Portal 2

[ThunderPeel2001]

I re-played Portal 1 yesterday, and I was surprised at what I experienced after playing Portal 2:

The game isn't quite as good as you remember. Seriously. It's still very good and everything, but it definitely has flaws:

- The puzzles aren't as much fun or as well designed as you may recall. With Portal 2 I felt like a genius when I solved them. With Portal 1 they were less satisfying.

- Instead of getting you to really think a puzzle through, a lot of the puzzles rely on you doing things you've already done, quickly, or after a death-defying jump.

- They actually did a pretty crumby job of explaining the Portal world and laws of physics to a new user. I thought they'd done a good job when I first played it, but compared to Portal 2, it's downright confusing.

Also (minor thing), the achievements are still bugged. I've still completed all 6 of the advanced maps. I have an achievement for completing 4 and all 6, but not for completing 2 of them. I also knocked off all the cameras from within the game on this playthrough, but I didn't get any recognition for even knocking off one of them.

I know this must be sacrilege to almost all of you, but I challenge you to play through Portal 1 again after playing 2. Portal 2 actually did a great job of being as good as you remember Portal 1 being.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Also what is this rat man thing? Did I miss something in Portal 2?

Rattman is Doug from the Portal 2 comic (which you should definitely read if you haven't already). He's the guy who writes all the stuff on the walls and leaves tins of beans around. (I was sad that we never met him in Portal 2.)

[Erkki]

- Instead of getting you to really think a puzzle through, a lot of the puzzles rely on you doing things you've already done, quickly, or after a death-defying jump.

Yeah, those were somewhat annoying. There weren't any timed puzzles in Portal 2 I think? Maybe a couple of places where quick reflexes were needed.

[Kolzig]

Gah, I'm missing like 13 achievements in Portal 2 in the single player mode, but that's ok. I've never really cared for achievements anyway, but if I someday do, then at least I got something to go for. I didn't get any special achievements in Portal 1, just got the basic stuff.

[Thrik]

Also agreed on the speed boat part of HL2 being excellent, although it's the coast section that stands out by far for me.

I just loved the feeling of isolation those two sections had. While you could race through them, if you took time to have a good look around the atmosphere was superb — particularly when surprised by hidden zombies.

[Patters]

I re-played Portal 1 yesterday, and I was surprised at what I experienced after playing Portal 2:

The game isn't quite as good as you remember. Seriously. It's still very good and everything, but it definitely has flaws:

- The puzzles aren't as much fun or as well designed as you may recall. With Portal 2 I felt like a genius when I solved them. With Portal 1 they were less satisfying.

- Instead of getting you to really think a puzzle through, a lot of the puzzles rely on you doing things you've already done, quickly, or after a death-defying jump.

- They actually did a pretty crumby job of explaining the Portal world and laws of physics to a new user. I thought they'd done a good job when I first played it, but compared to Portal 2, it's downright confusing.

Also (minor thing), the achievements are still bugged. I've still completed all 6 of the advanced maps. I have an achievement for completing 4 and all 6, but not for completing 2 of them. I also knocked off all the cameras from within the game on this playthrough, but I didn't get any recognition for even knocking off one of them.

I know this must be sacrilege to almost all of you, but I challenge you to play through Portal 1 again after playing 2. Portal 2 actually did a great job of being as good as you remember Portal 1 being.

Portal 2 treats the player as an idiot Portal didn't. There lies my problem with the sequel.

[CaptainFish]

I would not say that Portal 2 treats the player like an idiot.

I'll say that some of the Wheatley stuff may have felt a little too handhold-y and linear. Especially when there is no place to portal to until he illuminates it. The fun of that stuff is finding out where to go yourself, and being told to put a portal somewhere was always a bit annoying.

However, I feel the intro of the game is much better. The example from the commentary is the room where instead of waiting for a portal to hit walls in succession, you're given button controls. New players experiment, veterans just blow through it in no time flat (I did). It felt great, much better than any of the early stuff in Portal 1, which felt really slow regardless of experience level.

The test chambers did a great job IMO of teaching you mechanics simply through the learning curve of the puzzles. The only thing I think they could have done is put the end-of-section style puzzles from the co-op into the single player. Those really felt like the culmination of the puzzle arc, while each transition in single player felt like a break*. Maybe make the transition sections more about using recent mechanics than simply finding out where to go. Most of them only used the fling mechanic, while a light bridge or funnel here or there would've spiced things up, even if it would've felt out of place.

*This was obviously the purpose, they probably wanted people to slow down and examine their surroundings without worrying about a tough puzzle. I also realize that the game as a whole is both the single player and the co-op, so it's fine better if they both use different techniques. I was really impressed that co-op had new mechanics in it, because it felt fresher than just permutating the single player stuff.

[Jake]

I think I'm going to replay the single player campaign sooner rather than later. It's really stuck with me and I want to see/do it all again. (Also, there were times in there where I feel like I was too hasty to run ahead because I wanted to see new stuff, where skulking around, or just hanging out and listening to the AI talk, would have been worthwhile. I did quite a lot of that the first time through, but an even more leisurely/exploratory playthrough seems in order.)

I didn't play any of the "advanced chamber" stuff in Portal 1, but after completing Portal 2 I was really wishing there were some supremely challenge-oriented chambers using the new mechanics. Portal 2, probably correctly, had very little dexterity-centric content in the end game. I don't mind that at all and can totally understand it -- I know a few non gamers who absolutely loved Portal 1, but who had to hand the controller or mouse over to their core gamer friend to complete parts of test chambers 17-19 -- but I felt like, as a result, the game only scratched the surface of the true madness that all the new Aperture inventions could provide when used in concert. I hope that some fans put together a ridiculous, overwrought challenge-focused test chamber campaign pack like they did with Portal 1.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I didn't play any of the "advanced chamber" stuff in Portal 1, but after completing Portal 2 I was really wishing there were some supremely challenge-oriented chambers using the new mechanics.

Two words (and a thumb): Co-op mode

[Forbin]

I think I'm going to replay the single player campaign sooner rather than later. It's really stuck with me.

I didn't play any of the "advanced chamber" stuff in Portal 1, but after completing Portal 2 I was really wishing there were some supremely challenge-oriented chambers using the new mechanics. Portal 2, probably correctly, had very little dexterity-centric content in the end game. I don't mind that at all and can totally understand it -- I know a few non core gamers who loved Portal 1, but who had to hand the controller or mouse over to their core gamer friend to complete parts of test chambers 17-19 -- but I felt like the game only scratched the surface of the true madness that all the new Aperture inventions could provide when used in concert. I hope that some fans put together a ridiculous, overwrought challenge-focused test chamber campaign pack like they did with Portal 1.

Yeah when people weren't exploiting the item physics it was very interesting. I just know they have some metrics to back up the fact that almost nobody would miss them.

JoW-CutQcT8

[Jake]

Two words (and a thumb): Co-op mode

I am looking forward to finishing co-op mode (Vanaman and I played through the first two and a half series of rooms, so like ~18-20 chambers so far), and I know that stuff more challenge focused than the Portal 2 single player campaign for sure... but the feeling of going it alone is different than with a friend, and that's what I'd like some more of. Fortunately, the community is good at making good content.

[Squid Division]

super duper duper duper spoilers

A question I've been wondering:

How do you get from the end of 1 to the beginning of 2? It's seemingly a different place because you go outside in both. However, from Portal 2 it seems like this is the only facility Aperature has.

[Forbin]

super duper duper duper spoilers

A question I've been wondering:

How do you get from the end of 1 to the beginning of 2? It's seemingly a different place because you go outside in both. However, from Portal 2 it seems like this is the only facility Aperature has.

They added a part to the end of 1 that shows a robot bringing you back into the facility when you collapse after escaping the facility.

AzlAc2WwEI8

Though it looks like a wheat field in Portal 2, there are multiple exits and the first entrance didn't look like it was that different than the second one. The facility is supposed to be in an old salt-mine in Northern Michigan. http://i.imgur.com/iapel.png. Both endings seem consistant with that location.

[Squid Division]

Ah ok that makes sense. I remembered the end of Portal 1, but that picture pretty much explains everything.

[miffy495]

Just had a co-op session with Patters where we went through the first 3 sets of rooms. Fucking excellent. So fun. Also, plenty of opportunities to act like dicks to each other. And, of course, general fucking around. Here's Patters running around forever:

It was pretty great. Looking forward to more play tomorrow.

[Patters]

[miffy495]

Oh shit, you got a picture of our back and forth acrobatics thing? Awesome!

[illeria]

Im looking for a coop partner to play with (my friend bailed on me). Anyone interested?

[Sleepdance]

Im looking for a coop partner to play with (my friend bailed on me). Anyone interested?

I guess you are not ready to wait until June?

[ThunderPeel2001]

I'd be up for playing through it again, but it'd probably be crappy to go through it with someone who's played it before.

[Sully907]

Im looking for a coop partner to play with (my friend bailed on me). Anyone interested?

I'm looking for someone to do the coop play with as well. Just finished the campaign the other night. I'm in Central time(texas) I'm not sure what part of Canada you're in, but I'm free Sunday Night, and all of tuesday and wednesday if you want to go for a marathon session. My Steam ID is Sully907 as well. Send me a friends invite and we'll figure it out

[illeria]

I'm looking for someone to do the coop play with as well. Just finished the campaign the other night. I'm in Central time(texas) I'm not sure what part of Canada you're in, but I'm free Sunday Night, and all of tuesday and wednesday if you want to go for a marathon session. My Steam ID is Sully907 as well. Send me a friends invite and we'll figure it out

Im MDT. This time of year I think texas is ahead of us by an hour. I added you on steam.

[Orv]

Im MDT. This time of year I think texas is ahead of us by an hour. I added you on steam.

I'll have you know that my portion of Texas is in MDT as well. So there.

[illeria]

I'll have you know that my portion of Texas is in MDT as well. So there.

I redact sir

[Sully907]

I'm with Jake in that I wish there were advanced puzzles in Portal 2. They were very underrated in the first game. They were in the same environments, but the solutions were so different is was essentially completely new puzzles, and it added a lot of replay value to the game. I do prefer the more traditional, slow burn, "Eureka!" moment puzzles to the ones requiring a lot of fast clicking mid air though, so I hope the DLC they announced is more of the former.