Now I know that plenty of people have reviewed this game before and I know that many of them have done so to a far higher standard than I would be capable of doing. However, I feel that a game this big needs as many different perspectives on it as possible.
I am a big fan of the original Portal game. I found it to be legitimately challenging while at the same time having a sense of humour and innovation that very few other games have managed to achieve. One of the major aspects of the original I feel benefitted it greatly was the fact that the people who made it did not think it would be as successful as it was. They created it mainly as a means of filling up used space on a compilation of games called ?the Orange Box? alongside their more well-known titles like Half-life 2 and Team fortress. However, it turned out to be the surprise hit of the whole lot, becoming arguably more popular and acclaimed than the games they were expecting to be liked.
When I heard they were making a sequel, my first instinct was to think to myself:
?Oh no. They realised how popular the original was so now they?re going to release a half-hearted sequel without the charm of the first game.?
Thankfully, that was not the case.
Now let me just say right from the start. Portal 2 is not ?as good? a game as the original. Let me also say that this is no criticism against it. The original game was an astounding piece of video gaming. It is easily one of the highest quality games I?ve ever played in my life. Saying that the sequel is not as good is about as much of a criticism as saying that a painting you make isn?t as good as the Mona Lisa. The original just set the bar so high that very few could match it.
Portal 2 is in and of itself a brilliant achievement in video gaming, much like its predecessor. It is a more-than-worthy follow-up to the first game and easily more than a match for any game that will be released this year.
The game begins an indeterminate amount of time after the end of the original. The game?s protagonist, the silent character Chell, wakes up once more in the Aperture Science facility, which has since been dilapidated to a considerable degree. You can easily tell that the game?s creators put a great deal of thought and care into the look of the game, perfectly capturing the look and feel of a place that was once so bright and welcoming now so broken.
As for the story itself I am unsure how Chell managed to find her way back into the facility given what happened at the end of the first game. I?ve heard that there?s a story in between games shown in a comic of some sort but since I?ve never seen it, I can?t confirm or deny anything.
Chell soon meets up with a rather talkative robotic sphere called Wheatley, voiced by Stephen Merchant. Being British myself I greatly appreciated including one of my country?s best comedic talents to a big-budget American game. Wheatley, who is simultaneously idiotic, irritating an utterly endearing, easily steals the entire show. I honestly had a great big smile on my face any time he was on-screen. His delivery was pitch-perfect and his lines were so funny I had to literally pick myself off the floor a couple of times.
Chell and Wheatley team up together to try and break out of the facility, finding the infamous portal gun from the first game along the way.
That?s as much of the plot as you?re going to get from me. Any more and I?d be spoiling things.
Now the mechanics of this game are far more polished than they were in the original. You still have the portal gun and plenty of opportunity t use it. But mixed in with this are a few new features. These include special gels which can be used to make your character jump higher, run faster and even make your own portal surfaces. There are so many new mechanics in this game and all of them provide a greater level of depth and intelligence to the puzzle sections of the game.
There is the addition of a co-op mode to this game where you play a separate storyline to the Chell one. You and your co-op friend play as two robots of the Aperture science facility each equipped with their own portal gun, who work together to solve puzzles. There are far more puzzles in the co-op campaign than in the single-player campaign, which was more story-driven.
The story itself reminded me very much of the PS3 game Bioshock, in which we get little snippets of information via audio recordings about the back-story of the both the characters and the facility itself. This method of storytelling succeeded in providing a level of depth and history to the world of the game that the original was rather lacking in.
Overall this game is a brilliant achievement and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of video games. Portal fans will love it and even if it?s your first game in the series, you will love it?s innovation, it?s incredible physics engine, it?s sharply written sense of humour and the many surprise twists in the plot.
Hope you all enjoyed reading my review.
I am a big fan of the original Portal game. I found it to be legitimately challenging while at the same time having a sense of humour and innovation that very few other games have managed to achieve. One of the major aspects of the original I feel benefitted it greatly was the fact that the people who made it did not think it would be as successful as it was. They created it mainly as a means of filling up used space on a compilation of games called ?the Orange Box? alongside their more well-known titles like Half-life 2 and Team fortress. However, it turned out to be the surprise hit of the whole lot, becoming arguably more popular and acclaimed than the games they were expecting to be liked.
When I heard they were making a sequel, my first instinct was to think to myself:
?Oh no. They realised how popular the original was so now they?re going to release a half-hearted sequel without the charm of the first game.?
Thankfully, that was not the case.
Now let me just say right from the start. Portal 2 is not ?as good? a game as the original. Let me also say that this is no criticism against it. The original game was an astounding piece of video gaming. It is easily one of the highest quality games I?ve ever played in my life. Saying that the sequel is not as good is about as much of a criticism as saying that a painting you make isn?t as good as the Mona Lisa. The original just set the bar so high that very few could match it.
Portal 2 is in and of itself a brilliant achievement in video gaming, much like its predecessor. It is a more-than-worthy follow-up to the first game and easily more than a match for any game that will be released this year.
The game begins an indeterminate amount of time after the end of the original. The game?s protagonist, the silent character Chell, wakes up once more in the Aperture Science facility, which has since been dilapidated to a considerable degree. You can easily tell that the game?s creators put a great deal of thought and care into the look of the game, perfectly capturing the look and feel of a place that was once so bright and welcoming now so broken.
As for the story itself I am unsure how Chell managed to find her way back into the facility given what happened at the end of the first game. I?ve heard that there?s a story in between games shown in a comic of some sort but since I?ve never seen it, I can?t confirm or deny anything.
Chell soon meets up with a rather talkative robotic sphere called Wheatley, voiced by Stephen Merchant. Being British myself I greatly appreciated including one of my country?s best comedic talents to a big-budget American game. Wheatley, who is simultaneously idiotic, irritating an utterly endearing, easily steals the entire show. I honestly had a great big smile on my face any time he was on-screen. His delivery was pitch-perfect and his lines were so funny I had to literally pick myself off the floor a couple of times.
Chell and Wheatley team up together to try and break out of the facility, finding the infamous portal gun from the first game along the way.
That?s as much of the plot as you?re going to get from me. Any more and I?d be spoiling things.
Now the mechanics of this game are far more polished than they were in the original. You still have the portal gun and plenty of opportunity t use it. But mixed in with this are a few new features. These include special gels which can be used to make your character jump higher, run faster and even make your own portal surfaces. There are so many new mechanics in this game and all of them provide a greater level of depth and intelligence to the puzzle sections of the game.
There is the addition of a co-op mode to this game where you play a separate storyline to the Chell one. You and your co-op friend play as two robots of the Aperture science facility each equipped with their own portal gun, who work together to solve puzzles. There are far more puzzles in the co-op campaign than in the single-player campaign, which was more story-driven.
The story itself reminded me very much of the PS3 game Bioshock, in which we get little snippets of information via audio recordings about the back-story of the both the characters and the facility itself. This method of storytelling succeeded in providing a level of depth and history to the world of the game that the original was rather lacking in.
Overall this game is a brilliant achievement and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of video games. Portal fans will love it and even if it?s your first game in the series, you will love it?s innovation, it?s incredible physics engine, it?s sharply written sense of humour and the many surprise twists in the plot.
Hope you all enjoyed reading my review.
