Review by Scutshakes - Gamma Energy mod for Portal

Gamma Energy offers (according to the level select) 26 main chapters with a relatively quite long escape from Aperture at the end, that doesn't seem to be split up into selectable chapters for some reason.

It also includes 9 advanced chambers, 17 challenge chambers, and 3 advanced challenge chambers, all of which of course are modified versions of existing chambers, and 3 bonus chambers (2 of which, unfortunately, are also modified versions of existing chambers)! There's quite a bit of content in this mod. But is it worth it?

The game reuses all of the dialogue of the official game (and even reuses lines more than once..really?), yet somehow manages to make a disconnection between Glados and the player. Perhaps this is purely because I know this is a mod that deliberately reuses dialogue instead of taking it genuinely. Or because I heard all the grin-worthy lines before and they don't have any charm here. Regardless, as a returning player it just feels lazy and ineffective. I suppose it's better than no dialogue at all. Actually no, I would have preferred that.

Now there were a few chambers that I thought were genuinely pretty good, and I felt that a couple were quite elaborate in set-up, but that doesn't necessarily make them complicated. Obviously this is different for everyone, but I found most of these to be very easy, and this is coming from someone that thought vanilla Portal had some tough ones. Many of the later chambers are easier than the ones at the beginning, and they become increasingly less satisfying to figure out with uninteresting solutions. These puzzles also fail to properly combine, or even attempt to combine, various elements together. For example, there were a few puzzles that are almost entirely of the "use momentum to jump up really high a couple times" variety.

This may be a little contradictory, but I really enjoyed a couple of the puzzles focused entirely on cubes and switches..those were fun when I had epiphanies. Again, subjective criticism here.

There are many puzzles that focus on glass breaking. Yes, you remember glass. Now breaking it is a core mechanic! And let me tell you is it TEDIOUS. Especially when you have to grab a robot and tip him over to get him shooting...that actually happens quite a bit in the game. Not fun or satisfying at all. The pace is slowed down in another when you are forced to gather about 5 items and then drop them one by one into a room of robots to tip them over. No I didn't really give away a solution, it's pretty obvious thanks to ceiling markers and conveniently placed platforms that scream "shoot me!".

Another new mechanic in addition to breaking glass is controlling the flow of large tubes that carry spheres or cubes. Once you figure out what you're supposed to do, these are braindead simple. A complete waste of an opportunity. I felt like, instead of being challenged as a competent player, I was treated like a child. "Okay, play with this toy for a little while now." Sorry dad but this toy sucks.

The final boss...oh..the final boss is not redeeming unfortunately. While Glados, with her childish berating and comical "personality spheres", carried you through a tedious game of "point the rocket through the portal", nothing saves you here as you try to blast apart pneumatic tubes in this climax. If you want to call it that.

I will admit that I had to consult a walkthrough a couple of times, but this was not due to not knowing how to do something..but trying to figure out WHAT I was trying to do. So many times I thought to myself "Is that really all I had to do?", "That wasn't so clear", and "Do I really have to do THIS AGAIN?"

I can tell a lot of effort was put into this, but the end result, personally, was mediocre. If you're just wanting more portal out of your portal, give it a shot, but it's not challenging or engaging to this returning player because of its near-identical plot, subpar chambers, and unclear journey through Aperture's depths.