News: I know these next two posts may border on flooding my blog, but that is really not my aim. I do have quite a few ideas for blog posts and I try to restrict them to Sundays only, and this project has become incredibly fun. I hope anyone who reads this finds it the same way. Now onto the blog proper!
This is the first part in a two part blog post on Portal 2. These posts will be my personal opinions about the game. But why two posts you ask? Well I am a little tired of people posting handicapped reviews with no spoilers or posting reviews with spoiler warnings sprinkled through the entire piece. This will be a way for me to bypass this. This post will contain no spoilers and focus on a general review of the game as a whole, the gameplay, graphics, etc. The second post (probably around Thursday or Friday) will contain spoilers as it will be a deeper look into the story of Portal 2. That being said, let's begin!
This has been a triumph!
Portal 2, to sum up was a wonderful game. The three things I usually use to weigh a game are story, gameplay, and lastly graphics. Music while awesome, I usually place in a distant fourth because, if it really sucks I can turn it off and use my own music :).
The story of Portal 2 I think does a wonderful job of extending and giving depth to Portal 1's story. While some may say that Portal 1's story was very simple, Portal 2 adds new questions that suddenly make Portal 1 seem the tip of an iceberg. You get a better sense of how Aperture Science came to be and what happened to it. Valve has done an amazing job to create a very intriguing story that has the player asking many questions. As of right now I don't think I have enough skill to go about describing the story any more without revealing anything. So, those of you who read this and have not played Portal 2, take my word for it that the story is amazing and entertaining. It isn't anything on the scale of "A Game of Thrones" but it has a grandness all it's own.
On to gameplay. Again Valve has worked it's magic with physics and a accessible, easily learned set of controls. While the controls are simple, the puzzles and the ways that the game put's these controls to the test are challenging. I wouldn't say that Portal 2 offers the most difficult ever, or that re-playability is endless, but they are fun to play through every once in a while. The physics is the same awesome it's always been and you won't be disappointed by the new puzzle solving toys that the game offers. I think I would have liked a little more difficulty in the puzzles as sometimes I felt that there was a general pattern to how to solve them. Once this pattern was found then it could be run through a second time easily. I think though, that the mot fun that can be had in Portal 2 would come from co-op. Now since I didn't have the capability to play co-op I was not able to judge it, but I was able to watch a couple of let's plays. From what I've seen the best that Portal 2 has to offer in terms of gameplay comes from the interaction between the two people playing. Find a friend and work through puzzles, making funny mistakes and playing tricks...fun to say the least.
Onto graphics. As I'm sure everyone who has had interest in Portal 2 knows (from screenshots and such) Portal 2 is an amazingly stunning game. Just like in Half-Life 2, Valve does an excellent job in making the world seem incredibly large. The scenery is all quite extraordinary and you can become lost in simply observing the different panoramas. My one and only gripe with Portal 2 is that while you can see a large world, I did feel a little limited in where I could go. This however is a small gripe. You do always get a sense that you are 'going' places. Furthermore in those moments of high speed running (like being chased) you also feel a sense of scale, like the world is zipping by. I suppose what I'd like to see Valve do is something akin to a combination of the Portal premise and Fallout 3. The idea here is that you actually get to explore the Aperture labs in an open way and accomplish objectives, but do so at your own leisure. Now of course such a project would be incredibly huge...but it is something I'd like to see sometime! (Valve if you read this...)
Lastly, music. I have to say, the music in Portal 2 is far an above the music of Portal 1 (I am not yet voicing my opinion about the ending song however!). The music however is the kind that blends into the ambient sounds which I count as a good thing. It's awesome to say the least. You only notice it if you listen for it, but when you forget it's there it becomes part of the world around you. It's a pleasant effect. The ending song I actually like quite a bit. I know a lot of Portal 1 "Still Alive" fans might troll me on this, but the more I listened to it the more I came to like it. The odd tune grows on you and you just start to think when you listen to it. "Still Alive" was a good song, but I felt it was just a sort of parting shot by Glados. "Want You Gone" is such an odd choice for the end of Portal 2, because of it'd oddness it raises questions about why it was chosen for Portal 2...Here is where I start treading on the ground for my second post so I will cut off here. I hope this was great to read and that if you haven't played it, will make you want to give it a try!
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