The portal gun doesn’t really fit in a Half-Life game. The mechanics of the gun almost demand an enclosed space, with flat surfaces and puzzles that require the player to understand that they’re solving a puzzle. The portal gun would break the outside world too easily, as players figure out how to just zoom past everything, and not follow the linear path that FPSs like Half-Life guide towards. Testing surfaces for game breaks and boundary checks would be a QA nightmare. It doesn’t kill enemies in any useful way, which is the primary function of a FPS weapon.
It is a puzzle gun, in a puzzle game. And that’s okay.
i disagree and think it would have been really neat if they explored that idea. they use the portal gun all the time in Garry’s mod maps and plenty of them have great gameplay. they would not have been able to make another boomer shooter, that’s for sure. but valve is great at innovating when they need to, I don’t think encouraging them to keep doing the same thing benefits anyone but their own wallets.
The portal gun doesn’t really fit in a Half-Life game. The mechanics of the gun almost demand an enclosed space, with flat surfaces and puzzles that require the player to understand that they’re solving a puzzle. The portal gun would break the outside world too easily, as players figure out how to just zoom past everything, and not follow the linear path that FPSs like Half-Life guide towards. Testing surfaces for game breaks and boundary checks would be a QA nightmare. It doesn’t kill enemies in any useful way, which is the primary function of a FPS weapon.
It is a puzzle gun, in a puzzle game. And that’s okay.
i disagree and think it would have been really neat if they explored that idea. they use the portal gun all the time in Garry’s mod maps and plenty of them have great gameplay. they would not have been able to make another boomer shooter, that’s for sure. but valve is great at innovating when they need to, I don’t think encouraging them to keep doing the same thing benefits anyone but their own wallets.