The Unknown

Author: KLJF22
Released: May 11th 2011
Download: Here

Introduction
The Unknown contains several puzzles which do get better overtime, including some scenarios during the beginning without a Portal Gun.

Review
To start off on a blunt note, the overall design may possibly put off a lot of players, which is generally poor across the map with some bad texture alignment, plain lighting and some really odd choices made for the placement of large debris. It is the gameplay however where the map shines a little brighter to make up for this and starts off a little differently than you would expect from a typical Portal map. It begins with mystery and focuses on a small part of exploration without the portal gun, to navigate the area and overcoming various scenarios with what you can find nearby. I did have a little trouble getting one box through a hole, mainly because it is hard to reach with the default player height, but after getting past this are, the following gameplay didn’t turn out too bad with a few nicely executed and engaging puzzles, approaching familiar situations in different ways such as tilting the Pivot Cubes to redirect lasers in another direction than normally.

Conclusion
While the design may be discouraging, the gameplay isn’t too bad and does offer some fun and engaging puzzles with and without portals. The map shows the author is on the right track and will hopefully improve on some aspects in their next map.

Download Mirrors
Planetphillip | ThinkingWithPortals