Am I the only person who doesn't like Portal 2?

[DreamingMacaron]

I loved the first Portal. The gameplay, the atmosphere, the music, the story, it's about as close to perfection as a game gets. So I really wanted to love Portal 2. I was excited when Valve talked about making a sequel in late 2007, I was excited when it was officially announced in March 2010, I was excited right up until it came out. And when I saw what it actually was, I was incredibly disappointed.

I didn't like the gameplay. I didn't like the ambient music (though "Exile Vilify," "PotaDOS Lament," and "Want You Gone" are pretty good songs). The environments were all right, but not as good as the first game. I didn't think the dialogue was very funny (it seemed to me very histrionic and overly pleased with itself. Shut up about the lemons, god damn!). GLaDOS's characterization went in a direction I wasn't happy with, and so did Wheatley's. Things were retconned I felt didn't need to be. The ending was ridiculously stupid. In fact, story-wise I was more-or-less okay up until Wheatley turned evil, at which point I just said, "Oh, come on." It was pretty much exactly like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBIxJ331vzs

(...which, incidentally, was actually something I had feared from the moment Wheatley was announced as a character in the game, but I digress.)

Anyway, the whole thing was just... so unnecessary to me. And now it's tainted Portal 1. Not just my perception of it, but also literally, because the radios from the March 2010 ARG and the edited ending are still there.

I'm not here to argue about Portal 2's merits. You're not going to change my mind, and I'm not going to change your mind. I just want to know if anyone else feels the same way as I do, because although I've searched far and wide on the internet, I've yet to encounter almost anyone else who shares these sentiments. And I can't be the only one who feels this way. Can I?

 

[DJDarque]

I don't remember the actual number, but I believe one of the rules of the internet is "You're never the only one." This is certainly no exception. I do not share your opinion, but I have seen many who do.

Also, welcome to the Escapist.

 

[darkman80723]

Doubtful if youre the ONLY person...but def in the minority. I liked P2...but then again I was super stoned the majority of the time and was busy listening to Dark Side of the Moon rather then the audio from the game. For me the puzzles were fun and I was stoned, ergo all was well.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I don't remember the actual number, but I believe one of the rules of the internet is "You're never the only one." This is certainly no exception. I do not share your opinion, but I have seen many who do.

Also, welcome to the Escapist.

Might be an addendum, but I don't recall that being on there. Sure as hell needs to be. Nothing builds my ire worse than this most moronic of rhetoric questions.

And no, I do not like Portal 2. I felt it was unnecessary, and thus will not endorse it.

 

[Episode42]

No, i'm fairly sure my cat wasn't a big fan, but then he's just not a gamer.
The only real problem i found with it was it got a bit tedious towards the end.

 

[ChupathingyX]

To be honest I didn't like either.

I do not think they are bad games, it's just that I don't like puzzle games and Portal didn't exactly get me into them. Plus, I didn't find any of the characters that interesting and not to mention both games gave birth to horrible memes.

However, "Still Alive" was very catchy, "Want You Gone" wasn't.

 

[Soviet Steve]

Personally I didn't like the first portal, and knowing that the second portal was more of the same I didn't feel tempted. It's subjective, puzzle games aren't for everyone.

 

[justnotcricket]

I also didn't really like the 'humanizing' of GLaDOS - for me Cave Johnson was easily the best 'character' in the new game. GLaDOS was much better in the Co-op campaign ^_^

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I'm not here to argue about Portal 2's merits. You're not going to change my mind, and I'm not going to change your mind. I just want to know if anyone else feels the same way as I do, because although I've searched far and wide on the internet, I've yet to encounter almost anyone else who shares these sentiments. And I can't be the only one who feels this way. Can I?

Huh. See, I didn't much care for Portal 1, other than it's sense of humor. It had some sections that relied on being able to step through a portal, hit a button, and then fire off two portals before a killer death orb crossed a room, and doing so with exact precision. I HATED those section - in fact, I never beat Portal 1 because of them. It spoiled the whole experience for me.

Portal 2, on the other hand, was wall-to-wall bliss from start to finish. My favorite aspect was the fact that

Spoiler: Portal 2 Spoilers, in case anyone cares.

GLaDOS is an ally for the later half of the game.

I really enjoyed the character interaction in Portal 2, in a way that was beyond what I felt in Portal 1.

Anyway, not trying to change your mind - to each their own - I just think it's interesting that we had entirely opposite impressions of these two games. I'm actually thinking of selling my copy of Orange Box (which I only bought for Portal in the first place) and just keeping Portal 2 for replays.

 

[TheHecatomb]

Well you're definitely not alone. Like you, I really wanted to like it. But truth is, I just don't really. There were some nice new gimmicks, especially those gels were a nice touch, but there were no highlights. No moments that stood out, no progression gameplay-wise.

Portal was revolutionary, it introduced this whole new mechanic and the largest part of the game was a tutorial to get you to understand it's possibilities, all leading towards this this great escape at the end of the game, where you had to clevery use all the skills you had acquired, but this time you were on your own. It was brilliant. At the beginning of Portal 2, we already understood the mechanic. We were already "thinking in portals". And as a result it just felt linear. Sure, it gave some more background to this whole Aperture business, but did it really need that? I'm not sure it did.

In a nutshell Portal 2, to me, feels like the developers simply couldn't grasp what exactly made the first game great, and so they just messed around a bit and put some LOL WACKY ROBOTZ in the blend and hoped for lightning to strike twice.

Also on a footnote; towards the end of the game I turned the volume off every time that Wheatley fuck opened up his... speaker. I just couldn't stand that annoying rambling anymore. There's probably some schmuck fanboys who'll say that "OMG it's brilliant becoz he's SUPPOSED TO BE annoying" but fuck that. If a game makes me actively mute out one of it's elements by disconnecting my speakers, the game has failed.

 

[blaqknoise]

I haven't played it to be honest, but I've heard it is quite a bit different than the first one. I can see why people would dislike it.

 

[Aurochs]

No, I completely agree with pretty much everything you said.
For me, Portal 1 was a puzzle game, plain and simple, with a bit of story thrown in to string those puzzles along. It was brilliant. For Portal 2, they've clearly focused more on the narrative (which personally I thought was weak) than on the puzzles, which were not nearly as challenging as in the first game.
So yeah, sad times :/

I have little to no faith in Valve anyway, but that's a whole different story...

 

[ZiggyE]

I hated Portal and loved Portal 2.

Logic based puzzles rather than reflex based? More gameplay mechanics? New environments? More engaging characters?

Win win, as far as I'm concerned.

I also find it funny how people tend to insult 'space' and 'lemon' as being overused when 'cake' is by far the worst meme ever invented.

 

[Lordlaneus]

I like both of the portal games, but I the increase in budget and staff between portal and portal2 made the 2 games significantly different so it's seems pretty reasonable that there's a substantial group of people who liked portal but not the sequel. Besides Portal2 may be an amazing game, but not objectively, so there will always be people who don't like it

 

[Nicolairigel]

Well, as many have already said this is the internet and you will always have some one who shares your opinion. I loved both games, probably 2 more only because it felt like a bigger game, but then again I think Fallout: New Vegas is more fun that Fallout 3, so I know how it feels to be in the minority. Just remember, your opinion is never "wrong." Unless you like John Mayer. Then you deserve to be lobotomized.