Like many other people, I was ecstatic to play Portal 2. While short, Portal was one of the masterpieces of gaming. It’s a game you can show to anyone as an example of great gaming.
No blood, violence, profanity, yet entirely engaging, creative, and thought-provoking. You will pleased to know that Portal 2 is true successor to the original. But I am sure many of you know that, since you probably played it already. But for those of you who have not, I have no qualms talking about it.
Story
Some of you might think “Story? Portal doesn’t have a story. It’s a puzzle game.” And that’s where you would be wrong. Portal 2 introduces you to the history of Aperture Laboratories as you progress through the game.
As various in-game events transpire, you find yourself making your way through test chambers created during the early years of Aperture Labs, slowly moving through the decades with new puzzles and added inventions to help you along your way.
The puzzles, architecture, and overhead recordings tell you the story of the rise and fall of Aperture Laboratories. And it is executed beautifully. You will find the narrative an enjoyable addition that is tied into the experience seamlessly, creating a cohesive adventure.
Audio/Visual
Know Your Paradoxes
The first thing I feel is worth pointing out is the extreme high quality of the voice acting. While Portal 2 has a very limited number of voices, the ones they chose are a joy to listen to. Each one unique enough to be distinguishable at a moment’s notice.
The lines are delivered with fantastic personality and wit. Whether it’s the thinly veiled (and sometimes not-veiled-at-all) insults from GlaDos, the manic ramblings of Wheatley, or the matter-of-fact delivery from Cave Johnson, there is very little dialog that seems out of place or forced. And it’s often hilarious.
If you played the first Portal, you might be thinking, most of the game is going to look the same, taking place in a lab and all. This time around, you are catapulted (or plunged) into the halls of Aperture Labs time forgot.
I think Valve did a great job of capturing the passage of time through architecture style, decor, and technology. The Aperture Science logo even changes on the loading screen to mimic the art style of the era.
Interaction
In truthfulness, this is going to be a short section. The game needs to accomplish very few goals in terms of an interface and game controls and the developers knew this. There is no inventory, no ammo, or need for complicated menus.
The menus are responsive and simple to navigate without unneeded fuss or decoration.
If you love achievements like I do, you might be initially dismayed to find that there isn’t an option to load individual chapters. Well there is, it’s just not where you would have guessed.
If you start a new game after beating the game once, you can load any chapter and go work on those cheevos (semi-relevant: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/9/1/).
Gameplay
I was worried that Valve might try too hard to implement new mechanics to the beautiful simplicity of Portal. Those worries were laid to rest after working with the Hard Light Bridge, the anti-gravity beams, and the three different kinds of “paint.” Their implementation worked so well with the Portal mechanics that adding them into your thought process was almost second nature.
I think Valve also did a great job at in-game events. There were multiple times were I thought “Did I just move out of the way in time or did they script it that perfectly?” No matter, because it made the situations feel awesome (After lunch with Rawr, I found out that some are not triggered and he actually died to a few sections I thought were just timed well. Which in hindsight makes me think how close I was to death).
Remember, at the heart of it all Portal is a puzzle game. And the execution of said puzzles was awesome. They varied from some that would only take moments to solve, to the more complicated ones that took some planning and thought process. But there was never a time it felt frustrating or overly obscure.
The only minor gripe that I had was that I felt load screens were too frequent. While I know this is actually a limitation of the Source engine, it happened frequently enough for me to take notice. Luckily they never lasted too long.
Replay Value
One of the most exciting additions to Portal 2 was the addition of the Co-op mode. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to participate yet, as my friends have failed to complete the single player campaign. Something about finals or something unimportant like that.
As I mentioned before, if you like achievements, you will probably find a few more hours in challenges for you to tackle in both single player and co-op. The only thing I wish they would add is a timer. It would be great to throw out challenges to your friends about how fast you clear a test or chapter.
Conclusion
I finished the single player campaign in about 10 hours, giving me just over 3 times the play time the first game did. And in comparison to many games this is a short amount of time, Portal 2 was near flawless in execution. Never did I feel like the game stalled, was overly confusing or over-simplified. The pace of the game was superb.
You will find that many reviews will herald Portal 2 was a perfect game, game of the year contender, or many other things. And this is one of the times where thy are right. Sure, it’s only April, but Portal 2 is really that good. Whether or not you played the first game is irrelevant.
For me it was an absolutely enjoyable experience from start to finish.
You owe it to yourself to play what may be one of the finest video games ever made.
Single Player was amazing (And the surprise after you finish off the end boss? Totally a Valve move). This game definitely belongs up there with some of the top games of all time.
The first play through I tried to get through the maps with speed, and a few of them definitely made me stop and try out a new tactic. It ended up taking me a bit over 5 hours. I've been slowly going through them now and there's just so many little things here and there, bits of story, rat man's hideouts, jokes and subtle remarks about Valve's universe that they've created. There's just so much that I feel like I've only just scratched the surface. There will be even more to this game once they get the map maker SDK out (Conceivably even fan fiction!).
Another amazing feat of pure awesome in the creation of this game is the audience that it appeals too. Valve is definitely on the level of Pixar here in that this is viable to give to a 13 year old, just like it is a 45 year old. I might try to get my father to play, and for various reasons, the last time he played video games was during the NES era.
The idea of a map maker SDK is mind-numbingly awesome. The type of things the community would come up with keep the game being played for ages.
The ending is one of those things you always wish you could do in other games thinking "Man, if I could do this it would be awesome." And finally you could. So cool. :D