Fanart by Izadore101
Taken and expanded directely from my Tumblr post:
Welp, that was quite fantastic (marked spoilers incoming!).
That boss battle with Wheatley was brilliant like the battle with Glados on the first game, maybe a bit better. Just the character in general felt menacing since I could feel how corrupted he was.
Now I finally learned why space was mentioned a lot about this game and also the moon. The way you got rid of Wheatly was quite amazing and didn’t feel like an ass pull since if you paid attention to Cave Johnson’s announcements, the white gel was made out of moon rocks.
Nice touch of showing the Co-op robots (haven’t tried the mode yet), and very nice ending with the Turret symphony and giving back the original companion cube of the original game.
Finally, great ending song and a very interesting stinger. It does leave some questions….
Okay, end of the spoilers.
As for the game itself, brilliant just like the first one. Greatly paced, excellent puzzle design and brilliant comedy and lines, even more now. I loved the new mechanics they added, especialy the gels, Wheatly was a excellent adition to the cast and Stephen Merchant was excellent. Dorky like the character, but also pretty menacing when he needs to. Glados is of course fantastic as always, and you get much more charaterization of her in this game. At last but not least on the voicing department, JK Simmons as Aperture's defunt founder, Cave Johnson, both bringing black comedy to hilarious levels and legendary lemon rants.
On the technical aspects of things, it's vastly improved over the first game, with a much more advanced Source Engine and much more soundtrack, which is fantastic. Now saying the first game was a Beta (it was a complete game after all), but what they did to Portal 2 was rammping all of that Up to Eleven.
Now, is it better than the first game..... hard to say. For those who don't know or don't remember, Portal almost became overnight my fourth favorite game of all-time. The more I think about, it might be either better or equal, but I still feel the first game left a mark that it's hard to surpass, but I digress. Portal 2 is still amazing and if not Top 5, it might among my Top 10.
The only thing left is try the Co-op mode and play more of the user created chambers.
Just to finish: marry me Valve.
I'd say the single player is worse than Portal's single player (those bits where you have to look for the one stretch of wall you can hit with no puzzles are awful), but the co-op is better than Portal 1's single player. So I give Portal 2 the edge.
I disagree, I still thought the single player was fantastic and those bits never spoiled the rest of the puzzles and story.
I gotta try co-op someday.
I've never played this one but I love the original. I really should get to it.
DO IT!
I thought portal 2 was as perfect a sequel anybody could ask for. Fantastic single player, fantastic co-op. Whether it's better than the original is irrelevant because portal 2 is one of the best games of that whole generation hands down. Portal 1 was basically an experimental proof of concept bundled with the orange box. Portal 2 is that idea taken into a AAA format. And it turned out really well.
Yup. Though, I don't think the first Portal is a proof of concept, since it still is a complete game in my eyes.
I think the first is better, but that's mainly because it's short and never outstays its welcome. The second game has those annoying sections where you're not really solving puzzles and just looking for a wall to shoot.
Also, Still Alive is still the greatest song in video games.
Like I said to Casey, I disagree. Those sections never spoiled the rest of the game and if longer, I still thought Portal 2 had great pacing.
Still Alive and Want You Gone are equal imo.
I wish that I had spent more time with the game. My console of choice died before I was able to reaply start the game. I did have a blast playing through a dozen or so levels of the co-op with my nephew.... He was new to FPS mechanics, so I had to teach him a lot, but it was still loads of fun.
Shame to hear that. Maybe you could get the PC version on the Steam christmas sales.
Wheatley is awesome.
Agree. So is Cave Johnson.
When I first heard the Lemon Rant, I knew it would be a classic.
If I ever see this game for sale on Xbox Live, I'll pick it up. I never finished the first game. There was a room I got stuck on, but I'd love to try Portal 2 especially for the story and funny dialog.
Dude, finish the first Portal before you start the second game. I still remember the puzzle you are stuck on the first game and if I could do it in one try, you can pass it.
Yea, I'll do that. It's a neat game, I want to go back and finish it.
I've been meaning to see about getting this game for the Xbox 360. I really enjoyed the stand alone version of Portal that I got off XBLA (I'll NEVER buy the Orange Box) but now I just need to decide if I want the game physically since Portal 2 came on a disc or digitally like my version of Portal saved on my Hard Drive.
Decisions, decisions....
Whichever format you decide, Portal 2 is a must have and one of the best gaming experiences I ever had. Though i'm not sure if console Portal 2 allows for the Steam Workshop maps.
Psst, just leave your grudge for Half-Life and get The Orange Box.
