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jeriendhalSummary: Dragged back into the Apeture Science facilty at the end of the original Portal, the player's silent alter-ego Chell wakes up after several centuries in suspended animation, only to find herself still trapped in the crumbling confines of the testing center. While she searches for a way out, her old foe GLaDOS is busily putting herself back together...
Review: I had some reservations about this game even when I bought it. The original Portal was unexpected gem of a game, with an innovative mechanic, a dead black sense of humor and the sense to keep things short before the pleasure of playing ran out. Even with the new mechanics introduced, I couldn't see how it could come across as anything except More of the Same.
OK. I was wrong....
Portal 2 takes everything that was good about Portal and ramps it up to epic levels. Many of the testing chambers are as big or bigger than GLaDOS's lair at the end of the final game, with the ceilings lost in the mists above, the ceilings shattered and trees growing in floor (at least until the Enrichement Center starts pulling itself together). You do the same rat-in-a-maze run as before, but in spaces that let you know the facility is vastly larger than before, aided by a slightly manic, British accented independent Personality Sphere, named Wheatley. You reach GLaDOS again, and with Wheatley's help finally disconnect her for good/.
That's the first half of the game.
The expected half.
Then, after a plot twist worthy of the original Bioshock, you're thrown four kilometers further underground and your only friend now is GLaDOS herself, now reduced to a single memory chip running off of the 1 1/2 watts of power being generated by a half-eaten potato, stuck on the end of your Portal Gun.
Oh, and as you travel through the buried remains of the old testing facilities, traversing upwards through various decades like fossilized strata, you start getting hints that GLaDOS used to be something... or someone... else.
And that her boss, CEO Cave Johnson, was the real monster...
Random Thoughts During Play:
Worst. Hotel check-out. Ever
Okay, the familiarization chambers aren't as fun, or as intuitive, without GlaDOS coaching.
"Deploying light jazz" Heh.
Wheatley, that was not bright.
WHEATLY! Nooooooo!
I am so very, very glad the incenirator is offline...
"You must really like testing." No, not really...
Hrm, "hard light" bridges. So basically Apeture Science did all of the equipment design for the Combine. THANKS GUYS.
Wheatley, you magnificent little eyeball on rails you. You're alive!
Hehe! Neurotoxin gas is cut off, turrets are borked! Wheatley, I love you! Now suck it, GLaDOS!
Wheatley, what are you doing?
I thought we were friends. Wheatley! Wheatley!! Noooooooooooooooooooo!
(In all seriousness, at this point I felt geniunely betrayed, to the point that I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. Which is some damned fine characterization work on the part of Wheatley's voice actor and the Valve design teams)
Oh, God. I'm in the Junk Yard From Hell.
That's a really big door...
Review: I had some reservations about this game even when I bought it. The original Portal was unexpected gem of a game, with an innovative mechanic, a dead black sense of humor and the sense to keep things short before the pleasure of playing ran out. Even with the new mechanics introduced, I couldn't see how it could come across as anything except More of the Same.
OK. I was wrong....
Portal 2 takes everything that was good about Portal and ramps it up to epic levels. Many of the testing chambers are as big or bigger than GLaDOS's lair at the end of the final game, with the ceilings lost in the mists above, the ceilings shattered and trees growing in floor (at least until the Enrichement Center starts pulling itself together). You do the same rat-in-a-maze run as before, but in spaces that let you know the facility is vastly larger than before, aided by a slightly manic, British accented independent Personality Sphere, named Wheatley. You reach GLaDOS again, and with Wheatley's help finally disconnect her for good/.
That's the first half of the game.
The expected half.
Then, after a plot twist worthy of the original Bioshock, you're thrown four kilometers further underground and your only friend now is GLaDOS herself, now reduced to a single memory chip running off of the 1 1/2 watts of power being generated by a half-eaten potato, stuck on the end of your Portal Gun.
Oh, and as you travel through the buried remains of the old testing facilities, traversing upwards through various decades like fossilized strata, you start getting hints that GLaDOS used to be something... or someone... else.
And that her boss, CEO Cave Johnson, was the real monster...
Random Thoughts During Play:
Worst. Hotel check-out. Ever
Okay, the familiarization chambers aren't as fun, or as intuitive, without GlaDOS coaching.
"Deploying light jazz" Heh.
Wheatley, that was not bright.
WHEATLY! Nooooooo!
I am so very, very glad the incenirator is offline...
"You must really like testing." No, not really...
Hrm, "hard light" bridges. So basically Apeture Science did all of the equipment design for the Combine. THANKS GUYS.
Wheatley, you magnificent little eyeball on rails you. You're alive!
Hehe! Neurotoxin gas is cut off, turrets are borked! Wheatley, I love you! Now suck it, GLaDOS!
Wheatley, what are you doing?
I thought we were friends. Wheatley! Wheatley!! Noooooooooooooooooooo!
(In all seriousness, at this point I felt geniunely betrayed, to the point that I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. Which is some damned fine characterization work on the part of Wheatley's voice actor and the Valve design teams)
Oh, God. I'm in the Junk Yard From Hell.
That's a really big door...
