Portal 2 (2011)

Portal 2 is a great game and worth your time, but it lacks the impact and innovation of the original game. Portal 2 was play tested to deliver an experience that fans wanted. The issue with that design philosophy was it prevented Valve from creating the magic of the first Portal game. The funny thing about fans is they don't actually know what they want until they see it. They think they do, but... look at Portal, Demon's Souls, the original Doom... the list goes on. Portal was a low risk passion project that was interested in delivering an artistic novel vision and that's how it succeeded. The artists were allowed to do whatever they want because they were under staffed, had no money and were not expected to be a big hit. They had to cut plenty of corners to meet a deadline, but that resulted in the game being a tight package without any padding. When it exploded, it's no surprise that Valve threw everything and the kitchen sink at the sequel.

Listening to some of the Dev comments makes me intrigued at the potential the sequel had. Apparently, before the play testing, they did something radically different with the sequel, but then all the play testers replied with wanting more Portal 1. It's a shame because I would have loved to see the potential if they weren't fettered to the past success.

This all said, it still is a great game even if it lacks the substance and innovation of the original. It's over designed and forces it's mediocre story upon you. It can definitely be funny, mostly thanks to J.K. Simmons, but the humor rarely feels as clever as the original. I personally found Wheatley to be a mixed bag, sometimes amusing other times grating. It was kind of a weird choice to not give him a more robotic voice like Glados.

The puzzles are more of the same from the original but significantly dumbed down. They added a few more interesting mechanics, but it never all came together in an interesting way for me. There are the light bridges and different substances that you can spread on the floor for different effects. The game has three large areas with drawn out filler sections that link between the larger levels. These filler sections aren't particularly engaging to play through. They are typically large vacuous and over designed spaces (they are shiny to look at) and force you to look for the one small white space on a large metallic object to proceed. It boils down to look for the white square, shoot, then move on.

Whenever you formally enter a new zone, you enter into a new tutorial level. I guess they were concerned you forgot how to play during the needlessly long filler section? This results in the puzzles never hitting a satisfying level of complexity since every hour or so the game hits a reset button and you re-enter a tutorial mode as they introduce a new mechanic.

I still haven't played the co-op but I have heard great things about it. If I manage to play it I will update this review to incorporate it.

In conclusion, Portal 2 is a great game and a fun sequel but it lacks the innovation and wit of the original.

As well as being an ingenious puzzle game, Portal 2 is freaking hilarious from start to finish. I've been trying to get my wife to play it for years so I can celebrate such jokes as Press jump to say hello, the potato battery, and the paradox problem. It brings depth to characters in ways which I never expected, and made for a surprisingly story-driven experience that moved me quite deeply. Co-operative play was wonderful too, though I wish I'd played the main story before playing the co-op campaign with a friend.

The only way in which the original is superior is that Still Alive is the greatest video game credit song of all time. Seriously, my wife and I had it on our wedding playlist.

Portal was an absolutely amazing game that captured lightning in a bottle and was free from constraint because it was never expected to be a success. When it defied the odds and left an indelible mark in pop culture, Valve got together and put together a sequel. And proved, incidentally, that the first game was not just a fluke. Everything that made the first game great was back in the second, and it wasn't stale or tired.

A big part of that was the fact that, while she did appear, the game did not stick to the same focus on GLaDOS that made the first game so great. Instead we get Wheatley, who's a nicer but less competent version of GLaDOS, and Cave Johnson, the long dead founder of the company and a genuinely horrible (but enthusiastic) man from whom GLaDOS has clearly inherited her concern for employee safety. Each character is unique and memorable. They all have their own distinct voices. If you've played the game before you can tell exactly who said the quotes below with no further context:

Well done. Here come the test results: "You are a horrible person." That's what it says: a horrible person. We weren't even testing for that.

Most test subjects do experience some, um, cognitive deterioration after a few months in suspension. Now you've been under for... quite a lot longer. So it's not out of the question that you might have a very minor case of serious brain damage. But don't be alarmed, alright? Although, if you do feel alarmed try and hold onto that feeling. Because that is the proper reaction to being told that you have brain damage.

Your testing assignment will vary depending on the manner in which you have bent the world to your will. Those of you helping us test the repulsion gel today, just follow the blue line on the floor. Those who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely. The good news is we've got a much better test for you: fighting an army of mantis men. Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. You'll know when the test starts.

All great lines, all great characters. The game's biggest problem is that it's slightly bloated. The original game was a short, so the sequel struggles at times to bring itself up to full game length. There's a whole section of the game where you're trying to escape from an old basement that I would be happy to see cut down or eliminated, for all that it introduces us to Cave Johnson. The multiplayer mode is also a great addition, allowing you to dick over a partner (I'm pretty sure that's what portal guns were designed for, right?). The whole game is a great experience and one I'd gladly play again.

I'm gonna list a few points about this just for myself, because I think everything that could've been said about P2 was already said.

1. It was released when I stopped caring about games, and even more about related news, so I've missed great advertising campaign.

2. Sometimes P2 is too... wide? First one was about invisible opposition between Chell and GLaDOS. Rooms were small too. In the second one you can get lost a few times. Your working space is big (wanted to say "huge" here, but let's left that's for users' maps). And the feel of loneliness is here and it can be even stronger than before.

3. It's approvable among people who aren't familiar with games. The problem is, they probably won't try it anyway, because puzzles aren't for everyone.

4. Co-op hours were one of the best experience for me. Thank God I have a friend. Also, gestures and pointers make co-op possible for two mute people. These details separate just great games (as if there's many of them) and perfect ones.

5. Frankenturrets are uncanny.

__________

5 stars.