Oscar's response is quite right.
In your effort to nitpick the "exceptions" clause of our policy, you glossed over the whole actual "definition" part. The Portal games are obviously not traditional adventures, which we've bent over backwards to make clear every time we write about them, but they most certainly do fit our fundamental genre definition. That's why they were reviewed, plain and simple.
As for the genre-blending thing, that refers to games that clearly belong to other genres mixing a little adventure into the mix. System Shock and Deus Ex are both shooter/RPG hybrids with heavy action components. BG&E and Zelda are more adventure-like, but they also both rely on significant combat and other action elements, as do Tomb Raider and other action-intensive games. Comparing those to Portal is such a reach it's a non-starter. Certainly Portal "blends" genres, but it doesn't BELONG to any one. It requires a bit of dexterity, sure, but so do lots of other games you probably don't object to.
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Originally Posted by mrk
In reality every true adventure fan (without an interest in genre blender games) would never want this type of game in their library.
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How do you know? How do
they know? I have a good friend that never plays action games, only adventures and casual games, and she loves Portal and couldn't wait to play the sequel. She'd never have tried it without the strong endorsement of AG.
Yes, there are people who simply refuse to play any keyboard controlled games or games with any action at all, but our ratings don't account for people whose personal preferences matter more than the quality of a game.
