Zero Punctuation: Portal 2

[Optimystic]

The price is coming down pretty fast already, so I can forgive a $40 game some padding.

(noms sawdusty cherries)

 

[sergnb]

I agree that the difficulty of most puzzles wasn't based on the complexity on the puzzles themselves, but the difficulty of finding that little tiny square of white wall in the gigantic room.

My favourite part has to be the gel sections, those required you to be a little more creative (as far as the puzzle layout let you) specially the white gel one.

Also, I found myself with no friends to play portal 2 co-op with, so I just decided to go random. I found this german guy and we had a blast. I regret nothing.

(and definitely, the BEST puzzle in the game has to the last chamber in the 3rd course, the one where *spoiler spoiler* you had to collide with your friend mid-air in order to land properly */spoiler* , the moment I figured out how to do it I felt pretty smart 8)

 

[elpresidente]

I agree that the game is very good but not the same as the first one. Still I played it in one sitting, never even for a moment wanting to stop until I see the end, which shows that it is a rarely good game. The thing that disappointed me mostly is that they made GlaDOS into a likable character and gave her emotions. The best thing about GlaDOS in the first "Portal" was that she was this crazy AI, whose only purpose was to test puzzle solving and treated humans like predictable objects, clearly showing no real understanding of human emotions. It created a feeling of isolation and loneliness while the player made his way through the vast empty complex listening to recorded lines that only resembled human speech, but there was no emotional logic behind it. And in this game GlaDOS was bitter, showed fear, anger, enthusiasm. At times she talked as if she sensed what Chell was thinking and basically behaved like an average human being. The cold zany robot from the first "Portal" was gone. Wheatley was even a worse representation of a murderous AI, because he acted and talked like a nice fellow the entire time. It added to the comedy, but took away from the atmosphere. He was more like a character from a Disney movie.
The level design as always was beautiful, and I liked the way they showed the early versions of the complex. Some explanation of why Chell ended in a stasis chamber along with thousands of other people would've been nice and also what year was when these events happened, but maybe they keep this for "Portal 3".

 

[Hitman Dread]

Portal 2 isn't actually easier, you are just use to, cough "thinking with portals." For new comers this is just as challenging as the first.

 

[Choppaduel]

Brilliant.

Although, I was hoping he'd mention that theres fewer execution based challenges, and that the game is weaker for it.

hopefully this will be made up with the free dlc

 

[sergnb]

I agree that the difficulty of most puzzles wasn't based on the complexity on the puzzles themselves, but the difficulty of finding that little tiny square of white wall in the gigantic room.

My favourite part has to be the gel sections, those required you to be a little more creative (as far as the puzzle layout let you) specially the white gel one.

Also, I found myself with no friends to play portal 2 co-op with, so I just decided to go random. I found this german guy and we had a blast. I regret nothing.

(and definitely, the BEST puzzle in the game has to the last chamber in the 3rd course, the one where *spoiler spoiler* you had to collide with your friend mid-air in order to land properly */spoiler* , the moment I figured out how to do it I felt pretty smart 8) )

 

[SangRahl]

I started playing the Co-op game with my wife (not an avid gamer) and we'd finally gotten to that point where she had something click, and she cleared a puzzle while I was getting something for our daughter in the kitchen.

That afternoon, I played a bit with my dad to pass the time (he was totally taken in by the background chatter from GLaDOS, humor written almost specifically for him) and was faced with an insurmountable barrier that was his complete inability to ambulate and orient himself within a virtual space. (LOTS of staring at floors and ceilings, with a few "nose pressed to wall" situations added for flavor)

I tried the "Left Stick = Feet / Right Stick = Head" concept that worked for me, but he was hopeless. The room with the four timed switches ended with him standing guard at one button, while I used creative portal jumping to get to the other three on my own. But, then I got to spend the next 15 minutes entertaining the kids with ball physics antics, so it was all good. (The activity of 1. Stand below dispenser... 2. roll ball through exit into the Dispersion Field... 3. get hit on head by replacement ball was a huge hit, and the cause of much childish laughter.)

Then, dad takes a break and my four-year-old takes his controller. Same prompts, though a bit more precise ("Left Button" instead of "Red Portal", etc.) and she was doing great. The odd reminder to switch sticks (she can't use both analog sticks at the same time, and still hold the controller in her hands) to look, instead of walk and she new what she was about and had a pretty solid grasp on what needed to happen to keep moving along. A moment of parental pride (and likely a cause for worry, a few years down the road, I'm sure), to say the least.

 

[mrdude2010]

When it comes to decent sequels, Portal 2...
Takes the Cake!
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

How the hell do you manage to make 90% of your posts lately puns?

someone after my own heart

 

[Jewky]

When my friend and I were playing the co-op, we sorta noticed something. There were loading screens in our friggin' loading screens. It would nearly look like the length of the game was increased by a loading screen ridden co-op and a rather easy, increased-length campaign (the awkward substance you sprayed all over the wall in different colours did make things a bit harder at first though). However, P2 is probably the best sequel they could make out of it, and the one true downside was : No challenge maps. Portal at least had 3 different challenges in it (be it the same maps as the campaign) which more or less was Hard Difficulty for Portal campaign and increased its replay value. So instead of hats and flags, I'd rather have those challenges.

tl;dr Too much loading, no challenge maps, good sequel though.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

That, and

Spoiler

the guy with the British accent becoming a villain

...something he's raged against very loudly in the past.

I assume you're referring to the Killzone 3 review? In that he was only referring to the troops having Cockney accents.

 

[sergnb]

I agree that the game is very good but not the same as the first one. Still I played it in one sitting, never even for a moment wanting to stop until I see the end, which shows that it is a rarely good game. The thing that disappointed me mostly is that they made GlaDOS into a likable character and gave her emotions. The best thing about GlaDOS in the first "Portal" was that she was this crazy AI, whose only purpose was to test puzzle solving and treated humans like predictable objects, clearly showing no real understanding of human emotions. It created a feeling of isolation and loneliness while the player made his way through the vast empty complex listening to recorded lines that only resembled human speech, but there was no emotional logic behind it. And in this game GlaDOS was bitter, showed fear, anger, enthusiasm. At times she talked as if she sensed what Chell was thinking and basically behaved like an average human being. The cold zany robot from the first "Portal" was gone. Wheatley was even a worse representation of a murderous AI, because he acted and talked like a nice fellow the entire time. It added to the comedy, but took away from the atmosphere. He was more like a character from a Disney movie.
The level design as always was beautiful, and I liked the way they showed the early versions of the complex. Some explanation of why Chell ended in a stasis chamber along with thousands of other people would've been nice and also what year was when these events happened, but maybe they keep this for "Portal 3".

You got that wrong. GLaDOS already showed emotions in Portal 1. And very strong ones. She was not crazy, she is an AI, she can't be crazy, lol. Maybe the emotions were too subtle for you to really catch them, but the Portal GLaDOS was the vivid image of a mother that HAS to kill her daughter AND at the same time wants to kill herself. There are plenty of articles regarding the complex Portal 1 psycology, you should read some of them

 

[mrdude2010]

I wish more was said about the comedy of the game. I think that Stephen Merchant as Wheatley is the funniest videogame character I've ever come across, and far outshined Glados in this one.

glados had some really nice lines too, i must say. i liked "how are you holding up, because i'm a potato" and "the most brilliant scientists worked for a generation to create the dumbest moron who ever lived, and you put him in charge of the entire facility"

my favroite dialogue lines came from the cores personally

 

[ColdBlooded]

To be honest, I liked the second Portal better. Maybe because it let me explore the personality of my arch enemy some more, or maybe it was figuring out the story behind Aperture. All and all, I regard both Portals (the games, not the actual portals) as two of the best games I've played in my life.

Also, how could someone not like the turret opera?

I agree. This is the first time I have been really dissapointed with a ZP video. There really wasn't anything WRONG with portal 2, it was just DIFFERENT. So why did he complain because it wasn't small-scale? It was better in EVERY way!

It could be because he thinks that in the first portal the story and gameplay didn't really get in the way of each other and some puzzles actually had some complexity. Portal 2 had a story that really does get in the way gameplay at times, showing aperture's history and exploring characters while sacrificing some more complex, head-scratching puzzles. Exploration sections took hold instead of true fully-formed puzzles. That said I still like portal 2 better because of the story.

 

[sergnb]

I wish more was said about the comedy of the game. I think that Stephen Merchant as Wheatley is the funniest videogame character I've ever come across, and far outshined Glados in this one.

glados had some really nice lines too, i must say. i liked "how are you holding up, because i'm a potato" and "the most brilliant scientists worked for a generation to create the dumbest moron who ever lived, and you put him in charge of the entire facility"

my favroite dialogue lines came from the cores personally

Cave Johnson had some really brilliant moments too, specially those regarding Lemons. To be honest the whole game is funny as hell, I had a blast playing it.

 

[Longsight]

Am I the only one who thinks that Yahtzee might be over idolizing Portal 1 a bit. Don't get me wrong, I loved the game but I think the important thing to keep in mind is that the reason it was so short is because it was a protoype, something to test the waters of a new and innovative concept. The length issue meant that nobody would have bought this thing on its own, it was just a nice little extra thrown into The Orange Box, I'd damn well expect a single player campaing to deliver at least 5-6 hours if its going to have the balls to call itself a full game. Still, will reserve my opinion of the sequel for when I actually get it but I just don't hold up its predecessor as the zenith of gaming potential.

I suppose, but the problem is it was a pretty damn perfect prototype at the time. It was new, it was unexpected, and as Yahtzee pointed out, it was perfectly fuckin' formed. Portal may have technically been a prototype, but its release was equivalent to accidentally pooping the Koh-i-Noor. It had a unique, crisp feeling of guilty pleasure to it that was simply impossible to recapture in any sort of sequel.

 

[sergnb]

To be honest, I liked the second Portal better. Maybe because it let me explore the personality of my arch enemy some more, or maybe it was figuring out the story behind Aperture. All and all, I regard both Portals (the games, not the actual portals) as two of the best games I've played in my life.

Also, how could someone not like the turret opera?

I agree. This is the first time I have been really dissapointed with a ZP video. There really wasn't anything WRONG with portal 2, it was just DIFFERENT. So why did he complain because it wasn't small-scale? It was better in EVERY way!

It could be because he thinks that in the first portal the story and gameplay didn't really get in the way of each other and some puzzles actually had some complexity. Portal 2 had a story that really does get in the way gameplay at times, showing aperture's history and exploring characters while sacrificing some more complex, head-scratching puzzles. Exploration sections took hold instead of true fully-formed puzzles. That said I still like portal 2 better because of the story.

I agree. The only puzzles that got me scratching my head were some of the ones regarding gels. The rest of the game is pretty easy if you have played Portal 1, and if find that tiny bit of white wall in the distance.

 

[mrdude2010]

I wish more was said about the comedy of the game. I think that Stephen Merchant as Wheatley is the funniest videogame character I've ever come across, and far outshined Glados in this one.

glados had some really nice lines too, i must say. i liked "how are you holding up, because i'm a potato" and "the most brilliant scientists worked for a generation to create the dumbest moron who ever lived, and you put him in charge of the entire facility"

my favroite dialogue lines came from the cores personally

Cave Johnson had some really brilliant moments too, specially those regarding Lemons. To be honest the whole game is funny as hell, I had a blast playing it.

agreed. i loved the stuff about the control group

 

[jmarquiso]

Did he just say that there's no potential for new meme's in Portal 2? Have you been paying attention the last few weeks Yahtzee? Does space ring a bell, or lemons?

Lemon cake in space. Oh noez.

 

[Paul The Best]

I'm pretty sure I would have rather had H-L2:Ep3 instead of this. Portal 2 was fun though, so no complaints on the game itself.