"Iets moeilijker dan onmogelijk". Overzicht van Portal: Prelude
Games come in various forms. Casual, average, hardcore...
Portal: Prelude belongs to the genre of "tooth-crunching" mods that can push even the most composed individuals "to the console."
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Official Trailer
Is this mod good? Well... let's just say that sometimes it takes a long time to convince people that this mod has nothing to do with Valve. And it absolutely does not. Prelude was essentially made by a single person, Nicolas "NykO18" Grevet, a Frenchman. He received some help along the way from Marc "moroes" Bidoul (who consulted on game design and created a couple of textures and models) and Jérémy "Capitaine Mousse" Barbe, who created the fourth level of the game.
Perhaps they were some of the only people in the world who were not exactly thrilled to learn that Valve is preparing a prequel to the first part. Simply because Prelude is also a prequel, a prelude to the events of the original.
The events of the mod unfold shortly before the creation of GLaDOS, literally a day before the "deadline." The fact is that the scientists got terribly tired of doing everything themselves, so they decided to create a powerful artificial intelligence that could help solve difficult problems and serve as a tool for the "overthrow" of Black Mesa, the long-standing enemy of Aperture Science. All the staff are eagerly awaiting the activation of this Hellish Machine, but how it will end is known to every Portal player... in broad terms. In Prelude, we can learn details, of course unofficial, but nonetheless interesting.
We play as a certain Abby, a glamorous blonde an unknown victim of experiments who has somehow found herself here. She is far from the only one in this... m... building. There are other test subjects here (whom we might encounter, but only posthumously), there is also a Companion Cube, familiar locations, and, of course, scientists. Mad scientists, how else? Although, to be more precise, "cynical," the type that would sell their own mother for Science. We will hear only a few of them, but all are quite charismatic and fully (sic!) voiced. The voice acting is in English, but the portal hl-inside.ru has translated the subtitles. How did the author manage to voice all this mountain of text alone? Oh, very simply, cheaply, and cheerfully. Thanks to a voice synthesizer. Oddly enough, the result turned out to be quite decent.
The gameplay, as already mentioned at the very beginning, is tough. Very tough. If you had difficulty with even the levels from the original game, you should not even try to pass Prelude. As a slight mockery, this game also features enhanced versions of the chambers. Those are basically impassable for mere mortals. Prelude is not only a game of logic, but also of reaction...
But that doesn't scare you, androids? Besides, at the end of the road awaits a cake.
One undeniable plus of the game is much more extensive use of the engine's capabilities. Here you will encounter gravity jokes, killing walls, and all kinds of buttons being used much more actively.
Throughout the game, the tasks change all the time, and in the end, we are greeted with a party and a cake. Although, oh, wait, Abby, we are just about to activate GLaDOS...
A little OST
The last level is very large, but looks somewhat cut down. In fact, it is cut down, as the author informs us in the audio commentary. Yes, there are also audio commentaries here, and in huge quantities. Every step is documented and explained.
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Well, that's all I wanted to tell. Prelude is a delight for all those who found the original Portal lacking, and especially for those who found it too easy.
It is worth taking a look at this modification in any case. Full-fledged additions to such games come out rarely, and good additions even more rarely. Do not miss such little wonders...
Download!
Localization
Official Walkthrough Video
P.S. The comparison of Prelude with the original is in this post.
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Yes, and also... Good luck. You will definitely need it.