Portal 2
lolfighter
Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Here be spoilers</div><!--coloro:red--><span style="color:red"><!--/coloro-->Again, this thread should not be considered spoiler-free. You have been warned.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
So I finished the game a few hours ago. Quite a fun ride, and a worthy successor to the first game. Short, again. Which was expected. Longer than Portal 1 though. Also expected.
How about metacritic though eh? As of time of writing the user score is at an average of 6.9 (out of 10) across all three platforms, with the PC version at 7.0, Xbox 360 at 6.6 and PS3 at 6.2. I've heard that several hours back it was as low as 4.9. Simultaneously, reviewers give it a 94 out of 100.
Chalk it up to hype I suppose. The game was overhyped, and it seems like a lot of people expected the second coming of something (or someone) other than Portal. And like the game or not, if you give the game a 0 out of 10 score (which it seems like a lot of people are doing), you're throwing a tantrum, not rating a game on its merits.
I appreciate that no easy potato reference was provided. Every time I hear someone say "the cake is a lie" as if they're being really clever and funny I feel like tearing their head off and pissing down their neck. I even feel vaguely murderish towards myself just for having typed it out.
I've managed to get a little co-op going. Initially, griefing was obviously rampant, and since it's just the two of you it's part of the fun. But the real fun starts when the puzzles get just a wee bit harder and you start really having to work together on solving them. But the most fun part of the it is to work out the solution, and that's only going to be a challenge once, so I fear that co-op will have no more replay value than singleplayer.
So I finished the game a few hours ago. Quite a fun ride, and a worthy successor to the first game. Short, again. Which was expected. Longer than Portal 1 though. Also expected.
How about metacritic though eh? As of time of writing the user score is at an average of 6.9 (out of 10) across all three platforms, with the PC version at 7.0, Xbox 360 at 6.6 and PS3 at 6.2. I've heard that several hours back it was as low as 4.9. Simultaneously, reviewers give it a 94 out of 100.
Chalk it up to hype I suppose. The game was overhyped, and it seems like a lot of people expected the second coming of something (or someone) other than Portal. And like the game or not, if you give the game a 0 out of 10 score (which it seems like a lot of people are doing), you're throwing a tantrum, not rating a game on its merits.
I appreciate that no easy potato reference was provided. Every time I hear someone say "the cake is a lie" as if they're being really clever and funny I feel like tearing their head off and pissing down their neck. I even feel vaguely murderish towards myself just for having typed it out.
I've managed to get a little co-op going. Initially, griefing was obviously rampant, and since it's just the two of you it's part of the fun. But the real fun starts when the puzzles get just a wee bit harder and you start really having to work together on solving them. But the most fun part of the it is to work out the solution, and that's only going to be a challenge once, so I fear that co-op will have no more replay value than singleplayer.
Comments
1. Community-built puzzles - lots of them, especially tricky timing based ones
2. "Fun" maps - alternate playstyles... This would be especially effective if games can be formed for more than 2 people at once.
I believe I read that it was at least partly due to a raid from /v/. It's pretty clear people just had axes to grind with their scores rather than legitimately putting in a score based off their experience.
Just finished up the single player with a few mixed feelings about the ending. I can get behind glados ultimately being realigned to a bad guy, but the way in which they gloss over her transformation from caroline was a bummer.
Itching to dive back in with the developer commentary. More level content from Valve would be nice. I have to optimistically think they didn't get around to it for the original because they immediately turned around and started work on the sequel.
Also, here's some third person footage I captured. They added a nifty 'thirdpersonshoulder' command which is pretty playable aside for the lack of crosshair for long distance stuff.
<center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WH7j2FLDXuw"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WH7j2FLDXuw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center>
"0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve? 0/10 are you even trying valve?"
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Having completed the game, a few points that stuck with:
- The visuals are a bit lackluster, at least from what I expected. I was hoping to see the Source-engine at it's absolute peak, unfortunatly visually it doesn't differ much from say Episode 2. Either this is because the Source-engine is about maxed out at this point, or because they've dumbed it down for the consoles to run it properly (I suspect it's a bit of both). The pseudo-realtime shadows have never looked better though.
- There's dialog, A LOT of dialog, too much ###### dialog. Really, Valve overdid it here, I was getting tired of wheatley's insessive ramblings. It seems every time I wanted to stop and admire the architecture I would get pestered to move on till my ears bled out (bit of an exaggeration, but that was the lasting feeling). In fact I actually muted the damn game at the boss-fight cause I couldn't think with wheatley blathering on constantly.
- Too many loading-screens. Really guys, this has consoles written all over it. Often there are load-screens at the end of almost every chamber, which wasn't necessary at all. I didn't bother to measure memory-usage, but they could've gotten away with loading a lot larger maps than they did. Although it loads pretty fast, it still breaks the game-flow.
- Maybe the game was strected out just a bit too far than it's story-telling allowed it to. A few too many chambers, where all we got in return was more rambling from wheatley.
- Barely any Half-Life references. We have the borealis (in a secretish-area), and the name-dropping of Black-Mesa, but that's about it as far as I can recall. Valve really needs to start wrapping up the HL-story tbh, the mystery is starting to wear thin.
- Oh, and a ###### field-of-view, but nothing we haven't seen in any other new game out there these days.
I kind of missed the purity of Portal 1, but P1 was so distilled and polished that the only way to go forward was to add more tools, lest the sequel be a glorified map pack. The addition of "more stuff for the sake of more stuff" is what killed L4D2 for me, I would've been happy for a repeat of L4D1 with different characters and new settings, but that's just me. P2 pulled off the "more stuff" thing more gracefully.
The moon bit was brilliant though.
--Scythe--
P.S. What? Pre-rendered cutscenes? CONSOLEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
Were you playing on PC? This is the best the Source engine has looked by far. The biggest instances of the use of their cinematic physics in Ep2 (barn being blown up/train crashing) is far out done in every instance they use it in P2. The polycount/texture resolutions of the environmental props is all much higher and used to greater effect as opposed to most of the non brush based environments in Ep2 being made up of displacements. The incidental animations for the test panels/production lines and moving platforms make for much more dynamic scenery.
Impressions I've got so far as probably being the biggest grumpiest bugger around Portal 1, are a lot better. It actually seems to have a story now, maybe because you killed her in the first one, although it seems a lot more involved than that. There's a lot of story telling via dialogue, which I actually like, it's a single player puzzle game, not a shoot em up mash em up, so the time you spend on the story is more valuable, to me at least. I liked they put the extra effort in to it.
The environments had a lot more work in them, rather than re-using HL2 textures, there's some re-drawn textures which are used for the cleaner areas and a lot of new dirty textures too. The amount of prop work and panel work increased ten fold and it really made you feel you were actually in the testing facility rather than running through the nuclear silo feel that was Portal 1. On the whole, the environment made me feel like I was in a puzzle game I could enjoy to look at.
As player has mentioned around the shadowing already too, the effects seem to have been slightly bumped up around lighting and particles, which is Source dying. Although yeah, a lot of detail added compared to Portal 1, it looks held back because of consoles.
With all the new stuff not just for stuffs sake, as Scythe puts it, Portal 2 is a whole lot more fun than it's predecessor. Which means I'll probably work on doing something map wise in the future, I've already seen ways to use the new features to make it a whole lot more complex than the standard levels I've played so far, which is a bonus, as no one likes an easy challenge.
EDIT: Although I have just realised there is no P2 access via SSDK or it's own native one :( Which just made me slightly sad.
Anyone else slightly dissatisfied by the ending?
My guess- they didn't want to spend the time teaching this element to the player in solo. Probably some of the co-op maps have it.
The game is ok, but just doesn't seem as polished as the original, and not as fun. Hope some nice map packs come out.
And yeah, I was talking about the tubes that suck everything off the playing surface, as seen in the trailers. Didn't make it in the game.
The Co-op was fun, though it took a while to really ramp up the difficulty. Even then, there were some later maps that managed to really only require the second player to press a button for a couple seconds. Had the button been timed the tests would become solo-able.
Another sort of strange thing from co-op was the buttons, you had specific buttons for both Square and Round weights, along with the generic buttons.. But I can't remember a level where both the specific buttons were used, or where the type of weight you used actually mattered. I'm not even sure if, mechanically, the type of weight would matter. It is just an assumption I'm making because there were specific buttons made to take specific shapes.
One thing I loved that I haven't really seen anyone discuss is the sound design. In certain maps there was a mechanic that added extra layers to the music as you gained momentum, or completed certain tasks. It was most noticeable during the laser sections, or the propulsion gel sections, but it was pretty consistent throughout the game. I just found it to be a really nice sort of positive reinforcement for completing small tasks. A lot of games that use audio to reward players like to use a one shot jingle, that after about 20 times starts to get a bit annoying. However, by adding subtle music tracks to compliment the current music allows for a constant reinforcement of your current progress without becoming annoying. It made some of the laser puzzles feel a bit like I was playing <a href="http://www.playauditorium.com/" target="_blank">Auditorium</a>.
Also this same technique was used on the Companion Cube in chamber 7, who plays its own version of the Turrets Choir, synched perfectly to the rather slow, deep background music used for the chamber (Which in turn plays the part of the Animal King). The cheerful little tune made it hurt even more when I was parted from it.
<!--QuoteBegin-"player"+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE ("player")</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Barely any Half-Life references. We have the borealis (in a secretish-area), and the name-dropping of Black-Mesa, but that's about it as far as I can recall. Valve really needs to start wrapping up the HL-story tbh, the mystery is starting to wear thin.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That is because this is NOT Half-Life. From the Portal side of things the HL universe is very much detached. It provides interesting background and context for the game. It helps to answer things such as "Why no one has tried to take the complex back from GLaDOS?" (Too busy being oppressed) or "Why is Aperture so ruthless in its methods?" (Because their competitors stealing away their funding, and are close to perfecting their own portal technology)
Beyond that Portal is very much self-contained, when ###### hit the fan GLaDOS just locked up and didn't look back.
Anyways, Aperture as we see it in Portal is way too goofy to be a part of Half-life proper.
<!--QuoteBegin-"Scythe"+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE ("Scythe")</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->P.S. What? Pre-rendered cutscenes<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't think consoles are to blame for the pre-rendered cutscenes. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say it is more likely an issue of camera angles and timing, getting the scripting to all line up for in-engine cut-scenes was becoming problematic so they decided to cheat. What is shown in the videos really wouldn't be enough to stress either of the machines, in fact I'm pretty certain there are more complex areas inside the game itself.
The final scene with Wheatley is a prime example of this, at its core it is just two models and a skybox. However due to the rather extreme closeups with the personality cores, if there was hiccup in the camera scripting I imagine it would be pretty easy to have the models clipping through the camera. (Also it helps smooth the transition from the credits)
<!--QuoteBegin-Quovatis+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Quovatis)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I also hate that you can only go back and load "chapters" and not individual chambers like before.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Unfortunately that is <a href="http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/594683394270316950/1E53B6C358199FC4A3F9DE664B183FF3FAB59E69/" target="_blank">not actually the case.</a>
While I agree that it is annoying, it is not different from Portal. What is different is the length of the game, because portal was so short the longer chambers generally got their own chapters. However to keep the big twist a secret valve did not assign any chapters past chamber 19 (Because you could see them in the UI before they unlocked), making that chapter roughly the same length as a portal 2 chapter. So, yeah, nothing really new there. Annoying, but not different.
Beyond that Portal is very much self-contained, when ###### hit the fan GLaDOS just locked up and didn't look back.
Anyways, Aperture as we see it in Portal is way too goofy to be a part of Half-life proper.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well they did get Portal involved somewhat-ish by way of the borealis-plot (or soon to be plot), so it would've been nice to see some more information regarding that as we might not see a continuation of the HL-arc for god knows how long.
Literally had only ONE of Wheatley's chambers that slowed me down in the least, and even that only had me looking around for a total of 15 minutes at most (the one toward the end with the speed gel, the BIG ramp, and the large exclusion field on the right, across the gap).
The final fight was disappointingly easy as hell.
Need to get going on the co-op mode now.
Though it was pretty, definitely could see how it was being held back so the console ports could be made. Classic Aperture could have been so much more than it was, if nothing else.. and they definitely made the right call with JK Simmons for Cave Johnson. Could have done so much more with Caroline as well, though that may come up in P3.
All that said, still feel that it didn't justify the $45 preorder price tag. $35 I could see at the outside. $25 I'd feel more than comfortable with. Then again, as part of the NES generation, I'm used to ~$50 buying at least a week or two of gameplay... and more likely a few months of controller-chucking frustration and accomplishment. Not five or six hours.
I do think the game was less challenging, but I think that is at least partially due to our pro portal skills now. A lot of the difficulty was figuring out how to navigate the puzzle.. there was much less acrobatic manoeuvres and mid-air portal action, which was disappointing.
I think it is a worthy successor to Portal 1 - it was always going to disappoint because a large part of Portal's appeal was how fresh it was.
The ending was superb.. was the credit track the one composed by The National? I thought it was superb, but obviously will pale in comparison to Still Alive.
"Okay"
"Because if you don't, I'll fall and die"
"Okay"
"So I need you to stand on the button"
"Right"
"Like, as soon as I go through here, hit the button"
"Got it"
"Ready?"
"Yup. Go for it."
"Okay here I go WHY AREN'T YOU ON THE BUTTON"
Portal 2 co-op is the one game I could stand having the trollface be an actual emoticon in.
I loved the journey through the past of Aperture but I didn't really get the timeline of that either. Was the portal gun their first invention or were the gels supposed to have come first? They apparently started having financial trouble, so how did they wind up making an even fancier and expansive facility? Caroline's personality was used as a seed for GLaDOS' AI I guess? Do we know what happened to Cave Johnson? I guess he just died?
Suffice to say the only things I know about the games are what I learned from playing them.
This is my fondest memory. It tastes of delicious irony and justice.
EDIT: And the -500 points she gave my partner for high fiving me all the time, as soon as we got the high five emote :D