'I hope you like playing hunter around this huge detailed environment for the one solitary patch of portable wall...'

I'd say that about sums up my biggest complaint. I'd have preferred more rooms in the vein of the original portal's later puzzles, but really it was still a great game.

"Move on to the next fuck off room" Man, that cracked me up!

It annoys me that they retconned the ending of Portal 1 to make room for Portal 2. Kinda ruins Portal 1 IMO, and makes me want to avoid 2 even though I loved the original.

He better review it good or I'M GOING TO BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN...WITH THE LEMONS!

I haven't done co-op, but this review was pretty much sums up my opinions. Way too many connectors. Now some of those connectors were puzzles in of themselves, but for the most part I found them a bit tedious. Still a good game... or just as Crosswords said... I did need to look up hints on 4 puzzles. On two of them I was on the correct path, just a matter of refining things, another once I had the start figured out I was golden...

Agreed, for the most part, although the white paint made the later areas super fun, imho.

How did they retcon it? It ended with you passing out and being pulled back into the facility by something. Presumably it could be a robot or even one of the robots from the co-op mode.
Interpreting further what happened, they put you in that stasis chamber thing and then everything went to shit, because glados was offline.

Oh, and spoiler alert...
>> ^mentality:

It annoys me that they retconned the ending of Portal 1 to make room for Portal 2. Kinda ruins Portal 1 IMO, and makes me want to avoid 2 even though I loved the original.

I believe the original ending just had you laying on the ground and faded to black, then they later modified it to have something pull you back before the fade to black.

>> ^gwiz665:

How did they retcon it? It ended with you passing out and being pulled back into the facility by something. Presumably it could be a robot or even one of the robots from the co-op mode.
Interpreting further what happened, they put you in that stasis chamber thing and then everything went to shit, because glados was offline.
Oh, and spoiler alert...
>> ^mentality:
It annoys me that they retconned the ending of Portal 1 to make room for Portal 2. Kinda ruins Portal 1 IMO, and makes me want to avoid 2 even though I loved the original.

Heh, I didn't know that! I only finished it right before the second came out and thought it fit perfectly.
>> ^RFlagg:

I believe the original ending just had you laying on the ground and faded to black, then they later modified it to have something pull you back before the fade to black.
>> ^gwiz665:
How did they retcon it? It ended with you passing out and being pulled back into the facility by something. Presumably it could be a robot or even one of the robots from the co-op mode.
Interpreting further what happened, they put you in that stasis chamber thing and then everything went to shit, because glados was offline.
Oh, and spoiler alert...
>> ^mentality:
It annoys me that they retconned the ending of Portal 1 to make room for Portal 2. Kinda ruins Portal 1 IMO, and makes me want to avoid 2 even though I loved the original.

I think the overarching problem is that they probably set an early goal of going for an E10 ESRB rating. That meant a kid-friendly plot, kid-friendly comedy, kid-friendly settings, and even kid-friendly antagonists (who are both sympathetic, and the main one apologizes at the end).

In the first game there was always a sense of foreboding lonliness, and a really creepy sense that whoever built Aperture Science really didn't give a shit about killing their test subjects.

In Portal 2, you've got a joke-cracking sidekick with you every step of the way, and the disregard for human life doesn't seem menacing and ominous, just ridiculous.

I loved playing Portal 2, and I enjoyed it with the new pure-comedy tone, but I did kinda miss that creepy ominous vibe from the first game.

>> ^NetRunner:


I loved playing Portal 2, and I enjoyed it with the new pure-comedy tone, but I did kinda miss that creepy ominous vibe from the first game.


Since I was late to the Portal party (I admitted to having never played/seen the first game) I did manage to finish Portal 2 in both SP and Co-Op.

My biggest regret was first of all how easy the game was to me, and as Yahtzee states... there is practically zero replay value. Unless you are going for achivements or speed runs.

I'm usually quite poor at puzzle games and for this one to be easy to me (finished SP in 6 hours) it must have been a ummm... cakewalk... for everyone else.

EDIT: I should probably state that the game was still very enjoyable. I did not mean to intend that the game sucked because of said shortcomings.

EVERY SINGLE TIME ( for the record I am just as guilty of this )

http://i.imgur.com/WTg5F.png

He has many good points. I don't really care about the design flaws though..thing was, I had fun playing the whole way through. That's not a usual experience for me with games these days. So on those merits I think it was perfect.

For those that didn't see it:

http://www.thinkwithportals.com/comic/

that explains the ending change and setup between portal 1 and 2.

I disagree with him actually, I love the game for what it is. It gives more of a back story to Aperture (for me, at least, having never played the half life games) and I got an odd sense of nostalgia and wonder going through the Cave Johnson parts.

I never got stuck on a puzzle, although I did have to spend half an hour on one of them, and I think having a richer and fun story is quite a bonus, rather then a trade off.

Just my input, anyway.

Portal was the indy game I knew was going to be huge before anybody else did

Portal 2 was the blockbuster sequel that I knew was going to be underwhelming before anybody else did.

Boy was I surprised. Totally amazing, loved every minute. It never took me long to find those tiny patches of white 100 metres above me, so all that focus testing totally worked. Made me feel all kinds of smart too. The original had more charm, but the sequel is a better game.

Oh, and I love Yahtzee all the more for his comment on TF2 hats. I remember when Valve went on and on about restricted colour palettes, instantly recognisable silhouettes and setting...then they went on to add a bunch of hats that shat all over that philosophy and my framerate.

I disagree with Yatzee for once. While it certainly couldn't live up to the original, it is still a fantastic game. The Cave Johnson stuff is fantastic, the later levels aren't very difficult but with the new mechanics they were a hell of a lot of fun and the ending was funny as hell. The comedic parts were perhaps not as witty but still I found myself having to stop for a moment so that I could try to draw breath. "The Part Where He Kills You.' had me laughing so loud I probably woke the neighbors.

Yatzee did agree that if it wasn't being compared so directly to Portal 1 he'd give be drooling over this one, but to me even in comparison I think it was an absolute blast and for those that missed the challenge, try the Co-Op, it gets quite difficult and forces you to think differently because of the multiple portals.

And I loved the new liquids, hope we see more of it in the DLC.

>> ^Jinx:
Oh, and I love Yahtzee all the more for his comment on TF2 hats. I remember when Valve went on and on about restricted colour palettes, instantly recognisable silhouettes and setting...then they went on to add a bunch of hats that shat all over that philosophy and my framerate.


QFT I hate the hats in TF2. It completely ruined the game. Valve indeed set that game out to have clear class silhouettes and color palettes indeed and when everyone started running around looking so odd you couldn't tell what was what until you were fired upon, it completely ruined the game. I used to play so much TF2, played probably about as much as I did the original TF. But now I never touch the game and I hear the community is quite a bit smaller as others have left the game. If they would release a server option to remove all that hat fluff, I'd hop back on and set the browser to only find servers with that option.

I agree with Yhatzee. Portal >> Portal 2. Portal 2 was ruined because of the cross plattform approach (the original Portal had different maps for consoles). it's FAR too easy because of that and in no way levels portal 1 in regards to complexity and therefore fun, single player as well as multiplayer. I enjoyed it, but overall it was disappointing IMHO. Some test chambers in Portal 1 took me ages to even figure out the correct approach, let alone execution. In Portal 2 i nearly rushed to even the last chambers. It was all to obvious and extra easy to pull of because of those lame gamepad / TV users. What a shame...

I feel like I'm in the minority for loving Portal 2. It isn't as small and crisp as the original Portal, but Portal 2 far exceeds its predecessor in richness and diversity.

As I played through I couldn't help but think of all the non-Portal games I've played, and I really couldn't think of one that was better. This one doesn't have the consistent pace from the previous game but it is always interesting, and that is a rare feat.

Honestly, I think Portal 2 > Portal. They both have their strong points, but I just never felt challenged by Portal... it was 75% tutorial, then it was over. It isn't that Portal 2 is "difficult", but it very creatively forces non-standard problem solving skills. When I look at both games, that is where I see the true quality coming from.

Portal 2 is probably the most enjoyable game I've ever played, and I really don't care if it makes me uncool to say that. =P

Portal 2 didn't quite live up to my expectations, but I still think it was a solid game and had some really great aspects. The Cave Johnson stuff is what sticks with me the most, surprisingly... especially his lemon speech. It was somehow poignant... weird.

I love the "custard pie to the face vs. snooker cue to the bollocks" line. First time he's got a genuinely good laugh from me since he broke onto the scene!

PORTAL 2 is FUCKING AMAZING!!!! A definite evolution from Portal 1. Yahtzee does NOT HAVE A FUCKING CLUE. He is a jaded dickhead.

>> ^conan:

I agree with Yhatzee. Portal >> Portal 2. Portal 2 was ruined because of the cross plattform approach (the original Portal had different maps for consoles).

Whoa!? Seriously .... I don't know why, but if this is true, this is the first I've heard of this. I'm going to have to play an Xbox or PS3 version if they are different.

I also agree that this game was WAY to easy. In fact, when a friend of mine was going through the game for the first time. He didn't pick up on what to do right off the bat so he started looking around. After about 2 or 3 minutes Wheatley told them EXACTLY how to solve it. I was astonished and saddened.

I like to watch people play through the game for the first time because it is highly entertaining. Not from a point and laugh comparison standpoint, but more of a learning of how people think. You can sit back and visibly see them thinking it out. You get to see the exact second the light bulb goes off in their head. It's very interesting.
...I urge you to sit and watch someone that hasn't played it before. You won't regret it. lol

Note - Portal 1 is far more interesting to watch someone play than Portal 2. In the second game the game developers purposely made it so you could only solve a lot of puzzles one way.

*dead

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