Portal

RSS

Portal is the most subversive game ever

This modern masterpiece shakes the FPS genre to the very core

Words: Joe McNeilly, GamesRadar US

4 Comments

Email this article

Bookmark

Bookmark this Article

A secondary antagonist manifests in the form of security turrets scattered throughout the facility. These turrets speak in robotic voices and open fire immediately upon seeing the test subject. Their boyish voices and small stature makes the turrets seem inconsequential, however they are deadly and can kill Chell very quickly. The turrets reintroduce the traditional masculine themes of guns and control, but in an unconventional way. Turrets will make statements such as, "Hello, friend," "Can I help you?" and "Dispensing product." The purposefully cute, non-threatening dialog belies a latent destructive purpose. The turrets are easily deactivated by tipping them over, which is accomplished through the clever placement of portals. The power of the feminine overcomes aggression without the use of force.

Another non-traditional character, the Weighted Companion Cube, represents male identity in Portal. Though it is an inanimate object, the Cube is referred to as an idealized companion. The Cube is used to hold down giant buttons that open doors around the Enrichment Center, and features pink hearts emblazoned on each side. The Cube must be carried around one entire level, and is burdensome despite its usefulness. GLaDOS encourages Chell to develop emotional attachment to the Cube, despite its strictly utilitarian function of holding down buttons. Ultimately, Chell incinerates the Weighted Companion Cube, symbolizing a mental unburdening from the need for approval from a father figure.

Portal successfully reinvents both the "first-person" and the "shooter" elements of its genre in a manner that celebrates the empowerment of the feminine rather than subjugating it to objectification by the male gaze. The force of its message is amplified through its unconventional deployment of adversaries and genre archetypes. In doing so, it subtly yet powerfully points out to the entire industry that games needn't exist solely to service the libido.

Ed. note: a small factual correction has been made regarding the pronoun used to refer to the Weighted Companion Cube. The essence of the argument remains unchanged. The author's memory was faulty and he apologizes for this error.

« Prev
1
2
3
4

4 Comments

Kittie - 1 month 2 hours ago

Did this "guy" even play Portal? My brother, boyfriend, and I ALL played Portal together.

The turrets had FEMALE voices, OBVIOUS female voices. The woman who voiced GLaDoS also voiced the turrets. And how the hell was destroying the stupid companion cube a male figure? It was a pixelated box you needed to get through the level, so you HAD to depend on it, otherwise never get through the level.

And those who play first-person shooter games are not "forced" to like violence, it's how the game is designed. I'm female, and I've played Halo 1,2 and 3, Perfect Dark (N64 version), and Gears of War. I didn't love violence when I played those games, and I still don't love violence.

The game was anything BUT what this guy reviewed it as, and anyone who's looking for even a half-decent review should look elsewhere.

The guy who reviewed this needs to go back and actually play the game, then write a better review.

Portal was a fun and interesting game, not the feminist trash he reviewed it to be.

Report

low_growl - 22 days 23 hours ago

Alright. Last things first.

The guy above enjoyed Portal. He found it refreshing and a great take on today's gaming industry.He didn't say anythying about it being feminist trash. If you were implying that you thought the fact he thought the game was feminist, and therefore you think he degraded the game through your narrow standards, then your comment was voided by a subjected opinion without looking at both sides of the argument. Feminist isn't bad, it's just different.

The 'love for violence' thing was bringing attention to how a majority of new games involve simply killing the target, puzzles and entertainment restricted wihtin the gaming environment by how the game was designed, so, in part, you were correct. He was merely stating that he found Portal refreshing in that it didn't need to fall into menial stereotypes of what constitutes a 'good' game to entertain. In other words, you didn't just have to kill to have fun.

And the symbolism of the companion cube being male directly stipulates from the article, pulls itself from the already-discussed issues. It's a logical argument that anyone should be able to follow.

Personally, I really liked the article, even if I don't personally share all of the views. It was a clever and psychological approach to a clever and psychological game. I believe that, while some of the elements were present, the freudian approach to some of the views expressed above are a little outdated, and we live in a developing society with new ways of thinking emerging and the old 'sexist' and 'feminist' views are slowly begins to be uprooted by monogonous views that have no need to express sexuality.

The game itself was great, so all in all all three representatives have the same opinion, just in different thought scructures.

Report

cerdoenbrama - 5 days 5 hours ago

Dude I love FPSÂ´s, I like violence, blood and killing, and IÂ´m old school, IÃ© played almost everything, from wolfenstein to gears of war, I played portal and found it quite different from all the other FPS, perhaps a bit too short, but challenging and extremely cool.

All that feminist crap you wrote is just a racionalization, is like we say down in MÃ©xico, "una chaqueta mental" (a mental jerkoff) you took the fact of the female non oversexed female as the main character and started building several layers of bullshit over it.

The problem is not that, the internet is full of harmless bullshit, the real problem is that youÂ´re ruinig the game, for me at least.

I almost can see the feminaziÂ´s forcing themselves to play portal in order to make a stupid point instead of playing it just to have some fun, like itÂ´s supposed to be.

Then every dimwit stupid enough to care about that, will put to doubt the existence of my balls just because I happen to be a male who likes a fucking feminist game.

Report

Tymiegie - 2 days 3 hours ago

I thought the article was compelling. It wasn't a review just a retrospective of the game and a possible artistic statement it's creators were trying to make. I don't know if it's really all that complex, but it's still interesting to think about.

Report

Showing 1-4 of 4 Comments