collection. I loved Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress, but Portal did something different. It kicked it up a notch. Bam! And just like that the world was hooked. Earning many Game of the Year awards from various game reviews, Portal did something different, and it did it well. Mixing a first person shooter and platforming puzzler wasn't something that we'd ever really seen before, at least to this degree. The risk paid off, and years later, this is still a game I frequently play through.
Steam has been released for Apple's Mac OSX, a huge step in making the Mac a viable gaming platform. To herald Steam's release, Valve is offering Portal for free until May 25th. I already owned three copies of the game (like I said, I love it), so why not pick it up again? The price was right, so I figured I'd give it a shot on my Mac Mini and see how it held up as the first title on Steam for Mac.
Regrettably, the visuals aren't quite what I was hoping for. The way a game looks is usually the first impression we have with a game, and having already played through Portal many times, it was the most noticeable change between this version and other versions I'd gone through. I'm running the game using the latest Mac Mini. It's not a powerhouse by any means, but it does tout a Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR3 memory, and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. It's no gaming rig, but it's formidable, and more than bests the recommended system requirements. I was sad to see the game default the graphics settings to either medium or low. Surely my system must be better than that. I figured I'd see how it ran with those settings, but even with those settings, the game was jerky and textures were blurry. Cranking up any settings in the game just made these symptoms more pronounced, and there's nothing worse than playing a jerky game. I understand that this is Valve's first entry into the Mac world, but I would have liked this to perform better.
Other than the game simply not looking as good as its PC and console cousins, there's currently a bug, which many people seem to be experiencing, that could very well ruin the entire Portal experience. At the moment, no matter what settings you use, all created portals are black instead of being a window to the other side of the portal. Many puzzles require precise timing and accuracy in platforming that require you to see what is on the other side of the portal. Being unable to do so is much like playing a Mario game if he had a broken leg. It's disabling. This is something I expect to be patched and soon, so don't let this particular point dissuade you from getting a great game for free. If it bothers you as much as it bothers me, you can always install the game, then come back to it once it's working better.
The rest of the content you've come to know and love, or perhaps have yet to discover, is in place. The same charm, excellent story, quirky humor, and challenging puzzles are waiting for you. If you're getting ready to gear up for Portal 2, or want to see what all the fuss is about, give it a shot. You owe it to yourself.
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