Poll: Did Portal 2 surpass it's predecessor?

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Yes, I enjoyed it more in every way...pretty sad when it ended.

In retrospect, the first feels like a proof of concept for the second to really expand upon. I'd say the same for L4D.

 

[GWarface]

The sequel is better, period! And while Portal 2 was more about showing us the past, maybe Portal 3 will be about the future of Aperture ... Who know?! But I can certainly say I can't wait for part three.

Have you heard about Portal 3? I somehow doubt that they will make one, since 2 ended Chell's story pretty well.. But maybe they will make more with Atlas and P-Body.. Who knows?

 

[NathLines]

I have to say yes. It was more of the same... Much more. Added gameplay elements, an expanded and extremely detailed world and a lovable cast. It's just that it lost some of the magic(oooh) that the first game had since it was new and unique. But as a game it definitely surpassed its predecessor.

Edit:

snip

I absolutely loved it. This song slipped passed me the first time I played through the game since I finished it in one sitting. I think this is the most ominous and beautiful menu screen ever made:

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I think portal 2 did bring alot of new stuff to the table:
More mechanics to work with;
The gels, the hard light, the funnels, the faith platforms.
It was way longer which was great.
Co-op.
More fantastic writing and very good pacing.

So yeah i think overall portal 2 is a much better experiance.

 

[Zhukov]

Er... yes and no. But mostly yes.

I think Portal 2 is a better game when judged purely on its own merits. But it loses points for being a sequel. See, the first game was new and was based on a unique mechanic. The sequel, by definition, cannot do that. The sense of wonder is gone.

Oh yeah, and I think 'Still Alive' was better than "Want You Gone'.

But screw it. I loved both of 'em.

 

[spartan231490]

Yes, by far. Richer character development. Brilliant Co-op mode. Some of the best quotes in video game history.

It also added several elements to the puzzles that weren't in the first game and really added to the complexity. Also, it's longer. Definitely surpassed portal, it was a perfect sequel. It added a bunch of elements to the game play that don't inter fear with the original, and don't change the "feel" of the game, but which make game play more interesting. The story built on the original in a different direction. I don't think I will ever see a better sequel in any industry except maybe epic fantasy books.

 

[XHolySmokesX]

The actual puzzels where kinda more of the same old portal stuff, but thats to be expected with a game like portal.

The characters, story and the extra stuff they put in like the goo's made it better in my opinion.

But adding a creation tool allowing you to make your own experiments would ahve been toooo epic!!!!!!!!!

 

[GonzoGamer]

Absolutely. I thought of Portal as the appetizer and Portal 2 as the main course.

Yea. Portal 1 (as brilliant as it is) never felt like a complete meal.
I originally thought it was a dlc pack for HalfLife... which it kind of was.
Portal 2 is definitely a full game. I haven't even finished it yet (I was just introduced to the gel) and I would say that it has surpassed P1.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Spoiler: Level spoilers

It's the test chamber where you walk in down a corridor, you have a 'pit' to the left, the exit in front of you and a door to the right. At the end GLaDOS says that a 'victory elevator has been activated in the main chamber'. The intended way to do the puzzle is to head to the left, have the stairs raise out of the pit, place a cube on a button to open the door opposite, hop through there and redirect a pellet into a receptacle to power the lift.

Phew.

The 'other' way to do it is to portal to the left, bypassing the pit so that the stairs don't raise out, place a portal in front of the elevator and one at the bottom of the pit and use your fall into the portal to reach the door.

By 'lack of portal surfaces' I mean it was always fairly obvious where to put the portals, I loved the sections with conversion gel purely because I got to pop portals wherever I want. Most of the puzzles were more about searching for a portal surface than figuring out how to use momentum.

Incidentally I loved that first room with Conversion gel (the 'lemons' room), I went mental and repainted the entire room with gel! Oh and the fluid physics in that game are gorgeous.

I know which test you're talking about......and I never did it that "easy" way. Not even in the challenge mode, where it was a pain in the ass to even get the damn box.

That seems more like exploiting an unfortunate oversight in level design, than a legitimate "other way" of doing it though, tbh.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Other and this:

It didn't really surpass its predecessor, it simply continued the enrichment.

It was longer, funnier and more diverse, but Portal was original and started it off, so while Portal 2 certainly improved on many things, I do not think of it as 'Portal 2 > Portal'. I think they are both fantastic.

The jokes were of a much darker nature too. I can see myself switching between portal and portal 2 depending if I want to hear GLaDOS insult Chell or if I want the witty-silliness of her talk of cake and bending the truth and killing the companion cube.

I vastly enjoyed the difference, they can't be compared, only place together as one good series rather than two separate good games

 

[Serenegoose]

I think portal 2 was better in absolutely every single way than Portal 1.

Dialogue: Better.
Atmosphere: Better.
Puzzles: Better.
Worldbuilding: Better.
Characters: Better.

I can't think of a single thing Portal 1 does better.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

This is a common trend for an answer and while there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, imo, may I confess that I don't fully "comprehend" why being a surprise Wild card was a pro for Portal1?

Or indeed why the fact that Portal 2 was advertised (with an ingenious campaign, as you probably know, too) ans expected to be awesome was a con. People don't praise Mass Effect over ME2 becuase the latter was "expected to be awesome". Would you kindly, help me understand the difference?

I don't understand why you think that I think that Portal 2 was worse than Portal.

Portal 2 is an excellent game. I personally think as a game itself it's just a good as the first game.

So if both games are both equally good in terms of gameplay and writing, I have to look elsewhere. Originality, for example.

I never said, that you said, that Portal 2 was worse (i can't believe I got that sentence right).

I'm just saying that you placed "Unadvertised, indie wild card" as being one of Portal 1's Pro's/Merits and you put "Heavily Advertised, expected-to-be-awesome AAA game" as one of Portal 2's con's/Lackings. I wanna know why you (and others) did that.

Originality is a good basis for judgment becuase that actually HAS something to do with the game itself. Advertising campaign Does NOT have anything to do with the game? Hence, is it not unfair to deduct marks (however few) from Portal 2's book just because it was "expected"?

 

[Enigma6667]

Considering how high my expectations have been for this game, the fact that this game surpassed even those is a testament to how talented the guys at Valve are. Not only was it longer and filled with more content, like many people may have wanted out of the first, it was more well-written, it was funnier, the puzzles were much more clever, and co-op is my brad new addiction of the moment.

So...yeah pretty much

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Portal 2 surpasses Portal in every way possible.

The ending was worth waiting for.

 

[Mischlings]

The ending to Portal 2 was simply incredible. I honestly didn't expect the booby trap on the stalemate button, but knew what to do immediately when I saw the moon (the foreshadowing wasn't at all subtle). Craziest and probably best video game ending I can recall.

Overall, I think Portal 2 is better than Portal, though I'd need to replay both to really get my thoughts on the two straight. Both are some of the greatest experiences I've ever ha in gaming (and on a short list of games I've beaten without any help from a strategy guide).

 

[Dragonborne88]

I'm sorry, but that song is beautiful, nobody can deny that. This part alone surpasses the masterpiece of Portal and puts Portal 2 to near-perfection

That part always makes me chuckle with the fat turret, and the freakin' HUGE one in the background. Godzilla turret.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Can also be loosely interpreted as "Is Portal 2 better than Portal 1?", but that's not exactly what I mean.

A LOT of the (pro) reviews I've read/seen, have implied that their respective authors thought that Portal 2 didn't surpass Portal. One of those reviews was Russ Pitts' review here on the Escapist. But I wanna know what you guys think? Was Portal 2 just "more of the same" or was it actually better than Portal (and in what ways)?

You're free to put spoilers (since you'd already have had to finish the game to be posting here) but please tag them anyway? Thanks.

Portal 2 wasn't more of the same, it wasn't better than Portal 1 either.

Portal 1 was slow building and intense.
Portal 2 was fucking hilarious.

Portal 3 took the humor from Portal and expanded on that without relying on plot twists and big reveals.
Portal is still a superior game but Portal 2 is very good.

 

[Irriduccibilli]

I am beginning to believe I am the only one who have yet to play Portal 2 :/

 

[Andaxay]

I loved Portal 2. Absolutely loved it. I loved the characters, every single bloomin' one of them (also, I want to marry Stephen Merchant after that performance), I loved the humour (absolutely spot on), gameplay was brilliant, the tests were thought-provoking, I liked the new mechanics a lot, the diversity between testing and... other parts (I won't spoil here) and it surpassed every expectation I had.

But I also love Portal to bits, too. I love GLaDOS, I loved the chambers, I loved the song, ending battle and overall theme.

Therefore, I don't think I like one better than the other. I think they're both amazing and it's some of the best gaming time I've ever ploughed into a couple of games.

 

[Slycne]

Wow, I'm really surprise by how much in the minority I am.

I throughly enjoyed Portal 2, no doubt about it, but it doesn't surpass the original game in my opinion. The brilliance of Portal was directly tied to the unexpected, many people thought they were going to start up a simple puzzle game with a cool mechanic and the joy came from the surprise of the setting. Portal 2 just doesn't have that. It shows you new things and they are interesting in their own right, but they just don't live up to that slow build of mystery and discovery that the first game had.

Oh, and the puzzles were disappointingly easy. Puzzle difficulty is really subjective, but nothing in Portal 2 challenged me for more than a few minutes and everything felt like you were apply 'adventure game logic' until you found the developer's solution. I remember quiting out of Portal a few times because I just couldn't figure out a puzzle after so many attempts only to suddenly have it all come together the next time in a moment of epiphany.