1. I wanted to give this one a negative review just to
be a butt and because it doesn't have the same spontaneous fun feeling
as Portal but, on its own merits, Portal 2 is just too good. You should play it.
2. Portal
just had this very immediate feel to it. It is hard to describe but it feels
like you are just having a bit of a laugh w/ the developers as you play
it. It feels special, the kind of shared experience you can only really
get from gaming. Portal 2 feels a bit like it was made to capitalize on the success of Portal.
3. Portal is a bit rough around the edges, Portal 2 is much more polished. You can call it a cash in but it's a respectful one. I appreciate that.
4.
At this point, we all know the deal as far as gameplay. You get a
portal gun. You shoot portals at two surfaces and you can traverse
between those two points instantly. You use this and a few other
mechanics that are introduced along the way to solve 3D environmental
puzzles. Huzzah!
5. The puzzles here are not too tough. I suspect
most relatively patient gamers will be able to plow through w/o looking
up solutions in a walkthrough. I did! And I am dumb enough to spend
like a hundred hours a year writing game reviews for zero
compensation and zero recognition.
6. The reason they are not
too tough, I think, is because they add new mechanics rather than burn
the same few to the ground by adding more and more complexity. I have mixed feelings about this since I do
like hard puzzles but it avoids the trap of repetitiveness that many
puzzle games fall into.
7. Portal 2's plot is you wake up in a secret science facility and try not to die until you win.
8.
There is more to it than 7 though. Stories are told here but they're not tied that directly to what you are doing. This is more about world
building and that is just fine. Star Wars is more about world
building than storytelling. You learn about the history of this secret
science facility as you go through it. The picture you are given is
imperfect but compelling. At the end of the game, you will inevitably
want to know more about it than what you were given. This makes for a
memorable experience.
9. J.K. Simmons's performance as Cave
Johnson really makes this aspect of the game. If you want a complete
Portal experience for as little time possible. Play the first game and
then listen to the Cave Johnson parts on YouTube.
10. The music
is also fantastic. You can download the whole thing from the game's
website as MP3s for free. Thanks Valve! I mean it!
11. There is a
co-op mode here which I really want to play but just makes the fact
that I have no friends painfully unavoidable in my case.
12. I
found the ending here just a touch disappointing. Story-wise, it was
fine. It just wasn't very hard. I will take this over a
super-frustrating final boss for sure but I think a stronger final challenge would have made the whole package just a little more satisfying.
13. To save the answer the $64,000 question for last: yeah, you should play the first Portal
first. There is nothing stopping you from playing this first, really.
The plot is not that important and it's well hashed out here anyway.
It's just... well... not to keep harping on this but there is really an
unmistakably special quality to that first game that this does not quite
have. In the long run, play both, play them in order. That's my advice.
Take it or leave it, nerds.
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