LogFAQs > #935564489

I guess I forgot to post after my last session a few days back, at the end of which I was partway through Chapter 7. That means my next post in this topic will be reporting that I beat Portal 2 earlier today! My detailed thoughts, featuring a few minor tagged spoilers:

Purely from a gameplay perspective, I perceive Portal 2 as practically the perfect puzzle game. Alliteration aside, I found its difficulty curve and in fact difficulty in general spot-on. The new mechanics really contributed positively to make for a clearer sense of progression and a generally meatier experience than the original game, while staying true to its essence. Said additions never outstayed their welcome, and inversely weren't ever abandoned too soon, just as with the game in general.

My one nitpick with Portal 2's gameplay is entirely self-inflicted - to put it briefly, I am not good at puzzle games whatsoever, so I resorted to a guide to keep things moving more often than I would have liked, even though I could have feasibly beaten the game without doing so. On the plus side, that gives me something else to strive for in an eventual replay, alongside finding more secrets and unlocking more optional achievements than the 2 I earned.

However, even such finely polished puzzle gameplay might have left me unfulfilled if that was all Portal 2 had going for it. Luckily, that's not the case, as I experienced all those years ago before I ever actually played the game. Its compelling plot packs in a surprising amount of twists and turns without ever taking the spotlight away from the gameplay, culminating in a memorable ending. For me, Want You Gone easily trumped Still Alive, and in general, music and sound design were among the many things I felt it did well. As for its much-vaunted humor, small details like the text on posters clicked with me just as much as the three notable characters and their dynamics. Unfortunately, that's not quite the unilateral praise it sounds like, since it was rarely more than mildly amusing to me.

Technically speaking, Portal 2's graphics aren't all that impressive by 2011 standards, but they did a great job creating atmosphere while mostly making things clear. The frequent five-second loading screens were a bit of a downer, but more importantly, the game ran like a dream on my middling PC in between. I also appreciated its sense of scope over the first Portal, along with some minor touches of polish, such as those aforementioned loading screens varying depending on my progress.

Overall, I consider Portal 2 a great game, even if it's not quite among my favorites - and unlike the original, I felt it more or less lived up to the hype. To KCF, thank you for hosting Game of the Month, and so indirectly convincing me to finally play Portal 2!

To finish this post, I have a question for anyone who's already played Portal 2's co-op mode: is it designed for players who haven't beaten it singleplayer, or for those who have already done so, or is it some sort of mix of the previous two?

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."
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