Portal: Alive & Kicking – Review
♫ STAY UNTIL YOUR LOVE IS… ♫
After over 15 years of development, Portal: Alive & Kicking finally released almost a month ago! Now that the initial hype has gone, I've played the game fully three times, and my thoughts have settled, I am ready to write my review of it!
Portal: Alive & Kicking is a mod for Portal 2 made by Rhubarb & Rhubarb, who have done other Portal mods in the past, but this is by far their biggest one. It has been in development since at least July 2011, less than three months after Portal 2's release. It's a full remake of Portal 1 in Portal 2, using its style, physics, and even design philosophies.
The start of the game is mostly the same, the only really big gameplay change is that they changed Chamber 01 to be like the Portal 2 version, which I really like, as I think that version is much clearer and better, especially for still being during the portals' introduction.
However, the really big changes come from the escape sequence. Instead of the darker and grimier closed-off observation rooms of Aperture Science in the original Portal 1, we get the much more open, slightly megalophobia-inducing freight-like structures from Portal 2. This changes the gameplay in these sections to be much more focused on exploration (similar to how Portal 2 was) rather than just puzzles and traversal. A lot of sections have multiple routes you can take where only one puts you back to the path you need to take, but they are always telegraphed quite well, and even the "wrong" paths do take you to interesting set pieces, like different views of the facility, observation rooms, and even a few secrets!
We do eventually get into the more mechanical areas of Aperture, and I really like what they did for those. For some things like pistons, or the tube that takes you to Chamber 09, you have to use some buttons and levers to actually activate them, which are in spots that are very easy to find, but also give me a feeling of actually meddling with the facility a little bit, which I really like.
I also like how they introduced the turrets in the escape sequence, where they feel much more natural, rather than simply being GLaDOS's death traps. All of these sections makes it feel much more like you're against the whole environment of Aperture Science rather than just GLaDOS, and I really like that interpretation of it!
The openness of the escape sequence is definitely my favourite part of the remake, it makes it feel much more fresh, and it also allows for big changes in gameplay that I also really like. I mentioned the multiple paths thing, but I feel like this also really helped the section with the rocket turret — which is the most underutilized element in Portal 1 — feel much more intentional and unique, as you use it more than the original game and in a more open environment, plus you get to revisit another test chamber other than 09 because of it, which I really love as a detail.
I think this also made the ending turret fight feel much more interesting and tactical, as you can't portal on all the surfaces, and I feel like you have to hide more and generally be much more careful than the original, there is even a little bit of platforming!
Of course, the other big change of this game compared to the original Portal 1 are the visuals and audio. This applies to literally everything and its most obvious with the graphics, everything looks like it did in Portal 2: the walls, the cubes, the doors, the elevators, the platforms, the goo, GLaDOS herself, literally everything.
My favourite visuals are definitely from the advanced chambers, which now look like the overgrown chambers from the start of Portal 2, and the Rattman dens which replicate their Portal 2 look perfectly, I especially love these two!
I really appreciate the non-visual changes as well. Portal 2 had quite a bit of musicality with its objects that blended in very well, and they achieved it here too! Things like the energy pellets now emit a small little tune which speeds up once they're getting closer to disappearing, some pistons do this as well in the escape sequence, and whenever you do a long jump similar tunes to those in Portal 2 play as you launch, which I find super satisfying!
The music is excellent as well, it's much closer to that of Portal 2, and some songs definitely sound similar to songs in both games, but none of them are direct remixes or anything, so they feel quite original! My personal favourite track is probably How to Kill Someone With Your Bare Hands, which plays when GLaDOS tries to kill you at the end of Chamber 19, and my favourite ambient track is probably Fling Into Space. You can also get the OST on Steam, so that's nice!
I only really have one issue with this mod, and it's not that big of a deal, but I still want to mention it: the lack of achievements. On one hand, I fully understand why they didn't wanna oversaturate this game that's already quite short with a lot of achievements, but at the same time I do feel like a lot more could've been done.
There are only nine achievements, five of those are story related that you get from just playing the game normally, there's one for completing all the advanced chambers, another for completing Chamber 16 without knocking down any turrets, and then two others for easter eggs (one of which is new to the game to be fair).
I feel like it would've been quite fun if they kept some of the achievements that were in Portal 1 (like Camera Shy), and especially if they remade more of the achievements from Portal: Still Alive. Lab Rat was done, but I feel like ones such as Rat's Tale and Out of the Blue would've been very fun additions too. Again, this is only a minor thing, I completely understand why they didn't, and this might just be my achievement-loving self's opinion, but I still wanted to bring it up.
Regardless of that small nitpick, this mod is absolutely excellent. I am so glad that the team at Rhubarb & Rhubarb were able to finally get this done, and it definitely met my expectations. I absolutely recommend this to anybody who likes the Portal games, especially after beating Portal 2. It's an amazing remake of the already great original game, and I could not recommend it more!
You can get the mod for free and its soundtrack on Steam here:
Btw, don't do this.
