So I was just randomly browsing Broken Forum one day when I read a comment about how everyone who loved Portal should play this. My first reaction was naturally: wait? There’s a Portal game that I somehow missed? How could this be possible! This turned out to be a fan-made mod, albeit one that is so well made that it’s even featured as a free game on Steam. It has original art assets, voice acting, a storyline, the works.

The story follows a new character, Mel, an Olympian who volunteers for Aperture Science’s tests. There’s even a new AI sidekick and a enemy AI to round out the cast of characters. The storyline is admittedly nothing special but does at feel like it belongs to the Portal universe. The puzzles take place both within the usual test chambers and the in-between spaces as you once again seek to escape and foil the efforts of a once again murderous, though less humorous, AI.

Of course, everyone is here for the puzzles and I have to say that they do not disappoint at all. Back when Portal 2 came out, I thought that its difficulty had been watered down so much that it offered barely any challenge. That isn’t a problem here and for me at least while all of the puzzles could be solved, more than a few of them forced me to think for quite a bit before arriving at the solution. In fact after finishing the story mode I later discovered that there’s a separate advanced mode that is actually the original mod. Apparently some players found the original version too difficult and therefore a more accessible story mode was created. For me the story mode is at just the right difficulty level. Hard enough to force you to think, but not so hard as to be frustrating.

Mechanics-wise this game adds only one element that is truly new: an emancipation grill that kills the player if you step through it. It does also reuse the repulsion gel and the speed gel from Portal 2. The mod claims that no ninja skills are required to solve the puzzles and certainly there are no obnoxious elements that require timing or jumping. Even the flinging you need to do is relatively tame. Still I did encounter one instance where I needed to be a tricky with a tractor beam to reach where I needed to go, or it could just be me missing a more straightforward solution.

I’ve written before that more Portal is never a bad thing and this mod provides at least six hours or so of it, all of it polished to a level of quality that is indistinguishable from a commercial release. This makes Portal Stories: Mel a must-play for anyone who loved the original game.