Jul 24, 2016 Okay... So I've decided to do something different and because I overrated this game in the past, I felt a need to rectify it. Here it goes... Portal 2 Released by Valve on April 19th, 2011 Let's travel back to 2007 when Portal was just a freebie included in the Orange Box... It was just something put there to beef up what would be the releases of Half-Life 2: Episode Two (best Half-Life game ever) and all the other releases for their console re-release. The game's popularity was inevitable due to the fact that Valve made it, it had a unique concept and well... there were a lot of unexpected quirks and traits that weren't expected in a game like this. You know what was also inevitable, the sequel... Honest truth, I played through this again because I wanted to know what it felt like on a 120hz high refresh rate monitor and well, the experience wasn't that much fun; mainly because this has been dumbed down for what is now considered the lowpoint of geek culture. For one, the game is much lighter in tone; there is zero cinematic traits or subtly to the whole thing. At least with Portal you had the assumption that you were alone in this sterile environment where you didn't know what would happen and the jokes hit harder and well, you didn't know what was happening. This; you know exactly what is happening. Every aspect of the game has been retconned from Aperture Science (which now extends past the dawn of time to fill in gameplay mechanics) to the elevators to even the technology they use. The cubes were simple but functional but now they've been designed not to fit in the world, but to fit in with the whims of causal gamers who could not figure out how to go past a changing portal in the first few levels of the original game. Listen to the developer commentary, it helps tremendously. Everything feels more modern and more stylish as if to sell the brand to geek culture consumers who have nothing better to do than to listen to dumbed down alternative guitar music and chiptune music... Valve knows what the f--- they're doing; old Valve would of put time and effort into appealing to the person who would be rewarded with such hard work but new Valve's only concern is getting Steam into every market possible, having you in their ecosystem and well... playing dumbed down versions of their old games that required skill and logic. Remember the companion cube, you only saw it once in the old game but in Portal 2; you see it 10,000 times in a row. Same goes for the turrets and the whole image of the company in the game... It's excessive and inconsistent. By the way, did I mention that they change the whole look and feel to resemble a comedy movie; it's true. You see turrets being assembled in one scene and the next you have defective turrets that come out of nowhere with funny lines that directly contradict the previous scene, anything to be funny I guess... Even though everybody from the original cast is there, it doesn't feel like 100% is being put in there. The actress who plays GLaDOS (forget her name), lays down lame insult jokes that only appeal to geeks and nobody else and Ricky Gervais does the same thing he did since The Office... You can see how famous people and quirky lines equal instant success right? Jonathan Colton appears to provide musical advice but the second song he created does not match up to the first and in addition, the sountrack seems weaker than in the first game... Also this game is too f---ing long, there's too much introduction to new elements and too much buildup to what seems to be an intro course on how to build your own f---ing puzzles for people to solve. I admire the people who make complex puzzles in Portal games, however these are not complex and to use this to inspire people to make their own when they were actually expecting a groundbreaking game. Because of this, I found myself bored throughout most of the game and I was wanting to get to the end so I could actually feel a sense of accomplishment... I know Portal 1 was short but Portal 2 is like the length of a wannabe novel that has less substance but could be turned into a movie instantly. I will say that the graphics are the best that Valve have ever done, perhaps realizing that they need to insert HQ textures and detail on the level of Doom 3. They go above their own standards to bring us something that looks amazing though not revolutionary; in fact it almost looks surrealistic... You could spend hours looking at the graphics and getting lost in their detail, they're that good. That's like the only good thing about the game though; that and the levels near the end, actually require you to think and use what you learned in both sections of the game. I'm going to play devils advocate and say that this game is responsible for the decline of hardcore... well... anything; people nowadays don't want to have to learn things on their own, they want things taught for them. Such is the way of a video game but what happens when you head out to real life, is there going to be prompts? is there going to be help along the way? Life is hard, so are video games but when video games get dumbed down just so people can earn a quick buck it becomes, well disgraceful to say the least. I don't fully expect hardcore games (or the old Valve) to make a comeback but come on; I want to feel like I'm being rewarded for difficult gameplay, not have to be bored by easy gameplay and lack of challenge. Valve has seriously killed the gaming industry by focusing on this BS; this is supposed to be hardcore, not weak a--- dance s---. Rating: 4.0/10
