Brief
The door in front of you is programmed to open in approximately 20 YEARS. and this test can be solved in two different ways:
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Wait patiently.
Time travel to the future!
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Analogy of the Time Portal
It's a refreshing idea to introduce a time portal, with which you can open a connection between the present and 20 years later's future, in the same location. Due to the test requirement, the Enrichment Center will be left untouched in the coming 20 years, thus the status of the present will remain the same till the future, which means, everything you do in the present has an impact on the future, but not the other way around.
It may seem difficult to consider two timelines at the same time, but remembering this analogy can help: it's NOT essentially time traveling, but rather a synchronization mechanism, between two distinct rooms naming the Present Room & the Future Room, respectively. The names are only for convenience, not necessarily attached to the concept of time. Here I'll rewrite the rules using this analogy:
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Once you alter the status of the Present Room, the whole status will be copied into the other room.
The status of the Future Room can be altered freely and remain intact, until the above synchronization happens.
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Why I make this kind of analogy? Again, the effect of the green portal is not the time travel per se, because the cube you bring from the Future is not considered as part of the Present, it won't show up in the future as a '40-year-old cube', which is supposed to happen in a real time traveling. Also it isolates YOU, the subject, from the two timelines, you can't see another 'you' in the other timeline.
Tips for the Gameplay
Inevitably, the introduction of the green portal has changed the ways how the levels can be designed. For example, you will notice a kind of button, which connects to 2 wires. Either of the wires can output high but only one at once. This kind of button is unusual in other Portal games, but it's possible in this mod where two cubes are entangled. For this specific puzzle, the solution is clear: first put the present cube to the place which is reachable in your next movement, then bring the future cube to the present, place it on the button. In this way, you can easily deactivate the button by only altering the present cube, which is aforementioned, reachable.
Another important feature of the levels is, the environment between the two rooms is usually asymmetrical. The decay of this facility over the 20 years has caused the destruction of some portal surfaces, or broken glasses. This makes some operations only possible in one timeline but not in the other, which is crucial to beat the level. For example, broken glass in the future means you can reach somewhere which is inaccessible in the present, thus you can open a time portal there to make it accessible in the present. What a neat idea! This kind of asymmetry brings more fun to the gameplay. Without it, the two timelines will become literally identical (other than some textures), the sole thing you can benefit from the time portal is an additional (also limited) cube, and the other aspects will be nothing special from other Portal games. How boring it is!
Anyway, the new portal brings new challenges, also comes with some beneficial insights. You can quickly notice some 'Building Blocks of the level' after a few hours of play, which always correspond to a certain kind of solution. Good news! So don't be intimidated by the complexity, if you are just starting out!
GNU/Linux Support: No
ProtonDB Status: GOLDEN (Additional tweaks needed)
|
| OS |
Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia 64-bit |
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| Kernel |
5.4.0-65-generic x86_64 |
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| CPU |
AMD A10-7300 Radeon R6 |
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| GPU |
AMD Radeon R5 M255 |
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| Vulkan API Version |
1.1.70 |
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| GPU Driver |
4.5 Mesa 20.0.8 |
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Zitat:
Note for Evgueni [Linux user]:
This game already exists in the review list.
Classified as First person Valve.
