Portal 2: Revisiting Aperture Sciene
Before I even start I will emphatically say. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR AN ACTION GAME OR A MINDLESS SHOOTER PLEASE DON'T EVEN READ THIS. THIS GAME IS NOT FOR YOU. GO BACK TO PLAYING CALL OF DUTY AND PWNING NOOBS OR WHATEVER IT IS YOU KIDS DO.
At the tail end of 2007 game developer Valve released "The Orange Box," a collection of 5 games, 2 previously released games and 3 new ones. The biggest draw of the collection was the new stand alone expansion "Half Life 2: episode two" followed by the sequel to Team fortress aptly titles "Team Fortress 2." It was among the highly anticipated titles in the box that lay the little gem of a puzzle game known as "Portal." The game was a massive success maybe even becoming the true draw of "The Orange Box." The game presented a novel concept of using portals that bend space to solve puzzles. That gameplay concept plus the incredibly witty and entertaining dialogue made the game a hit among players and critics alike. So it came as no surprise that a sequel was announced in March of 2010 and then subsequently released in April of 2011.
In today's gaming landscape where because of high development costs, developers no longer take risks but instead choose to release the safe first/third person shooters and the occasional fighting game, Portal 2 is a very needed breath of fresh air. A person can only play the same game with different skins for so long before they just stop really caring. I mean I've probably helped win about 20 wars and stave off 5 alien invasions with the same damn assault rifle. But I digress. Portal 2 at its core is a puzzle game. The fact that it received so much fanfare and internet hype before it's release is just a testament to the quality games that Valve puts out.
The gameplay for Portal 2 is nearly identical to the first game. The player plays as Chell, a girl trapped in a science testing facility. As Chell the player gets a Portal gun and with it is able to make two portals. The portals serve as inter-spatial doorways. You enter one and exit from the other. It may sound a bit complicated but really it's very easy to grasp when you see it in the game. The laws of physics are still active with these portals so momentum achieved while entering a portal is maintained when exiting the other one. These portals are used to solve puzzles by moving objects and hitting switches to jumping to high ledges. The game is broken up into "testing areas." Each area has the player trying to solve a singular puzzle to open a door, which allows them to proceed to the next area. The puzzles start off rather simply but eventually require quite a bit of thinking and trial and error. The whole single player experience can run about 6-7 hours maybe even more.
The biggest improvement over the first one besides length is the addition of a co-op multiplayer mode. This mode allows two people to play either splitscreen on the PS3 or Xbox 360 or through an internet connection, which is the only option for the PC version (the superior version in my opinion. The graphics are slightly better and easier controls). The co-op mode is not just a rehash of single player puzzles but rather a brand new set of puzzles specifically designed for two players. So essentially it's like a second game. It actually does require the two players to cooperate to be successful. It's fun but can get frustrating if someone lacks the ability to use a microphone. The in game signals can only do so much and typing can get tedious real fast. But the co-op is fantastic and may even be a bit more challenging that the single player.
*SPOILERS ABOUT THE FIRST GAME AHEAD*
One of the more surprising things about the game is the story. It was very interesting and well paced. I might even go as far as to say it is one of the better stories in a video game I've had the honor to play through in recent memory. The story has Chell back at Aperture Science after seemingly having killed the computer GLaDOS and escaped in the previous game. She awakens in a dilapidated Aperture Science facility. There she is assisted by a robot named Wheatley as she tries to escape again. The story gets a bit more complicated when things aren't what they seemed (yay cliche description much?). The game divulges more backstory on the Aperture Science facility and it's CEO Cave Johnson. The story is mostly told by in game cinematics and in game dialogue. Luckily the game still maintains it's well written and clever dialogue once again proving that Valve has some very good writers at their disposal. There were moments when I actually laughed out loud (LOL for anyone that uses the internet), which is a very rare occurrence for a video game.
Ok so now that I've oozed praise for Portal 2 (I swear I'm not a shill for Valve or anything!) on to the bad...umm there really isn't anything bad to say. So...umm...yeah the game is too damn short! And...the ending song is not nearly as good as "Still Alive," the ending song for the first game. Oh yeah and the game has microtransactions, which drive me up the wall. But they really have no effect on the actual game so they really don't factor in to the overall enjoyment at all.
I'm going to say Portal 2 gets a 9.5 out of 10 only because I strongly believe that no game is ever perfect and I'm sure there are slight improvements that could have been made somewhere.
At the tail end of 2007 game developer Valve released "The Orange Box," a collection of 5 games, 2 previously released games and 3 new ones. The biggest draw of the collection was the new stand alone expansion "Half Life 2: episode two" followed by the sequel to Team fortress aptly titles "Team Fortress 2." It was among the highly anticipated titles in the box that lay the little gem of a puzzle game known as "Portal." The game was a massive success maybe even becoming the true draw of "The Orange Box." The game presented a novel concept of using portals that bend space to solve puzzles. That gameplay concept plus the incredibly witty and entertaining dialogue made the game a hit among players and critics alike. So it came as no surprise that a sequel was announced in March of 2010 and then subsequently released in April of 2011.
In today's gaming landscape where because of high development costs, developers no longer take risks but instead choose to release the safe first/third person shooters and the occasional fighting game, Portal 2 is a very needed breath of fresh air. A person can only play the same game with different skins for so long before they just stop really caring. I mean I've probably helped win about 20 wars and stave off 5 alien invasions with the same damn assault rifle. But I digress. Portal 2 at its core is a puzzle game. The fact that it received so much fanfare and internet hype before it's release is just a testament to the quality games that Valve puts out.
The gameplay for Portal 2 is nearly identical to the first game. The player plays as Chell, a girl trapped in a science testing facility. As Chell the player gets a Portal gun and with it is able to make two portals. The portals serve as inter-spatial doorways. You enter one and exit from the other. It may sound a bit complicated but really it's very easy to grasp when you see it in the game. The laws of physics are still active with these portals so momentum achieved while entering a portal is maintained when exiting the other one. These portals are used to solve puzzles by moving objects and hitting switches to jumping to high ledges. The game is broken up into "testing areas." Each area has the player trying to solve a singular puzzle to open a door, which allows them to proceed to the next area. The puzzles start off rather simply but eventually require quite a bit of thinking and trial and error. The whole single player experience can run about 6-7 hours maybe even more.
The biggest improvement over the first one besides length is the addition of a co-op multiplayer mode. This mode allows two people to play either splitscreen on the PS3 or Xbox 360 or through an internet connection, which is the only option for the PC version (the superior version in my opinion. The graphics are slightly better and easier controls). The co-op mode is not just a rehash of single player puzzles but rather a brand new set of puzzles specifically designed for two players. So essentially it's like a second game. It actually does require the two players to cooperate to be successful. It's fun but can get frustrating if someone lacks the ability to use a microphone. The in game signals can only do so much and typing can get tedious real fast. But the co-op is fantastic and may even be a bit more challenging that the single player.
*SPOILERS ABOUT THE FIRST GAME AHEAD*
One of the more surprising things about the game is the story. It was very interesting and well paced. I might even go as far as to say it is one of the better stories in a video game I've had the honor to play through in recent memory. The story has Chell back at Aperture Science after seemingly having killed the computer GLaDOS and escaped in the previous game. She awakens in a dilapidated Aperture Science facility. There she is assisted by a robot named Wheatley as she tries to escape again. The story gets a bit more complicated when things aren't what they seemed (yay cliche description much?). The game divulges more backstory on the Aperture Science facility and it's CEO Cave Johnson. The story is mostly told by in game cinematics and in game dialogue. Luckily the game still maintains it's well written and clever dialogue once again proving that Valve has some very good writers at their disposal. There were moments when I actually laughed out loud (LOL for anyone that uses the internet), which is a very rare occurrence for a video game.
Ok so now that I've oozed praise for Portal 2 (I swear I'm not a shill for Valve or anything!) on to the bad...umm there really isn't anything bad to say. So...umm...yeah the game is too damn short! And...the ending song is not nearly as good as "Still Alive," the ending song for the first game. Oh yeah and the game has microtransactions, which drive me up the wall. But they really have no effect on the actual game so they really don't factor in to the overall enjoyment at all.
I'm going to say Portal 2 gets a 9.5 out of 10 only because I strongly believe that no game is ever perfect and I'm sure there are slight improvements that could have been made somewhere.
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