I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t enter this review with any bias. The original Portal, a fraction of The Orange Box that quickly became the spawn of cultural memes and one of the most well-crafted games ever, was perhaps the best video game I had ever played. It was refined, it was entertaining, and it made the four year wait for a sequel absolutely painful.
So with the announcement and development of Portal 2, I was conflicted. The original Portal was such a fantastic title and it was the perfect length with the perfect script that, while I was thrilled I’d get to enter that world again, I was nervous that it would be too much and I’d think too highly of it and therefore be disappointed.
Suffice it to say, I was not disappointed. Portal 2 is everything the original game was and so much more. From the voice acting to the puzzle design to the visual improvements, Portal 2 is exactly what a video game needs to be. It may not be perfect but it does more right in the first chapter than most games do from start to finish. There was a point in the game where I thought I might have been approaching the finish and my only thought was “Wow, seems a bit shorter than I thought, but well worth it.” Fortunately for me, I wasn’t even halfway through.
First things first, you’re going to read a lot from users complaining about this game. Some of the quotes I read were “good but not groundbreaking”, “how can anyone be okay with day one DLC”, “has 10 hours of gameplay, maybe”, “too easy and childish”, and “overrated”.
Let me address those points.
“Good but not groundbreaking”: Of COURSE it isn’t groundbreaking. It’s a sequel and the core mechanic is exactly what you played four years before. Valve WANTED to use a different core mechanic but can you imagine the complaints they would’ve heard if they did? They spiced up the gameplay with new puzzle mechanics such as light bridges, repulsion and propulsion gels, excusion funnels and much more. However, the bulk of the game is the same – which is WHY the game is so good.
“How can anyone be okay with day 1 DLC”: I don’t see how this affects you or anyone else. The DLC doesn’t add to or subtract from the overall experience, whether you’re playing the single player or co-op campaigns. The DLC is cosmetic and, basically, is the way companies are operating. I haven’t purchased a single piece of DLC and was able to complete the game without missing out on anything. A lame excuse to give this game a bad score if there ever was one.
“Has 10 hour s of gameplay, maybe”: Spread across the single player and co-op campaigns, this is probably an accurate statement. However… exactly how much gameplay do you expect to get squeezed out of this concept? Portal 2 is not an FPS. Portal 2 is not an RPG. Portal 2 is a puzzle game, a very involved puzzle game with large, complex stages that require more than just sorting gems onto a playfield to complete. The fact that they got so much life out of this concept so well speaks volumes for Valve and the folks who worked on it. They made the concept work and work for a very long time, considering. Want a longer game? Play a game that CAN be longer.
“Too easy and childish”: Well, for starters, the game is rated E10+, so it isn’t going to be that adult. The humor is fantastic and well-acted. As for “too easy”, the game was just as easy – if not LESS easy in points – than the original Portal. The one major change involved less twitchy puzzles that the first game had, and I think that’s a good thing. The game is so well done that it should involve more thought instead of just a quick trigger finger. While “too easy” is an opinion – and a review is solely an opinion – I can’t discredit it entirely, but I find it hard to believe that anyone had an easier time with this game than the first game. And if you did, it’s probably because the first game gave you a bit of the awareness it took to solve these types of puzzles.
“Overrated”: Let me just say… There’s a reason that the people who review video games for a living do what they do. There’s a reason that sites like Metacritic show that Portal 2 averages a 95/100 score from the critics. That reason? They know what makes a video game good. People who give Portal 2 a 0 out of 10 and then say “the game is ok” clearly have no idea what it means to score a game. As much as I encourage people to not consider the 0s you see from users on Metacritic, I also say the same thing about the 95 from the Critics. Use your own judgment. Play the first game. Like it? You’ll love the sequel. Hate it? Then you only wasted $10, tops. You probably have lost more than that in loose change.
Before I get into the breakdown, let me just say this: Portal 2 is my new favorite single-player game. I can get more joy out of playing Portal 2 than I can out of any other game, and that includes the original Portal, so that’s saying something. I love both games, however, and I’ll be playing through both of them again when I release my Portal Walkthroughs on the GKick Network YouTube channel, but this is a game that does so much right that it overshadows the few issues it has. Portal 2 is how you make a good game, and while it isn’t going to be for everyone, people who give it a chance will love it.
GRAPHICS:
Visually, the game is impressive. It uses an older engine with a bit of polish added to it, but Portal isn’t really a game that needs – or should have – a ridiculously high demand on your hardware. While it isn’t as easy-going on the graphics card as, say, World of Warcraft, you still don’t need a top-end rig to run it well. Of course, if you’re a console player, you don’t have to worry about such silly things, but the visuals are still pretty similar across the board. All three platforms have issues with certain graphic elements at one point or another, but it isn’t enough to take away from the game. I can easily tell where everything is and the design of the world makes solving puzzles a pretty smooth process, even if it takes a few moments to figure it all out.
As for the animations of things like GLaDOS and Wheatley, it’s almost shocking. Valve has managed to convey more emotion out of a little robotic eye than some developers can with a whole body. Between that, the world effects, the level animations and more, it all comes together to make a pretty nice visual package, even if it is a little disappointing in some areas.
AUDIO:
The sound of Portal 2 comes in three parts. The voices, the music and the effects. The voice acting, of course, is stellar. Stephen Merchant (co-creator of The Office, as seen on Extras or on The Ricky Gervais Show on HBO, as well as “An Idiot Abroad” on the Science Channel) provides the voice to the new co-star of the game, Wheatley, a little disembodied core – very similar to those you blew off of GLaDOS in the original game – only with much more animation and activity. GLaDOS, once again voiced by Ellen McLain, still has some of the best lines of the game, but the gem of the game – in my opinion – is the voice work for Cave Johnson as provided by J.K. Simmons, best known for his role of J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man films. Cave Johnson has some awesome lines and really livens up the time you spend in the game without the guidance of Wheatley or GLaDOS.
As far as the music or sound effects go, one of the more interesting – and perhaps a bit disconcerting sounds – are spawned by your interaction with some of the different mechanics in the test chambers. For example, the propulsion gel triggers a high-pitched melody that, while it fits the action, definitely feels unusual the first few times you do it. It doesn’t really hurt the game as much as just feels kinda awkward when you first do it. By the end, however, you’re definitely more concerned with lining up the gel so you can make the jump to cross the gap that’ll kill you if you mess it up. The other effects in the game are carried over for the most part from the original Portal and I can’t complain.
FUN FACTOR:
What can I say? Portal 2 is incredibly fun, either by yourself or with a friend. The single player campaign is incredibly entertaining with challenging and engaging level design and the co-op campaign lets you and a friend hunt through an equally – or depending on your friend, much more – challenging adventure through GLaDOS’ tests. All in all, Portal 2 is incredibly fun, even more fun than the first game – and that’s saying a lot.
REPLAY VALUE:
At the moment, Portal 2’s replay value is solely based off of how much you enjoy the campaigns. While Valve does have plans for user-created levels, that feature isn’t currently available so you’ll only be able to replay the game campaigns to exhaustion. Fortunately, the campaigns are so good you won’t mind playing through them again – or in part, even for the developer commentary – multiple times. Of course, once the user-created levels are introduced, a whole new level of challenge will be introduced. Until then, though, you’ll still get plenty of live out of this game – promise.
GAMEPLAY:
As I said earlier, the core of the gameplay is unchanged: make blue portal, make orange portal, walk through them. You still have many of the same challenges such as buttons, cubes, turrets, etc. While the rocket turret doesn’t reappear, a host of new puzzle mechanics have debuted. The gels are a great addition, coming in orange, blue and white flavors. The blue gel, Repulsion Gel, creates a very nice trampoline effect on any surface. The orange, Propulsion Gel, will give you a major speed boost through areas of the world you normally couldn’t traverse safely at regular speed. Finally, the white gel is essentially white paint that, when applied to any surface, lets you place a portal there.
The Thermal Discouragement Beam – or “death lasers” – finally provide an offensive weapon of sorts to use against creatively placed turrets. Oh, and to solve puzzles. Light Bridges are great and can be used not only to traverse cavernous areas but also as a wall to protect yourself from turrets. Other movement additions like Excursion Tunnels – tubes of blue light that provide one-way portal-directed movement throughout the level – and Aerial Faith Plates – directional trampolines of sorts – add whole new dynamics to every stage.
With new, massive stages and a wide variety of puzzles, the gameplay of Portal 2 is not only improved and refined over the first game but expanded upon about as far as you can possibly take it without just piling on more and more puzzles. The game is exciting, the puzzles are challenging, and the functionality and controls are comfortable and well done. Period.
OVERALL:
Portal 2 does so much right that the few things it does wrong are very, very easy to overlook. I feel a lot of the negative press spawns from Valve’s seriously mis-leading “early release” Potato Sack campaign which definitely (and rightly so) irked some gamers the wrong way. However, by itself, the game is great. The length is perfect, the multiplayer is ideal, the DLC is cosmetic at best and you even get a free copy of the game for the PC if you buy it on PS3, though I can get why some might hesitate, considering current events.
When it comes right down to it, Portal 2 is easily the best game of the year so far and easily on track to becoming one of – if not THE – best game of the year. It’s well-written, well-designed, and delivers in every possible area. I personally can’t wait for the user-created level tool to be introduced (PC only, by the way) but I think my future playthroughs – and walkthroughs – will provide me and hopefully you with way more entertainment. Basically, as I keep on saying, Portal 2 is the template of which all video games should be built from. It’s about as close as I think humans can get to making the perfect game. Therefore, I’m counting on Valve to turn to robotic A.I. technology for Portal 3… if we get it.
Jack writes: "Yet again browsing the latest offers in the Steam Spring Sale has led us to track down the very best. In terms of price to quality, we don’t think that it gets much better than this. Portal 2 is now less than a dollar, and if you haven’t got it already, now is the time to pick it up."
Portal deserves to be one of steams highest rated games... It's almost tetris levels of perfect game design.
Gotta love Steam. Just got Portal 2 for .97 cents CAD. Should have been $1.29, selected the bundle with Portal 1 and 2, which gets a 25% discount, already have Portal 1, so it removes the cost of that, and still applies the full 25% bundle discount to Portal 2. 90% + 25% discount.
That's sweet, I've been thinking about building a modest pc to play some oldies
Given the medium's wild diversity, this primer of the essential video games everyone should try is a good place to start.
I can't fk with this list. They missed on alot of games probably before the writers times. Also I know people loved some portal but I was never a fan.
Tomb Raider 1
Driver 1
Abe’s Odyssey
FF6
King of Fighters 94
Mortal Kombat OG
LINK 2 the past
Street Fighter 2
Resident Evil 1
Infinite but not the first two games? Witcher 3 but not the first two games?? GTA V but not literally any of the games before it??? Portal 2 but not the first? Also if you're going to play Shadow of The Colossus play the remaster and not the remake. Can't say I disagree with the list but my man it's all over the place.
I mean some sequels are objectively better and you don’t need to play the whole series.
But most of these games have a story to follow, sure you can catch up with a YouTube vid but where's the fun in that?
A list like this isn't telling you not to play the previous games if you want to. It's just giving you legendary games to play.
But tbh, you don't always have to force yourself to play every entry in a franchise to get to the better ones.
- The vast majority of Witcher 3 players never played the first 2 and had a great time. The first 2 games aren't in the same league.
- The GTA games are self-contained with the odd fun reference. You can easily jump into any of them.
- The Shadow Of The Colossus remake looks and controls better than the original (plus it has a 60fps option while the remaster is just 30fps). New players will enjoy it more.
- Portal 2 is a lot better than Portal 1 and takes the concept much further gameplay-wise. Storywise, Portal 1 is fairly light too. Not that you shouldn't play it but realistically ... you'd love Portal 2 whether you play it or not (at lot of Portal 2 players have never played 1).
Bioshock 1 is the only one I agree with you on simply because it's one the best games of all time and arguably better than Infinite. No other setting like Rapture.
Looking at the list, I'd recommend playing Uncharted 1 before 2 but no doubt, 2 is the legendary one you have to play.
I get it, but that's just my opinion on his opinion. I just think that before you play a sequel you should still play what came before it. Maybe it's just me but i find it fascinating playing through the first game in a series and seeing how it has evolved through its sequels. Like I said I don't disagree with the list, other than SoTC which I strongly believe the remaster of the original should be played above the remake.
Awesome list! Hot take on Fear (and it's hard af expansion Persaus Mandate!) Bioshock Infinite is stellar, so is the Witcher 3 and you nailed it by having Ocarina of Time. So many fantastic games! Gotta play 'em all! Next one on my list is Prey after I beat Dead Space 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction.
Chris Brandrick, writing for overkill, speaks to Stefan Heinz, the lead developer on Portal: Revolution, a new fan-made campaign prequel to Portal 2.
valve suck so much at making games now, opting just to smaug on top of an enormous pile of money,
that fans got so desperate that they have to make their own games.
this industry is fucking over.
They removed the twitchy moments on purpose, so that people would actually finish the game instead of getting upset and giving up. So. Props.
Yeah, I remember reading about that prior to the release of the game. It was definitely a good move. I think my wife in particular can attest to that. haha
Thank you, btw. :)
Downs
Can feel a tad long
great review, but what do you mean by this? alot of people are saying its short. do you mean it can feel repetitive?