The references to gameplay controls listed in this blog use the standard PS3 controller layout/buttons
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Hello everyone. To start things off, I hope you've all had a happy 4th of July, if you're an American anyway. :P But this blog is dedicated to Portal 2. I just finished the game a few days ago, and overall I was pretty impressed with it. There were a lot of really high expectations for the game from fans of the original, and I know that I definitely noticed how much praise it received after it was released. So basically, I'm just going to ramble through some of my own thoughts as I played this game. I'll do my best to keep any potential spoilers to a bare minimum; I don't like it whenever I read someone's thoughts on a game that I want to play and as a result have something spoiled or lessened for me, so I assume that you guys will probably feel the same way, right?
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STORY
In Portal 2, you play as Chell, a woman who has been held in a facility called Aperture Science for who knows how long. She was a test subject like many others, and she has apparently been in a coma (or as the game calls it, "suspension") for an extremely long time. She is eventually awakened by a robot named Wheatley, who (I believe) is the supervisor of all test subjects at the laboratory. Together, the two of you try to escape, and along the way you'll be solving plenty of puzzles (tests) to get yourself out of the facility and back into society. I won't say anything else about the story, but rest assured that it develops a lot more than what I just said.
Being that I never played the original Portal, I am positive that my initial thrust into Portal 2 wasn't as grand as it was for other players who had. While it was easy to understand what was going on, at several points there were references made to events in the first game, and I basically just had to say "Okay..." and move on, because I didn't understand or know what the characters were talking about. That being said, I still found myself easily immersed in the action, and the game does a good job of making you feel likethe human lab-rat that Chell really is. Your desire to escape from Aperture Science and their warped mentality towards human beings might actually become somewhat relative to how you would feel if everything were real.
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GAMEPLAY and THE TESTS
The main element of Portal 2 is...you guessed it...portals. You can make portals in specific surfaces by shooting at them with your portal gun. You can press L1 to fire off an orange portal, and you can press R1 to fire off a blue portal. If you pass through an orange portal, you come out of the place where you put your blue portal, and vice-versa. The game eases you into this mechanic at first, presenting you with very basic examples of how to make portals to move from one area to another, but after a short while you will come to the test chambers where you must put your skills and creativity to the...well, to the test. Other variables during tests include blue, orange, and white gels (each with their own specific purpose), cube-and-button based puzzles, light bridges, turrets, funnels, and more. Each of these elements is slowly eased and incorporated into the tests, so that you never feel lost or overwhelmed. You will gradually learn how to you and adapt to all of them until before you know it, you are solving ridiculously complex tests...without them melting your brain away.
Speaking of having your brain melted away, that's exactly what I was afraid of about this game when I first started it. I don't like games that make me get stuck every 10 minutes, trying desperately to work out a puzzle in my mind (this even occured in Uncharted 2), and so Portal 2 definitely seemed to fit the bill of a game that I wouldn't enjoy. But the concept, setting, and characters of the game, along with all the praise and recommendations it received, interested me enough to make me give it a shot. Thankfully, the developers managed to keep the frustration factor low for the most part of the experience. Only about 3 times did I get seriously annoyed at the game...the first time was a section of gameplay that moved you away from the test chambers for a bit and switched up the evironment on you, the second time was an annoying puzzle which didn't appear to have a very logical solution, and the third time was when I was stuck on a difficult section with no clear idea of where I had to go next, or how to get there (when I finally figured it out, it still didn't seem that I solved it correctly, because I hardly understood what I even did, lol).
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CHARACTERS (remember, no spoilers here)
Along your tour of Aperture Science, you'll meet several characters and spend quite a bit of time listening to their dialogue. Some (or maybe just one, lol) characters are from the original Portal, and some are brand new. Regardless, every character's lines and dialogue are delivered perfectly, and are genuinely treats to listen to. Often I found myself stopping what I was doing and just listening whenever a character started speaking. It's been a good while since I've heard such great lines in a video game, and it's nice to know that at least some developers can still try to be funny without being obscene.
In fact, during many of the game's more difficult situations, one of my main motivations to get through it was to hear the next line of dialogue from the person giving the test. I said this in a previous blog already, I know, but I feel the need to say it again, purely because it seems so odd that even though figuring out a difficult test might seem more like work than fun, it isn't, all because of some game character's speech at the end of it.
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ENDING (again, no spoilers)
Having played through the story, I was pretty interested to see how it would all turn out at the end. And to be honest, when the end finally came, I didn't expect it to. It just sort of popped up in front of me, and I thought "Oh...this must be the big finale then". While it was a little frustrating, playing through the final parts of the game was still easier than some of the earlier tests, and I died less trying to complete it than I did in said earlier tests.
The overall quality of the ending was extremely good, and makes playing through the more challenging bits of the game worthwhile. I would say that it was just about as good as the climax of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I'm not sure just how much it could set up a Portal 3, but I hope that in some way it does, because I for one would like a little more time with Aperture Science.
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VERDICT
Is Portal 2 worth your time, or more importantly, your money? Yes, I would say so. This game is pretty much in a genre by itself, so you have to give it a certain amount of credit for that alone. When you add to it the fantastic learning curve for the tests, the interesting characters and their golden dialogue, the immersive story, and the appealing setting, you get a game that is worth the time and the money.
While replay value for the solo experience is there, it's certainly not as high as in other games that build themselves around it. Take a game series like CoD or Uncharted, for example...these games have clearly attempted to make themselves have a long-lasting appeal by working a heck of a lot on multiplayer in addition to single-player. Portal 2, however, is certainly a solo-focused game. There is co-op, but I have yet to try it. The main story will run you about 8-10 hours (more if you have to take your time with some of the puzzles of course), and in addition to that you can get about 7 hours out of co-op from what I've heard. After all this though, there's nothing left to do but go back and do the same story again, with the same tests again. Some people might still find this fun, but eventually it will have to become tiresome. But if you're of the mindset that spending a good chunk of money for a straight-up solo experience and a dash of co-op, Portal 2 won't be a bad choice. Unless, you know, you have no creativity. Then the puzzles might just start to get to you. :P
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Well, that's pretty much it. I hope you've all enjoyed the overview and will comment. Thanks for reading and God bless.