Portal 2
Finished the single player campaign on Wednesday, in roughly one 12-hour binge broken up by two parts fooding and one part HBO/AGOT ep 1.
The good:
- Humor level is good. Keeps you grinning a lot of the time.
- Story is interesting. Even though every other character in the world is a robot. Or perhaps I just like Wheatley's english accent too much.
- Voice acting generally well done. Occasionally, when an NPC commanded me to do something, I would sit around and wait 3-4 minutes just to cycle through the nagging voiceovers, because it takes that long before they run out of material. And some of it is pretty funny.
- New puzzle elements are fascinating and used to interesting effect:
-- Orange goo, which coats a surface to makes you run fast enough to achieve decent altitude when assisted by a ramp or portal.
-- Blue goo, which is bouncy.
-- White goo, which changes "black" non-portal surfaces into allowing portals.
-- Lasers, which are self-explanatory, but refractable.
-- Funnels, which are basically aerial conveyor belts.
-- Light bridges, which are sort of portable walkways, and can be used in a pinch to block LOS on command.
-- Vacuum tubes were previewed but are only present in cinematics.
-- Electric bouncy ball puzzles are gone (which is probably a good thing).
- Puzzles are generally designed with a lot more margin for error. A lot of puzzles in portal 1 (and to an extreme degree in user-created maps) had very precise timing; if you were just a tiny bit off on when you should have jumped, you'd miss your ledge, fall painfully, and have to do it all over. In contrast, Portal 2 is a bit more idiotproof in that respect. Some portal surfaces look larger than they actually are, because they will internally "pull" your targeted spot a few pixels so that the jump will line up properly. Overall reduction in the frustration level, fine by me.
- Evidence of significant testing. Portal 1 had a lot of places where you could ninja your way past an obstacle with non-standard tactics. Example: Room 14 in portal 1, the normal way, which takes about a minute, or the ninja way, which takes 8 seconds. Although I respect ninjas, the software developer in me cringes when I see something like this possible.
The bad:
- Puzzles are generally pretty easy, even when you get to the "hard" levels.
- Completely linear. I liked how Portal 1 unlocked "hard mode" puzzles after you had progressed past a certain point, because it gave you both choices and challenge. Not present in Portal 2.
- Apparently a ton of dev work went into the artistic futuristic cityscapes. Because of the plot events of Portal 1, let's just say the Aperture Science Facility has a few more windows than it used to. Outside these windows are beautifully crafted cityscapes that don't matter in the slightest because you can't reach them or interact with them without hurtling out the window to your death. Channel that creative energy for the fun stuff!
- Load times after almost every room. Not substantial in duration, but definitely substantial in quantity.
The good:
- Humor level is good. Keeps you grinning a lot of the time.
- Story is interesting. Even though every other character in the world is a robot. Or perhaps I just like Wheatley's english accent too much.
- Voice acting generally well done. Occasionally, when an NPC commanded me to do something, I would sit around and wait 3-4 minutes just to cycle through the nagging voiceovers, because it takes that long before they run out of material. And some of it is pretty funny.
- New puzzle elements are fascinating and used to interesting effect:
-- Orange goo, which coats a surface to makes you run fast enough to achieve decent altitude when assisted by a ramp or portal.
-- Blue goo, which is bouncy.
-- White goo, which changes "black" non-portal surfaces into allowing portals.
-- Lasers, which are self-explanatory, but refractable.
-- Funnels, which are basically aerial conveyor belts.
-- Light bridges, which are sort of portable walkways, and can be used in a pinch to block LOS on command.
-- Vacuum tubes were previewed but are only present in cinematics.
-- Electric bouncy ball puzzles are gone (which is probably a good thing).
- Puzzles are generally designed with a lot more margin for error. A lot of puzzles in portal 1 (and to an extreme degree in user-created maps) had very precise timing; if you were just a tiny bit off on when you should have jumped, you'd miss your ledge, fall painfully, and have to do it all over. In contrast, Portal 2 is a bit more idiotproof in that respect. Some portal surfaces look larger than they actually are, because they will internally "pull" your targeted spot a few pixels so that the jump will line up properly. Overall reduction in the frustration level, fine by me.
- Evidence of significant testing. Portal 1 had a lot of places where you could ninja your way past an obstacle with non-standard tactics. Example: Room 14 in portal 1, the normal way, which takes about a minute, or the ninja way, which takes 8 seconds. Although I respect ninjas, the software developer in me cringes when I see something like this possible.
The bad:
- Puzzles are generally pretty easy, even when you get to the "hard" levels.
- Completely linear. I liked how Portal 1 unlocked "hard mode" puzzles after you had progressed past a certain point, because it gave you both choices and challenge. Not present in Portal 2.
- Apparently a ton of dev work went into the artistic futuristic cityscapes. Because of the plot events of Portal 1, let's just say the Aperture Science Facility has a few more windows than it used to. Outside these windows are beautifully crafted cityscapes that don't matter in the slightest because you can't reach them or interact with them without hurtling out the window to your death. Channel that creative energy for the fun stuff!
- Load times after almost every room. Not substantial in duration, but definitely substantial in quantity.