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All parent reviews for Portal
Average rating based on 11 parent reviews:
- 55% say it's educational
- 27% say there are positive messages
AGE
Good game with a story too dark for younger children.
This is an amazing game, one of the best of all time, and it would be appropriate for younger kids if the storyline wasn't so dark. GLaDOS is a robot who will twist and manipulate you and later on the game, try to kill you with things such as turrets, falling cubes, poison water, and an attempt to incinerate you. Don't get me wrong, the storyline isn't so dark and twisted that it deserves an M, I think it is fit for a T, maybe even an E10+. Plus, it might be appropriate for younger kids, if they don't listen to the storyline on games really. But, it's not recommended for young kids. While GLaDOS is very manipulative, she is also likeable and very funny. The game is humorous, in a dark sort of way. GLaDOS is also creepy, because of everything she says, and what she has done (you will learn this at the end of the game, if you haven't already figured it out by the clues they gave you before you got there.) Overall, this is an amazing game, and even though it is short, I wasn't expecting a big 10-20 hour game on a disc with 5 games on it.
10/10
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AGE
A game that improves skills and entertains
Portal is a refreshing change from the usual bloody violence of first person shooters.
The player has to work out what to do, and has to solve puzzles that really make you think.
Added to that, the teleporting means that the player also has to plan ahead, and the frequent unnatural changes in orientation mean that playing the game improves spatial awareness.
A nice touch is the sardonic computer voice-over, which gently mocks the player throughout the game, and there's a healthy dose of visual humour.
Despite the short gameplay, both my kids find this game totally engrossing and return to it again and again.
Overall, Portal is a game that's low on violence and high on educational value and good humour. I wish that there were more games like this.
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AGE
This is just an Incredible game. Buy it.
This is an absolutely gorgeous game. Great $$$, short, sweet, to the point, no lose ends, great gameplay, great challenge yet not too hard...I literally played the whole thing through in 5 hours (it would probably take a kid longer because the puzzles are quite hard).
This game is subtly creepy in the very best way possible; not a slasher, very little blood, but there's a constant feeling of unease, of threat, of being trapped and watched. And you are trapped and watched. I don't think it would really scare a kid though....the creepiness is subtle enough that I'm pretty sure a five year old could watch it and the creepiness would go right over their heads without even touching them. Gave me chills sometimes though!
But this game is one of those that is going to go down in gaming history. It will be remembered forever, just like the companion cube, in our fondest memories.
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AGE
Absolutely amazing, but hard for younger kids
No concerns for anyone over 10. Anyone younger may find the game creepy and/or too difficult to play (some levels are so hard they make your head hurt)
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AGE
Brilliant challenging puzzler, an absolute MUST buy
This is a fantastic game, full of challenging puzzles, sadly if your kid gets angry over losing or dying or whatever, prepare for some BIG temper tantrums
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AGE
Ignorable dialogue's dark humor might be 'iffy' content.
Although the game itself seems on the surface a physics-based puzzle game with "portals", the dark humorous dialogue might be too much for older teens who would actually pay attention to it. Younger kids would probably ignore the unimportant dialogue in the background as the game is beaten (as well as not understand it), but for older kids who would probably listen in: it may be iffy content.
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AGE
can take a small ammount of blood tha appears on nearby surfaces if a turrent happens to shoot you
I see no problem with buying the game for anyone over 8
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AGE
Sorry to spoil the fun guys... but it's for your own good.
Portal, or p0rtal, as some call it, is a great game. It is challenging, educational, and above all, fun. It gets you thinking about concepts not only in physics, but philosophy as well.
However, if you do not want your kid to be exposed to violence at all, this is a bad choice. Portal is based on the source engine, which inherently loads a couple types of guns and weapons into the game (which are the guns and weapons in Half-Life 2, a amazing game for older teens). If your kids are as smart as you give them credit for, they probably could figure out how to turn p0rtal into a FPS-type game (by enabling the console, and typing in sv_cheats 1 into the console, then impulse 101). They also could probably figure out how to spawn a multitude of creatures and humans from half-life 2, including the infamous headcrab (using the npc_create_aimed command).
Examples of this can be seen in the following videos:
*://*youtube*/watch?v=l5XbDI-VKLw
*://*youtube*/watch?v=BzuJbgLlP9M&feature=related
Portal is a great game, but it can be a sort of Pandora's box. If your kids are under 13, I would recommend supervising them while they play it
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