Portal 2 Sorta Review Part 1

There is so much to discuss. From the Potato Sack to the ARG to the actual game, we have a lot of ground to cover that will come in a few posts. I took yesterday (Tuesday) off from work with the express purpose of being able to finish Portal 2 this morning. I am happy to report that after 6.9 hours of some of the most amazing game play and storytelling I have finished my first run through and it is the only one of three brandy new games I have purchased this year that I have actually finished.

Now in the almost 3 months I have been doing this blog I have never really write a "review" and I really don't intend on talking just about the game and assigning it a numerical value. There are a lot of other avenues to go for reviews and I am under no delusion that I can compete with professional game critics. What I am going to do is hit you with a wall of text containing my thoughts about the game and what it represents. I am going to go in to this assuming that you are familiar with the first Portal and that you have little to no knowledge beyond the marketing of the second. If you aren't sure if you should buy the game do it and thank me later. Anyways here we go!

Portal 2 is exactly what we would expect from a developer that so clearly understands what makes video games different and special as a medium. While it certainly acknowledges what people liked and what made the first Portal as brilliant as it was, Portal 2 is certainly a sequel in every sense of the word. It effectively expands on the mythology, takes the game in exciting new directions, and takes the high's higher and the lows, well, there really aren't many.

My biggest beef with this game is probably the source engine. While the game looks on par with current gen graphics, there are loading screens about every 5 minutes. The loading goes by pretty quick, but then again I played on a reasonably beefy gaming PC. There is nothing more immersion breaking than "please hold while we load the next smidge of game play." Seriously though, at least give us a little more variety with the loading screens. There are 4 based on where you are in the progression of the game and none are all that different. Come on Valve! You polish every other corner of this game to a mirror shine! At least remind me that the space bar is to jump, or that Aperture science says something silly.

With that said this game is as close to perfection as our medium sits right now. In the just under 7 hours it took me to play through the single player campaign it never once felt like there was any padding, or that an area or sequence was added to pad out the game play length. Every single second, every texture, and every corner of the level design is so meticulously well planned out and perfectly timed that it should set a new standard for production values in AAA studios. Valve hasn't been above said padding in the past, but every single second of the game is chock full of the amazing dialogue we have grown to expect from the budding franchise.

I would definitely compare the single player campaign a lot to the single player campaign of the first CODMW. It is incredibly well polished and thought out and the apex of what linear FP gameplay should be. It is atmospheric, the voice acting is really top notch, and it takes the quality over quantity approach.

I absolutely loved the puzzles. This time around there is little emphasis on twitch, timing based execution and a lot more focus on thinking your way through almost every situation. The puzzles are just hard enough to give one pause for thought, but not too hard where it will make you rage quit. It is always satisfying to finally find the solution, even though there is generally one right way to solve a problem.

I made the mistake at glancing at the Metacritic user review scores after about an hour in and there were three main complaints I read that I would like to address.

First: The game is an expansion pack. This is plain ol' silly. Yes it is still in the source engine, but there is no doubt in my mind that this game is a sequel. We are not looking at Left 4 Dead to Left 4 Dead 2 here, we are looking at a brilliant script, an amazing arc, a new feel and tone, and a greatly expanded universe. This isn't a map pack.

Second: *SPOILER WARNING SORT OF BUT NOT REALLY* it had a stupid cliffhanger ending that clearly just paves the way for another sequel. Without wanting to talk about the ending I really have to disagree with this statement completely. While we weren't exactly treated to a crazy plot twist, it really wasn't much of a cliffhanger. What the ending did do to perfection is achieve that artistic expression that I find so appealing; once again I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.Thirdly there is the DLC issue. Valve, at least on the PC version, has implemented an in game store where you can purchase new gestures and visual mod's for your robot avatars for the cooperative campaign (I will hopefully be tackling that with a friend this weekend). Every "mod" is approximately $2.49 for simply a small visual update to the game. This is absolutely ridiculous and a little offensive. In Valve's Team Fortress 2 the whole hat thing doesn't bother me because the game itself, despite being essentially being priced incredibly reasonably has seen years of continued expansions, free maps, game play upgrades, and support. The way I see the hats and DLC in TF2 is that it is asking for optional donations for the continued support and development. Nothing wrong with that. For day one with a game that is AAA with AAA pricing; it is a little insulting.

Bottom line what Portal 2 achieves is absolutely amazing. It is an extremely polished AAA puzzle game that is not focused on violence in any meaningful way. While there are turrets that shoot bullets at you, the shooting is an obstacle ad not a core mechanic. If Portal 2 can prove to other major publishers that you can take a risk and a new subject matter and build a successful AAA franchise around NOT killing people it is an absolute win.

For science.