OXCGN’s Portal 2 Review

The Revolutionary Experience Evolves

by exterminat

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

Every so often in our life, a piece of entertainment releases that completely blows the doors off established tradition.

It may defy all boundaries, going past a barrier that may not be strictly physical.

It may do something in a way that was never conceived before.

It may tap the emotions in a way we never thought that medium could. Portal is one of the titles in the long list of revolutionary entertainment that completely rocked our world.

The title presented not a first-person shooter, but the first in a still-untapped genre: First-Person Puzzler. It was an experience all its own. Players donned Chell, a test subject for the mysterious Aperture Science corporation.

The goal was simple: use strange portals that defied the laws of physics to complete “test” chambers, with the ultimate goal of receiving precious cake as a reward for your hard scientific work.

Accompanying Chell throughout these trials was GLaDOS, a super computer who was always watching, and adding mysteriously dry commentary at every available moment.

Of course, this took a turn for the worst as the most overused statement in popular culture was discovered written on a wall repeatedly in blood:  THE CAKE IS A LIE.

After this revelation, GLaDOS was never the same, and Chell set out to escape Aperture. She ended up destroying GLaDOS, and was thrown to the surface in an explosion.

The original ending was her lying on the ground, staring at the ruins of GLaDOS; but, an update later on by Valve changed that to where she was being dragged away from that same situation.

It was the end… or was it?

For Science… You Monster

Portal 2 opens in a calm hotel-esque room. The player is awoken from a fifty-year-long sleep, and is undergoing a mandatory “checkup”, which consists of looking up and down, looking at a painting and hearing a burst of jazz music before going back to sleep.

From these first few moments, you can already tell that Portal’s signature dry humor is in full effect, and was not underrepresented in the slightest. We go to sleep, and awaken many moons later. Years pass. Decades. Possibly centuries!

The player awakens yet again to find that the room is run down, and decay is evident. Instantly, a hyper Englishman starts banging on your door repeatedly demanding for you to open up.

• Portal 2 Screenshot slideshow

As all human beings are inclined to do, we approach the door. Seconds later, he so happily lets himself in just for us to find that the man is not anything close to a man, but a robot guided along a ceiling grate! His name is Wheatley, and he’s trying to bust you out of Aperture.

The story is one of the wildest, most intriguing rides you’ll ever experience in a video game. Twists are at every corner, and the suspense will nearly give you an anxiety attack near the end.

Environments change so many times and undergo such drastic changes that you sometimes wonder what it all means in the larger scale. The writing is absolutely spot-on and some of the industry’s finest.

Portal 2 also contains some of the most memorable characters in the entire gaming industry. You’ll be sad when their time passes, and as soon as you realize they’re gone, you want to replay the title in order to hear them again.

Simply put, Hollywood should take note of this experience as a whole. In fact, they should be wholly jealous.

A superiority complex

Since Portal 2 is a First-Person Puzzler, you’re most likely wondering about the primary aspect of the gameplay: the puzzles. Fear not, for Portal 2 returns to make the original look like a child’s toy.

Some puzzles are ridiculously easy, but you realize it’s just a ploy in the long run. A few puzzles had me quite literally banging my head against my desk trying to figure out their cleverly hidden answer.

It’s been a very long time since the last events at Aperture Science, and the entire facility is dilapidated: plants growing everywhere, broken doors and test chambers, and wall panels no longer functioning.

Don’t worry, for GLaDOS still has testing for you to accomplish. Many, many, MANY test chambers await you. Portal has a certain refined complexity. Puzzles WILL cause distress and confusion, and that’s precisely what their creators intended.

BUT! After a good session of blows to the head and you figure out the stupidly obvious answer to that test, you’ll feel rewarded to just the perfect degree that all of the drama was worth it.

I set out to complete Portal 2 without any outside help, and I won’t lie: I nearly caved several times.

On one occasion near the end of the game, I got so angry at a puzzle that I had to noclip to the objective before I ripped my hair out trying to figure out the real method.

The gameplay, to simply put it, revolutionizes the methods innovated in the first title. New forms of test ‘aid’ are available. First, we have lasers, and accompanying them are cubes that refract the beam into the angle of choice to complete certain puzzles.

A second new testing apparatus is something called ‘hard light surfaces.’ Essentially, a beam of light that is solid and can be walked on. You can imagine the different ways that it could be used.

No matter how much help they give you, Portal 2 will still boggle your mind. To not spoil it all, these are the chief of a handful of new things that will put your mind to the ultimate test.

But don’t worry.

There is no help.

Failure will happen, and GLaDOS will enjoy it.

If you’re some sort of a genius who gets everything instantly, you’ll get around eight to ten hours out of the single player experience. If you’re like me and you really have to take your time to wrap your head around a new concept, you’ll get a solid twelve to fourteen hours out of this title, and you will savor every waking moment of it.

• Portal 2 screenshot slideshow

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What’s this ‘Multiplatform Co-op’ stuff..

Cross-platform coop between PC and PS3 is available for coop, and it works. There’s really not much to say, but being able to play with your friends on PC is a great feature, considering the Valve audience is primarily centered on the PC.

Apart from the continuation of the ridiculous publicity campaign, primarily with the hopes of a connection to Half-Life 2: Episode Three, the biggest hype factor of Portal 2 has been the coop.

Many called foul when this was announced, but really; when has Valve ever gone wrong? And I’m here to reassure you, the mode is genuine Portal material. Nothing was compromised in order to cash in on multiplayer.

Players assume the role of two robots: Atlas and Peabody, two ‘testmates’ who have been specially built to undergo challenges built specially by GLaDOS. It occurs after the events of the main story.

The tests themselves are among the ranks of the campaign (and sometimes easier) so the difficulty curve is relatively similar. The major difference? You now have to combine two minds in order to achieve victory.

A main ‘hub’ room is where you can choose your test chambers. They are divided into groups, typically containing eight chambers each.

Huge screens display random statistics, such as steps taken, and a ‘points’ system that GLaDOS bestows upon the duo as they kill each other, fail at puzzles, take too long on a particular test, etc.

Valve included something that is one of the best features a cooperative title in this style could ever ask for: a visual communication system.

By holding a certain key, you can point out things to your partner, start a countdown or even let them know where to put a portal. All without saying or typing a word!

You can also hold down another key and see what they are seeing. To say it in the shortest way possible, it’s one of the most unique cooperative experiences ever crafted, and fits perfectly within the Portal universe. The amount of content is totally justified (roughly eight hours), but you’ll crave so much more when it finally ends.

And now the technicals

Portal 2 reiterates Valve’s Source Engine once again, and manages to look amazing. Water effects are fantastic, foliage is wholly realistic while maintaining a well-executed aesthetic feel, new materials such as gel behave as you would expect them to, majestic environments echo their message without a sound, and it still holds up as having some of the best physics out there.

The major improvements were vastly improved shadows, and very realistic glass. While seeming subtle, they play a huge part in the overall presentation.

While the original title became famous for it’s quirky techno soundtrack and famous end credits song Still Alive, Portal 2 has a full-blown soundtrack that will keep your blood pumping while you are beating your head against a wall in puzzles.

Voice acting is absolutely top-notch, with Wheatly and GLaDOS definitely winning characters of the year in my book. Other crazy characters such as Cave Johnson, Aperture’s founder, come into play and once again hit a perfect note in a symphony of wild artistic expression.

Grab it off ‘Steam’

As if the title hasn’t already set the bar high enough by this point, Portal 2 embodies the first appearance of Steam on a home console, with the PlayStation 3 getting the love.

When the game first boots up you’re prompted to create a Steam account quickly, or link an existing one. Better yet, it’s not even required to play the game.

After this is completed, simply hit the Select button ingame, and you’ll see the familiar Steam overlay come up with your Steam friends list and all the usual things, even going to news and videos.

You can do everything that you could on the PC version except private voice chat. The messaging system is in full flow, and nothing was really cut.

Cross-platform coop between PC and PS3 is available for coop, and it works. There’s really not much to say, but being able to play with your friends on PC is a great feature, considering the Valve audience is primarily centered on the PC.

The Steam Cloud allows PS3 players to use their save on any PS3 system, and allows for their data to be carried to the PC version (but not vice versa).

But once you realize the PC version is so superior, you may be sad about that PS3 purchase. Fear no more, young whippersnapper, because Portal 2 on the PS3 comes with a voucher to get a FULL copy of Portal 2 on Steam for PC!

Yes, you read that right. For buying the PS3 version, you get two copies of the game. I don’t know about you guys, but that’s perfect marketing.

To aid this even more, if your PC and PS3 version of Portal 2 are synched to the same Steam account, any Trophies earned on PS3 will unlock the respective Steam Achievement, and vice versa.

Valve clearly shows they care about the consoles to a certain extent, and it will be interesting to see how the service evolves over time.

What’s the verdict

Portal 2 is quite simply one of the most intelligent, ingenious experiences ever devised, and a perfect example of the video gaming medium as an art form.

Never before has such an artistic, emotional, intriguing, profound, beautiful, incredible experience been created in the history of interactive entertainment.

The entire industry needs to stop for a moment and look at Portal 2, because the new standard has arrived.

OXCGN’s Platinum Award

`10/10

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

xxxxxx

• Portal 2 screenshots gallery

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