The Part Where He Kills You: This is that part
This post is essentially spoiler-free, but with a couple strong intimations, so if you're super spoiler shy, don't read it.
I haven't finished the Portal 2 co-op yet (I've had a tough time finding a non-XBOX friend to play it with), but I've finally played enough of it, I'd estimate about two thirds, to feel comfortable talking about the title.
The single player, I beat in one very long sitting the day it came out.
And for the most part I loved every second of it. Certainly, I soaked up every line of dialogue, every witticism, like drops of water on a starving soil. I genuinely enjoyed the enrichment (rimshot) of the backstory. The puzzles were good too -- with one exception.
There are certain points in the game (and I have found this more prevalent in the single player than the co-op, though it may still be too early in the co-op for this to be an issue) where the solution isn't about Thinking With Portals. The game becomes Where's Waldo. I was pretty good at that game when I was a little kid, but in the past eighteen months I've lost a lot of my eyesight, my depth perception has been shot all to hell, and even with my half-prescription glasses, I have a horrible time picking out those patches of portalable white wall against a complex backdrop. Those were the only places in the entire game where I got stuck and had to stand up and walk around and take a short break, except for one other where I was just being an idiot, but for that I blame fatigue. ;) Anyway, I think that that kind of "puzzle" is lame, and is the only thing I didn't much enjoy.
I loved the ending, especially, of course, the final portal. There's been a lot of talk on the internet about how the game is brilliantly designed to have you fire it on reflex, and that was perfectly simulated in me, even though I'd been paying enough attention to the dialogue to consciously understand why it made sense in immediate retrospect. I was wholly in Chell's skin at that moment, and the payoff was brilliant.
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
Now I just need to track down my friend so we can beat the co-op and I can hear the OTHER new credits song. <3 I've been ATLAS rather than P-Body this whole time (though I think I prefer the names given to them last E3, Fats and Legs) and have come to identify with the little bugger quite a bit. I think that GLaDOS' attempts to break up the co-op team are hysterical (if you think "GLaDOS screws around with the team dynamic in co-op" is a spoiler then you clearly have no understanding of the character at all), though my partner finds them juvenile and annoying and has claimed he's turning off the audio so he can put on soothing music instead.
Talk about missing the point of the game. :(
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
I haven't finished the Portal 2 co-op yet (I've had a tough time finding a non-XBOX friend to play it with), but I've finally played enough of it, I'd estimate about two thirds, to feel comfortable talking about the title.
The single player, I beat in one very long sitting the day it came out.
And for the most part I loved every second of it. Certainly, I soaked up every line of dialogue, every witticism, like drops of water on a starving soil. I genuinely enjoyed the enrichment (rimshot) of the backstory. The puzzles were good too -- with one exception.
There are certain points in the game (and I have found this more prevalent in the single player than the co-op, though it may still be too early in the co-op for this to be an issue) where the solution isn't about Thinking With Portals. The game becomes Where's Waldo. I was pretty good at that game when I was a little kid, but in the past eighteen months I've lost a lot of my eyesight, my depth perception has been shot all to hell, and even with my half-prescription glasses, I have a horrible time picking out those patches of portalable white wall against a complex backdrop. Those were the only places in the entire game where I got stuck and had to stand up and walk around and take a short break, except for one other where I was just being an idiot, but for that I blame fatigue. ;) Anyway, I think that that kind of "puzzle" is lame, and is the only thing I didn't much enjoy.
I loved the ending, especially, of course, the final portal. There's been a lot of talk on the internet about how the game is brilliantly designed to have you fire it on reflex, and that was perfectly simulated in me, even though I'd been paying enough attention to the dialogue to consciously understand why it made sense in immediate retrospect. I was wholly in Chell's skin at that moment, and the payoff was brilliant.
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
Now I just need to track down my friend so we can beat the co-op and I can hear the OTHER new credits song. <3 I've been ATLAS rather than P-Body this whole time (though I think I prefer the names given to them last E3, Fats and Legs) and have come to identify with the little bugger quite a bit. I think that GLaDOS' attempts to break up the co-op team are hysterical (if you think "GLaDOS screws around with the team dynamic in co-op" is a spoiler then you clearly have no understanding of the character at all), though my partner finds them juvenile and annoying and has claimed he's turning off the audio so he can put on soothing music instead.
Talk about missing the point of the game. :(
Happy Cinco de Mayo!