Portal: Companion Collection: Perfect for your Nintendo Switch and close to the Steam dirt!

The Portal games are true classics – brilliant, imaginative first-person puzzle games that combine original game mechanics, amazing designs and funny stories to create a very special experience. However, the fact of the matter is that these games have not been found on consoles since their original release in 2007 and 2011 respectively. Aside from backwards compatibility on Xbox, we haven’t seen anything new from either game since the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era. The good news is that recently, with the release of Portal: The Companion Collection, that has spectacularly changed.

This new dual pack from Valve and Nvidia Lightspeed Studios combines Portal 1 and Portal 2 along with additional game content for an attractive price of €18.99. Both games run on the groundbreaking Source engine, best known from 2004’s Half-Life 2, so of course we’re not dealing with cutting-edge technology here. Still, both titles fit perfectly with Nintendo’s hybrid console thanks to their brilliant game and art design, and it was fantastic to relive both games on it.

Before we dive into the differences between the platforms, it’s worth discussing the basic graphical setup of both titles and the huge artistic and technical improvements between the two games. Portal basically consists of a series of simple puzzle rooms. The puzzles are interesting enough, but the environments are kept simple, with rudimentary flat-textured walls, angular geometry, and a heavy reliance on pre-calculated lighting and shadows. The game has a no-nonsense look with repetitive, no-nonsense illustrations. Given the limitations of the project, which was developed by a team of about ten people, these limitations make sense.

Unfortunately, the Source engine and tools at the time weren’t capable of delivering the kind of subtle detail that a smaller-scale game requires. Portal largely lacks normal mapping, has little specular lighting, and no ambient shadows, techniques common in other games of the era. The artistic limitations of a game like Portal might make that effort difficult, but there have been decent renderings of smaller rooms in previous titles, such as 2004’s Doom 3. In this case, it’s the game’s design that shines to this day, but the sequel does better in every way.

Portal 2 was based on the same concept as its predecessor – a linear series of puzzle rooms – but it represented the game environment after years of disuse. This gave the artists a reason to fill the environments with foliage and natural light. The areas were really varied and broken up by extensive cinematic gameplay sequences through large environments. Technically, Portal 2 was based on an evolution of the Source engine that was used in Half-Life 2: Episode 2. This meant extensive use of shadow maps, HDR-based lighting, and high-quality particle effects. Source was showing its age by this point, but a combination of artistic improvements, new technology, and a larger production budget resulted in a much better-looking result.

If you compare the new Switch port with the Xbox 360 original, you won’t notice much, both versions look almost the same. The Switch versions tend to have a bit more contrast in general, especially in the first part, but shadows, rendering of objects and lighting seem to be identical. Image quality is where we see more of a difference: the Xbox 360 code runs at 720p on both titles with no anti-aliasing in the first game and with a primitive blur filter in the second. Impressively, the Switch version runs in full 1080p while docked, and apparently at 2x MSAA too, resulting in a significant improvement in picture detail and quality. Fine features are resolved much more clearly and stably. Dynamic resolution is one way to achieve that, but I didn’t notice it during my testing.

We don’t often see MSAA deployed on Switch, but the benefits are clear: edge aliasing is reduced while maintaining clarity and sharpness, meaning these games have very good image quality for Switch titles. Portable mode drops to 720p, as expected, with MSAA active for the first game, although Portal 2 doesn’t have any form of anti-aliasing in portable mode. Aside from the resolution, the visual settings appear to be identical between portable and docked modes.

Xbox 360 comparisons are one thing, but I thought it might be fun to compare these ports to the native Linux versions on the Steam Deck. The result: you can still keep up well. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the more powerful handheld can run both games at 1080p60 with 4x MSAA and improved texture filtering, but otherwise the Switch is on par with the deck. There’s not much room for setting improvements beyond the Xbox 360 or PS3, even on much more powerful PC hardware. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you might prefer the Switch OLED model overall simply because of the better display. Some of the technical annoyances that sometimes crop up on the deck also dampen the overall experience, such as controller input curves that don’t lend themselves well to an Xbox controller when playing on TV.

Coming back specifically to the Switch, performance is where this port tops it all. For comparison, the original PS3 and Xbox 360 versions aimed for 30 frames per second and were generally quite stable, although there were some unfortunate frame-pacing issues on the Xbox 360. 30 frames per second is perfectly fine for these titles, but a boost would certainly be welcome. That’s exactly what we’re seeing on the Switch, with a target of 60 frames per second being achieved for most of the gameplay across both titles.

There are occasional double frames and, as expected, aiming the camera directly at demanding alpha effects can cause problems, but in general we get a solid 60 fps in the dock. The portals themselves prove to be the main issue when playing in the dock, adding a second viewpoint can sometimes cause some hiccups in the framerate. Loading portals often results in brief but noticeable performance issues, depending on the complexity of the scene(s). This isn’t a big deal and rarely disrupts gameplay.

Handheld mode eliminates most of these performance issues. The portals run flawlessly in handheld mode, while the slight stuttering when traversing the levels is less frequent. It runs very well, basically it’s a solid 720p60. The combination of the higher performance target and improved image quality really makes this port special. The Switch does well with the demands of seventh-gen console titles and typically delivers resolution improvements in ported games. Doubling the frame rate is far less typical, though, and impressively we also get a 720p/1080p split for handheld and docked modes. That’s a very impressive achievement.

Taken as a whole, this release reminds us that Valve might want to consider updating its catalog of classic games for modern console hardware, just as they regularly refresh the PC originals: 4K60 would be for both titles on today’s Microsoft – and Sony devices a breeze. Who wouldn’t want to relive the Half-Life saga on their latest devices? For now, though, the Portal Companion Collection is a really excellent Switch port. The sharp picture quality and solid performance elevate them far beyond the typical switch implementation and put the system on a solid footing compared to much more powerful hardware. It’s a great port of two great games that shows the Nintendo hybrid at its best.

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Originally by Oliver Mackenzie, Freelance Editor, Eurogamer.net