When this game was about to come out, I was really afraid of my own hype. The first game, while intriguing from the first trailer on, absolutely caught me by surprise by just how much I loved it. The main gimmick was mind-blowing at the time, was used pretty imaginatively and the level design and overall visual vibe was truly special while also working wonders for the kind of clarity that is sorely needed in a game like this. It didn't overstay its welcome with its short, but honestly kind of perfect, length. But the most surprising thing for me was just how much character and humor was being conveyed through such simple means. I also didn't expect to not be bombarded with Half-Life nods, which was perfect for me since I didn't really care much for that franchise.
As the credits rolled, and for minutes after it was done, I just sat there, dumbfounded by just how much this little pack-in side-product blew me away and by how I haven't ever played anything that felt quite like Portal did.
And when the sequel got announced, I couldn't temper my excitement. And that is also why I was bracing for massive amounts of disappointment.
Portal was really short and felt like lightning in a bottle. A short, simple game with the perfect length and mostly the perfect amount of stuff. Sure, they could add more chambers, more puzzles, some more jokes. But that would always just feel like bonus stuff for the most hardcore of fans. Not something fit for a sequel.
But Portal 2 still looked amazing with every bit of footage I saw. Still, I felt like it HAD to be disappointing. Like it would feel off. Like the joke and the gimmick would just kind of be over and would feel like beating a dead horse. A funny, pretty, fascinating dead horse with puffs of sparkly smoke coming out of it with every hit. But a dead horse nonetheless.
Well, luckily, I was completely wrong and the hype I couldn't help but feel, was absolutely justified and somehow the original Portal wasn't only matched in my book, it was actually surpassed.
Sure, something about the sterile, mysterious simplicity was gone. There still is a kind of special vibe that Portal has to this day that isn't quite there in the sequel and that was even more the case when the game first released.
But Portal 2 just added so much more that both added to what I already loved AND could stand on its own two feet.
Glados was fleshed out into a more nuanced character, there was a kind of all-around backstory and setting I didn't think I would care about as much as I did. The new elements like Light Bridges and the Gels were amazing puzzle pieces, the vibes of an abandoned, ancient facility falling apart were just as unique as the sterile levels of the first game and, well, Wheatley still remains one of the greatest characters in all of gaming for me.
And above all else, the humor was still all there. It was funny, it was quirky, it even had some kind of dark and heartfelt parts. And the level design, while way more elaborate than ever before, still made tons of smart little decisions that would help you along towards the solution of every puzzle without feeling like it ever held your hand.
And we still get a great ending song that slaps.
AND there's a really fun co-op mode entirely separate from the singleplayer campaign.
AND they added post-launch map making tools for free.
AND there was cross-play with Playstation at a time when that wasn't at all the norm.
Truly mind-blowing.
As the credits rolled, and for minutes after it was done, I just sat there, dumbfounded by just how much this little pack-in side-product blew me away and by how I haven't ever played anything that felt quite like Portal did.
And when the sequel got announced, I couldn't temper my excitement. And that is also why I was bracing for massive amounts of disappointment.
Portal was really short and felt like lightning in a bottle. A short, simple game with the perfect length and mostly the perfect amount of stuff. Sure, they could add more chambers, more puzzles, some more jokes. But that would always just feel like bonus stuff for the most hardcore of fans. Not something fit for a sequel.
But Portal 2 still looked amazing with every bit of footage I saw. Still, I felt like it HAD to be disappointing. Like it would feel off. Like the joke and the gimmick would just kind of be over and would feel like beating a dead horse. A funny, pretty, fascinating dead horse with puffs of sparkly smoke coming out of it with every hit. But a dead horse nonetheless.
Well, luckily, I was completely wrong and the hype I couldn't help but feel, was absolutely justified and somehow the original Portal wasn't only matched in my book, it was actually surpassed.
Sure, something about the sterile, mysterious simplicity was gone. There still is a kind of special vibe that Portal has to this day that isn't quite there in the sequel and that was even more the case when the game first released.
But Portal 2 just added so much more that both added to what I already loved AND could stand on its own two feet.
Glados was fleshed out into a more nuanced character, there was a kind of all-around backstory and setting I didn't think I would care about as much as I did. The new elements like Light Bridges and the Gels were amazing puzzle pieces, the vibes of an abandoned, ancient facility falling apart were just as unique as the sterile levels of the first game and, well, Wheatley still remains one of the greatest characters in all of gaming for me.
And above all else, the humor was still all there. It was funny, it was quirky, it even had some kind of dark and heartfelt parts. And the level design, while way more elaborate than ever before, still made tons of smart little decisions that would help you along towards the solution of every puzzle without feeling like it ever held your hand.
And we still get a great ending song that slaps.
AND there's a really fun co-op mode entirely separate from the singleplayer campaign.
AND they added post-launch map making tools for free.
AND there was cross-play with Playstation at a time when that wasn't at all the norm.
Truly mind-blowing.