Valve Unveils Portal 2 Box Art

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I thought it looked quite nice but I'm kind of disappointed they focused on the 2 player aspect as well.

For the record I'll have the box as I'm buying this on 360 and won't get it on PC at all...

 

[DTWolfwood]

probably would have been better of just using a black and blue background with the stick figure dude next to the 2 in the middle.

I got the same reaction from this cover as i did when i saw this

Spoiler: Mass Effect 2

 

[Flamezdudes]

I actually quite like it. Looks very nice!

 

[Woodsey]

Don't care, it's never going to show up on Steam.

Wait... it's not gonna be on Steam?

The box art I mean, not the game xD

 

[mjc0961]

I don't like that boxart much either, but I also don't care really because Steam doesn't show box-art pictures anywhere that I can locate.

 

[Woodsey]

probably would have been better of just using a black and blue background with the stick figure dude next to the 2 in the middle.

I got the same reaction from this cover as i did when i saw this

Spoiler: Mass Effect 2

I never understood why they swapped the cover of Shephard (Shepard? Sheperd? Shepherd?! THIS IS MADNESS!) running the mountain of rubble for that.

And come to think of it, the Game Informer front cover for the game's announcement should have been the game's front cover.

 

[Harmondale2]

Yeah, I don't think valve have ever been that good at box art, then again its box art so it hardly matters?

 

[V8 Ninja]

...Well, it's certainly more interesting (and better) than Mass Effect 2's box art. That doesn't say much, though. :/

 

[Wicky_42]

Yep, pretty bad as art, pretty crap for selling a game visually. There's no focus, and the movement seems to be entirely in a plane across the cover so it lacks the dynamism of all those boxes with the characters moving out or the mystery from characters looking and/or moving away.

Seriously, Valve, you guys can do better than that. Heck, your fan base can do better than that! Use an idea from TF2; make the cover art subject to an open contest! Guaranteed to get something better than that out of it.

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

I'd prefer something a little more minimalistic, like just the stick figure logo popping his head out from behind the "2". That way it's in line with the first game's box art, as well as keeping the minimal look of the game itself.
That's what I loved about the Aperture Science labs; it was basic but interesting.

 

[Sartan0]

Yeah, Valve needs someone new to work on their box covers.

 

[zHellas]

The original had a lot more mysterious box art. THis explains too much... -_-

2 robots running around, one coming out of one portal and jumping into another.

I can totally see how that explains everything!

/sarcasm

Seriously though, how does it explain anything other than that portals are involved?

I'm sorry if I sounded like a dick, but I wanted to poke a bit of fun before seriously asking that.

OT:

...Not really the box art that I would have chosen.

It's good, I just don't feel that it's good enough to be box art.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

probably would have been better of just using a black and blue background with the stick figure dude next to the 2 in the middle.

I got the same reaction from this cover as i did when i saw this

Spoiler: Mass Effect 2

ME2's cover image is in the spirit of movie posters for old scifi movies/covers for pulp scifi writing (which largely inspired the aesthetic of the game). If people don't recognize that though I can see why they wouldn't care for it.

 

[RA92]

To be constructive, they could have had a portal at the top and bottom of the image with a weighted companion cube falling infinitely through it and Galdos' eye glowing evilly in the background shadows, waiting to snatch away the cube and break everyones' hearts.

This. Hear hear Valve!

Seriously, they should've kept it simple - even an enlarged in-game warning sign would've been more... enigmatic. This is just meh.

 

[Retardinator]

I do believe that Team Fortress 2 box art was basically the same kind of ugly as this. Portal had very simplistic box art, which was perfect for the game. This... I dunno. It looks like something you'd expect to find in a "bargain" bin out the back of Gamestop. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but the truth is that when you compare the two, Portal's box art was incomparably better and more fitting.

To be constructive, they could have had a portal at the top and bottom of the image with a weighted companion cube falling infinitely through it and Galdos' eye glowing evilly in the background shadows, waiting to snatch away the cube and break everyones' hearts.

Agreed. It sounds centric, with a focus, which is exactly what game boxes should look like.

 

[Ranchcroutons]

I feel like this box art has a lot of the same problems Halo 2 did as a whole. It just isn't reminiscent at all of what made the first game so great. Where are the sterile whites? Where is Chell?

This reminds me a little of when they changed RDR artwork last minute and changed what could have been an awesome cover to a decent one.

 

[daftnoize]

Such as missed oppertunity not to combine it with half life episode three though and a new short game. The blue box could have been amazing...