I feel inclined to speak in defense of Portal: Prelude, yes, I recommend it. I wish I could play the updated version without the RTX features, but oh well.

First of all, we can definitely see that Portal: Prelude is not very liked at all, this definitely contrasts with the mostly positive reviews it has on moddb and that it was in third place for the mod of the year competition in 2008. So what changed? Portal: Prelude raised the bar for Portal mods for its time, being the only good quality Portal mod to exist. This explains why it's liked on Moddb, and I can confidently say that if Prelude released on steam during this time instead of moddb, it would have mostly positive or mixed reviews, even today.

Now, that's why people liked it at the time, but what changed? Why do players dislike Prelude now? I believe it's because players have learned to like more puzzle based gameplay, which Prelude does not offer very much of (though in the new version, they've made some minor puzzle additions/changes). We have Portal mods like Rexaura, Portal Pro and even Gamma Energy that are more puzzle based and don't require you to be skilled with HL2/Portal movement. We also have like the thousands and thousands of test chambers created by the Portal 2 Community, which are undoubtedly the majority of the player base for the Portal series nowadays. Portal: Prelude was massive for its time and there was nothing to compare it to, but now we have many things to compare Prelude to whether that be the thousands of maps created by the Portal 2 Community, or mods that do a better job at being puzzle based than Prelude does.

Before I explain why I recommend Prelude, I must state that I am a bit biased. I've been playing Prelude since 2009 or 2010 (I can't exactly remember), so consequentially, I have a lot of nostalgia for this mod. Young me did truly enjoy Prelude at the time, despite being very bad with HL2/Portal movement, but whenever I did complete a level, it felt like a huge accomplishment and I was joyful, reaching the end felt really good for me too. Nowdays, I'm pretty good with movement for HL2/Portal so now it's a pretty easy mod for me to complete.

Now why do I still recommend it? I'd argue that Portal: Prelude's lack of puzzling actually makes the mod more replayable, why? Because being able to perfect your movement and accomplish a challenging task is fun. If these were real puzzles, it wouldn't be as replayable since you'd already know the solutions. Portal: Prelude definitely breaks rules that are established within the Portal Community, which is making a puzzle that's easy to execute but challenging to solve (which I completely agree with), but I'd argue that a mod that breaks this rule adds extra spice to the mod. I've played this mod to death, and if these were just simple puzzles that I could easily fly through just because I remembered the puzzle solutions, I wouldn't have played it so much. The challenge made it that much more replayable for me when I was younger.

I feel inclined to speak in defense of Portal: Prelude, yes, I recommend it. I wish I could play the updated version without the RTX features, but oh well. First of all, we can definitely see that Portal: Prelude is not very liked at all, this definitely contrasts with the mostly positive reviews it has on moddb and that it was in third place for the mod of the year competition in 2008. So what changed? Portal: Prelude raised the bar for Portal mods for its time, being the only good quality Portal mod to exist. This explains why it's liked on Moddb, and I can confidently say that if Prelude released on steam during this time instead of moddb, it would have mostly positive or mixed reviews, even today. Now, that's why people liked it at the time, but what changed? Why do players dislike Prelude now? I believe it's because players have learned to like more puzzle based gameplay, which Prelude does not offer very much of (though in the new version, they've made some minor puzzle additions/changes). We have Portal mods like Rexaura, Portal Pro and even Gamma Energy that are more puzzle based and don't require you to be skilled with HL2/Portal movement. We also have like the thousands and thousands of test chambers created by the Portal 2 Community, which are undoubtedly the majority of the player base for the Portal series nowadays. Portal: Prelude was massive for its time and there was nothing to compare it to, but now we have many things to compare Prelude to whether that be the thousands of maps created by the Portal 2 Community, or mods that do a better job at being puzzle based than Prelude does. Before I explain why I recommend Prelude, I must state that I am a bit biased. I've been playing Prelude since 2009 or 2010 (I can't exactly remember), so consequentially, I have a lot of nostalgia for this mod. Young me did truly enjoy Prelude at the time, despite being very bad with HL2/Portal movement, but whenever I did complete a level, it felt like a huge accomplishment and I was joyful, reaching the end felt really good for me too. Nowdays, I'm pretty good with movement for HL2/Portal so now it's a pretty easy mod for me to complete. Now why do I still recommend it? I'd argue that Portal: Prelude's lack of puzzling actually makes the mod more replayable, why? Because being able to perfect your movement and accomplish a challenging task is fun. If these were real puzzles, it wouldn't be as replayable since you'd already know the solutions. Portal: Prelude definitely breaks rules that are established within the Portal Community, which is making a puzzle that's easy to execute but challenging to solve (which I completely agree with), but I'd argue that a mod that breaks this rule adds extra spice to the mod. I've played this mod to death, and if these were just simple puzzles that I could easily fly through just because I remembered the puzzle solutions, I wouldn't have played it so much. The challenge made it that much more replayable for me when I was younger.