Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

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Demoman
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Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by Avatar »

This is a review for people who have beaten the game.

SPOILER ALERTREAD ONLY IF YOU HAVE BEAT THE GAME. SPOILER ALERT

Overall:
Spoiler! :
4/10.
Only played the single player so far, but any good game should be able to stand on single player alone, and this one failed to do so. It was pretty underwhelming compared to the first game, and brought little if nothing new in terms of difficult content. Dont get me wrong, the story was amazing and i would probably play it again in commentary mode, but the overall hardness of the game was lacking.

If you beat the challenges in portal 1, this will be a joke.
GAMEPLAY SECTION:
On overall progression.
Spoiler! :
2/10
Most of the game was spend in an environment similar to post-level 18 of portal 1 getting to glados. I found that getting to the next test chamber was more challenging than actually beating the test chamber. The game has multiple dead ends (like empty corridors and the borealis hallway) and I spent more time trying to find that one pixel of white block 300m up in the corner where i can shoot my portal at to progress than anything else in the game. While the scenery is varied, looking into the same empty vastness for a good half of the game gets stale.
On test chambers
Spoiler! :
7/10
Most of the new test chambers proved to be somewhat challenging, in a good sense. There are pretty much no shortcuts and i found most objectives pretty linear in terms of "what do i have to do to progress" On the downside, a good chunk of portal 1 was recycled and going through that LENGTHY tutorial phase was pretty annoying.
On new mechanics
Spoiler! :
6/10
There were many new mechanics. The 3 new types of gels, the light bridge, the bouncer thing, and the blue/orange movement beam. The laser has replaced the energy ball from the original portal, so overall a lot has been added. But at the same time, the use of the new mechanics altogether was pretty rare.

The "unmentioned" gel was easy to use but placing it was more annoying that difficult. The other gels were pretty straightforward and added depth to the levels. The light bridge was a pretty cool mechanic and the movement beam was by far the best addition to the game. The bouncer was rarely used in a challenging context (okay you had to catch something midair once.gg.)

There was 1 notable puzzle where you had to use the beam and blue gel to knock over 3 turrets, that was the hardest part in the game for me by far :/, but aside from that, i can recall maybe 1-2 more "difficult puzzles", out of like 30?

Humour/Story:
Spoiler! :
10/10
This is where portal does not fail and lives up to (and exceeds) expectations. Cave Johnsons voiceovers (especially the 3 from the borealis hallway) brought a smile to my face and the overall experience was great.

The story was great too, adds on to the original story, and the scenery looked pretty amazing in terms of vastness.
Co-Op:
Spoiler! :
7/10
I didn't actually play co-op but i saw a couple missions previewed on the commentary in single player mode and they seemed adequate.
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

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I think what newman said might apply to the entire forums avatar.
Killer.
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by goose »

Its fine how he posted. He put everything in spoilers so you can't accidentally read, and was properly titled.

On your review:
Spoiler! :
1) Have to disagree with you on your overall argument.
The addition of all those new game mechanics were a nice supplement to the stale repetitive tasks of the first one. I mean really from Portal 1 to Portal 2 all those additions really changed up the thinking in the game. Original Portal was far from difficult and most of the puzzles were repetitive at best. Pick up block, open 2 portals, win.
The first one literally took me 2-3 hours in my first go.

2) You haven't played co-op and I honestly think it is a huge addition to the game. All those puzzles prolly took a good 5 hours and some of them really made you think outside the box. Being able to play with another person was much more fun than anticipated. Some of the puzzles we got stuck on for a little bit, but playing with Magus or Pre mainly I can tell you, with 2 people working the puzzle different ways it made for some awww shit moments.

3.I agree that the vast complex did get repetitive moving between tests but really that is why they did it. The test is only 1/2 the game, the other 1/2 are tests to take the tests.

4. I thought the humor was pretty shitty and I contemplated playing without headphones because it was more annoying than funny. Cave Johnson voiceover by J.K. Simmons (Burn after reading, Juno, farmers insurance commercials) was the only reason I kept me headphones on.

Really the game isn't complete. With the addition to all of the new mechanics in it, map makers are going to have a field day with co-op and single player. Personally I can't wait for a few months when the countless portal maps are released, adding to even more gameplay.
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by Magus »

Short response to Goose, *not a full review*.
Spoiler! :
Co-op did have some, "wow, that was awesome, I can't believe we did that" moments which was a really cool experience. Co-op is one of those things that's SO well polished, and has so many features, that it has almost limitless potential. I've already talked to goose about playing custom maps when they come out. Should be a BLAST.
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by Newman »

Spoiler! :
What I don't recall seeing at all was this:
<Stuff and Nonsense />
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by Magus »

Spoiler! :
They were in the game Newman but not to the extent shown in the trailer. I do agree they could've kept them tho... imagine the fun in co-op :p
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by wisoka »

Spoiler! :
Just beat it a few mins ago and I really enjoyed the game. I honestly didn't find the tests to be that difficult. I could have done with them upping the difficulty a bit. If I had any troubles at all, I'd just shoot a portal somewhere else and eventually the answer would become obvious. Unlike Avatar, I wish there was more than one way to solve a puzzle. Kind of a congrats for thinking out side of the box but I didn't really find anything like that in the tests. The tests seemed to have just one solution. Maybe I just wasn't thinking outside the box enough. I really hated the "hidden" panels parts like Avatar mentioned. I hate searching for a tiny speck of a panel somewhere up high. Story was incredibly well done. Last boss fight was cake. I had a harder time getting the spheres to attach then I did anything else.

I've played a bit of the co-op (first three stages? Levels? test zones?) and that is tons of fun. I really hope they keep updating co-op with more and more maps. Seems like a treasure trove of possibilities there.

Also goose, the humor was incredibly well done. I laughed out loud more times then I've ever done with video game (this includes all Tim Schafer games) The humor centers in your brain are broken.
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by Avatar »

@wisoka
Spoiler! :
Not that solving puzzles in only 1 way is a good thing, i preferred the portal 1 puzzle scheme better ("shortcuts" available) but it just seems that portal 2 was linear, like as a matter-of-fact statement. /end.

Maybe i was a bit too harsh on my original rating of the game. I would probably give it a 6/10 after watching the commentary nodes, but it still felt underwhelming.
On commentary mode:
Spoiler! :
cant save progress in commentary mode? Wtf is this shit. Massive turn off for me. I dont really feel like sitting through a 45 min-1 hour play session just so i have to catch every single commentary in a chapter because i cant save my progress. Also, the commentary nodes are few and far between with often trivial information. Some interesting facts are found and if you have like... 4 hours to kill its worth playing the game again for commentary. But, you could save progress in portal 1, i have no idea why they felt the need to remove this function.
On pneumatic diversity vents:
Spoiler! :
They were used once. Right at the end. So much for the buildup. I cant speak for co-op mode but i think these had lots of potential, dont see why they were removed.
On the elevator/emancipation grill/cube/door changes:
Spoiler! :
Unless im mistaken, the chamber you start in portal 2 is the same one from portal 1, so how are the doors changed/elevators changed. Dont get me wrong, i do like the changes and at certain sections they are self explanatory (ie. the older cubes in the like 1950s chambers etc) but it feels like no effort was put into explaining how all of a sudden the changes occurred when the whole facility was powered offline and glados was dead.
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by Avatar »

Spoiler! :
Yeah, i remember the stasis, but who changes the stuff? According to wheatley, its 10000 "vegetables" and since glados is offline, whos doing the testing? Wheatley isnt able to change the test chambers so who does?
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by wisoka »

Spoiler! :
I don't think it's worth thinking about too much Avatar. Continuity is impossible to obtain in a fictional world. Valve just wanted to spruce things up a bit. Even when you're outside the test chambers, the hall's color pallets and aesthetics don't match Portal 1.
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Re: Your Portal 2 Review (No spoilers)

Post by ByronTheBulb »

i hated using the goop.

and some of the missions in co-op could have been completed by 1 person.
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