This is a review and my options of the portal level "Pew Pew" by the steam user name Sir Buttles. If you want to see the portal level that will be discussed in this blog you can check out the steam workshop page listed here http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=184209323&searchtext= and download the map for yourself.
To start this off lets talk about my first impressions of the level. My first play though did not take me much time at all to complete and i found it rather easy to complete. I completed the level in a couple of minutes and did not find that i was challenged in anyway. To me the puzzles were laid out to you in a straight forward manner and did not make me stop and think about how I was going to solve it. Now I would call myself a good portal player and I am good at "Thinking with portals". Here in lies some of the problems that i found with this level. I found that you barley needed to use portals at all to solve the puzzles and if you did the portal positions were presented in front of you instead of having to go and look for them. The total portable tiles in the level amount to four, and this is further broken up in half for separate puzzles. Playing through the level you will only have to place two portal sets and they are given to you instead of you having to figure out the correct on by thinking with portals. For me this does not play to the style of a portal level.
With all of this said if there was a person that was new to portal this would be a great level for them to start off with as you can get used to using the other mechanics of portal like laser emitters, fizzlers, and tractor beams. If this level was placed in the campaign of portal it would be near the beginning of the game as a training level.
To improve on the level design and make the level a little more challenging i would suggest adding elements to the puzzle even if they are not required to solve the puzzle. adding portable tiles even though they will not help solve the puzzle will help to hide the ones that are important. The player will have to figure out that what portable tiles are required to solved the puzzle. If you only have two portable panels then it is obvious to the player that they need to place portals there. Also the ending of puzzle where you have to place a reflector cube into a tractor beam and let it float to reflect the beam to make it to the end, needs to change as it is trial and error to make the reflector cube line up. I would change that part entirely as it is frustrating if it doesn't aim it properly.
These are my thoughs on the portal level. Try it out and see for yourself. The level is on the easy side so it should not take long. Once you are dong go to the community section and leave a reply and tell the creator what you thought and help with the next one.
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