Hello fellow Giant Bombers, I hope you’re well. I should probably warn you that the following blog has some Portal 2 spoilers within. Most of what I’m about to say isn’t anything that concrete and there are a lot of vague statements about the nature of the game, but if you’re determined to experience Portal 2 as untainted as possible and haven’t yet reach the games conclusion, this may be a blog to skip. This is also a shorter and admittedly slightly more rushed blog than usual, due to my ongoing university work, and for that I apologise. All good? Okay, let’s begin.
I really could gush about my love of this game for just about any length of time and to some extent I already have. I haven’t found a game that’s excited me in the way Portal 2 has in a very long time, and it was really the single-player that did it for me. There are a lot of games out there that have given me hours of great experiences but Portal 2 has been a truly mind-blowing adventure and like many others when I reached the end of the game I was met with a distinct sadness, not just because of the events within the games closing but because I knew I’d seen everything this fantastic game had to offer.
I loved the original Portal and still do, but in many ways Portal 2 makes it look positively primitive by comparison. Part of the shock I experienced when first playing wasn’t just a product of the level of quality the game presented, but also a result of seeing how fresh, varied and complex the game was. In the three and a half years since the original Portal first appeared on The Orange Box it felt as though the world of Portal had evolved to an extraordinary level.
Through their unique mix of AAA production, extensive product testing and adoption of indie game mechanics and developers, the Portal games have managed to deliver experiences that are not only of a high quality but also produce an overwhelming level of uniqueness rarely seen from the mainstream games industry. It makes me happy that the game has been so well received by consumers, because it proves that originality can thrive within the mainstream market and at least to a small extent it’s encouragement towards other publishers and developers to try and create something more innovative themselves.
I know one or two aspiring games developers read my blog occasionally and if there’s anyone out there who is interested in games design or writing, then I’d certainly encourage you to take a look at Portal 2, the detail, uniqueness, and quality makes it a joy to deconstruct. To any of you who are interested in any kind of games development the developer commentary may very well be of some interest too. For some unknown reason you can’t save during the commentary, meaning you have to take it one chapter at a time, and it’s not appropriate for your first playthrough, however it’s surprising the level of detail the commentary nodes go into. They’re a little few and far between but where they can be found they’re very interesting to listen too.
It’s a shame to hear that Wolpaw seems too modest to dissect his work and look at the underlying components and influences, because he and the other developers at Valve have certainly worked towards creating an amazing narrative. With so much backstory now satisfyingly filled in and the effective conclusion of the stories of all the major characters (save for possibly Doug Rattmann but I’ll keep that for another time), it seems almost impossible for there to be a Portal 3 and it’s rather shocking to hear Wolpaw say that he believes there could be a Portal 2 sequel, but if there’s a developer that has proved it can do amazing things with sequels it’s definitely Valve.
For now I think I’ll let up on my torrent of praise for Portal 2, but hopefully I’ll be back next week with some more constructive Portal 2-type ramblings. Thanks for reading, good luck, have a different kind of Portal.
-Gamer_152
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