Toxic Yuri that goes in the right directions to expand on its predecessor... except I wish it was grimier.
Almost everything about Portal 2 is the right thing to do in regards to building upon building upon the original Portal, almost to a degree that it's surprising that the original Portal was followed up with this. The expansion on the spacial continuity and momentum based movement of portals is explored in a lot of good ways that still feel really smart. Exploring old Aperture, learning its deeper history and how that relates to GlaDos, and building upon the ideas of AI to create a tragic story is something I wouldn't have really expected. GlaDos really does feel like such a full character after basically being just an off kilter voice and surprise antagonist.
The only complaint I have is that for the game being a lot more direct about the facility being old and broken down, Portal's mix of sterility and grime ends up being more effective. A lot of the colors were clear whites and blacks and Harsh reds when you get to exploring the guts of the facility. It's one of those things you can't really account for, but the specific textures and lighting of the source engine gives such a sense of emptiness. You can tell that these tests are actually dangerous. The water is stagnant and murky, your blood swears across the walls when you get hit by turrets, the machinery of the facility is rusted and dusty.
Portal 2 doesn't really have that as much. A lot of areas have this blue that softens a lot of it up and even as you're trailing through the guts of a factory, nothing feels quite as malicious as it did in Portal. I'd imagine part of that problem is that with the now direct comedic and tragic tone and a lot of the in workings being intricate levels, you can't do the sterile, oppressive tone again.
Anyway, that's my one singular, understandable gripe with the game. I guess in the end Portal 2 is purposefully trying to be something very different from Portal. Like it's some kind of sequel or something.
Almost everything about Portal 2 is the right thing to do in regards to building upon building upon the original Portal, almost to a degree that it's surprising that the original Portal was followed up with this. The expansion on the spacial continuity and momentum based movement of portals is explored in a lot of good ways that still feel really smart. Exploring old Aperture, learning its deeper history and how that relates to GlaDos, and building upon the ideas of AI to create a tragic story is something I wouldn't have really expected. GlaDos really does feel like such a full character after basically being just an off kilter voice and surprise antagonist.
The only complaint I have is that for the game being a lot more direct about the facility being old and broken down, Portal's mix of sterility and grime ends up being more effective. A lot of the colors were clear whites and blacks and Harsh reds when you get to exploring the guts of the facility. It's one of those things you can't really account for, but the specific textures and lighting of the source engine gives such a sense of emptiness. You can tell that these tests are actually dangerous. The water is stagnant and murky, your blood swears across the walls when you get hit by turrets, the machinery of the facility is rusted and dusty.
Portal 2 doesn't really have that as much. A lot of areas have this blue that softens a lot of it up and even as you're trailing through the guts of a factory, nothing feels quite as malicious as it did in Portal. I'd imagine part of that problem is that with the now direct comedic and tragic tone and a lot of the in workings being intricate levels, you can't do the sterile, oppressive tone again.
Anyway, that's my one singular, understandable gripe with the game. I guess in the end Portal 2 is purposefully trying to be something very different from Portal. Like it's some kind of sequel or something.