This week we talk about Portal's ideas, character and struggles with delivering an adequate sequel.

Download, subscribe via iTunes, Podcast RSS or Email.

Podcast Guests

Pre-Thoughts

Before the tape started rolling, here are our scribbled notes.

Chris Jarvis- Novel Gamer

I absolutely loved the original portal. I think what worked for me so well was that I came to it not knowing much other than that it was a first-person puzzle game. It was the gradual building of tension through the eerie voice announcements that really worked for me and by the time events transpired that caused me to realise that more was going on here. It created a really believable fiction for me that this was some poor individual that has been stuck in this maze as a test subject.

It also worked for me because the basic concept creates such a great toy, in the portal gun. It’s easy to ignore the pressing matter of the puzzle at hand and just play around with creating portals in different parts of the room and seeing what happens. The strength of the level design, I think, was that they must have done that experimentation themselves and then thought about how the ideas they’d created could be utilized in an actual level.

I’ve actually been a bit aware that I’ve been skirting around playing portal 2. I think it’s actually a testament to the power of the first game. It felt very complete to me. Even though I’m sure that a sequel could improve the environmental elements of the puzzles and create some incredibly rich new puzzles, I’m concerned that the sequel couldn’t do justice for me to the fiction I’d uncovered in the first game. No-one wants to play Portal 2: The Quickening. I’m guess I’m waiting for re-assurance from someone who loved the first game as much as I did that playing Portal 2 will add to the experience and not simply exist as a re-hash for those who missed the original or a cash-in on a now legendary IP. One of my pet hates is reverse-continuity, where the sequel undermines the fiction of the first story by adding a wholly unsatisfactory explanation to previous events. For more information see Highlander II, The Mummy Returns... or actually maybe don’t bother.

Andy Robertson - Family Gamer

I really enjoyed the first game, like so many other people was impressed by the unusual play mechanic. But more than that it was the storytelling and disembodied narrator glaDOS that really hooked me in.

The game offered a very simple premise and didn’t stray too far from that formula. I think the puzzles worked because it was clear where their boundaries were. The length of the game and the complexity of the puzzles felt like a good match. I was happy to consume the whole thing in a few hours.

Portal 2 made an imediate connection to the story of the first game to me, with the embittered return of glaDOS and introduction of new characters to flesh out the cast. It was great to be back in that world again and see how Valve had developed it.

However, I was a little worried that a boxed version of the game would demand a longer experience. And that this experience would undermine my enjoyment of the game. At first this didn’t seem to be the case with a snappy plot and interchanging characters. But as I played on I found that it really dragged out.

I wasn’t impressed with the addition of new novelties like the bouncing paint, and would have preferred more turrets and companion cube work.

All that said, I think that Portal still offers a fantastic and unusual experience, and one that newcomers find compelling. Once a non-gamer has their heads around the first person controls it is magical to see them stretching their minds further with the portal physics.

Sinan Kubba - Returning Gamer

I loved the original Portal and I love Portal 2. Comparing them should be easy since they both essentially take place in the same location, feature the same characters by and large and are based around the same mechanics. Yet the subtle anomalies between the two games make them feel very different to me - this is not your father’s Portal, as they say.

Both games are very funny, and it’s very arguable that the writing in the more considered, less experimental Portal 2 is funnier - it’s easy to forget that the first Portal started life as a project by students before Valve took it up.

I think the first game made me feel claustrophobic but it did it with intimacy, however odd that sounds. The disembodied voice of GLaDOS teasing and twisting me as I tried to make my way through her nefarious puzzle chambers gave the game this incredible balance of funny and genuinely sinister. There was an appreciably ‘dark’ vibe to the game.

I like a game that can simultaneously really make me want to escape/reach a goal and yet make me enjoy the ride fully - that’s what Portal did. The second in comparison feels like a punchline deliverer - a really good punchline deliverer but there’s no sinister edge to the atmosphere. It’s just very funny. Returning to Aperture feels like revisiting a friend rather than being dragged back to a prison. It’s a small loss but I’m not sure how Valve could’ve made it work otherwise. I think it was just natural.

In many ways the real star of Portal 2 is the environmental design. Exploring Portal 2 is a joy. From the little touches like panels rearranging themselves in the chambers to all the little gems to discover when you leave them - like the date of signature on the back of a turret box to all the paintings on the Aperture walls - Portal 2 is a game of discovery. I love to learn about the backstory of this bizarre scientific institution that came up with all these brilliant things but through such ridiculous methods. So if the first game made me want to escape even though I was enjoying the ride, the second made me want to hang around and see more. Maybe that’s not quite as unique as what the first game made me feel, but I’m a sucker for seeing the little touches of effort in a game that most people won’t notice.

One thing Portal 2 has over Portal 1 is that it seems to be easier for newcomers to pick up. My girlfriend struggled with Portal 1 a lot - the puzzles got difficult quickly and she soon lost enjoyment when they became a bit too requiring of dexterity. Portal 2 requires little to no dexterity - and the hardest puzzles just aren’t that hard. Usually compensations around difficulty bother me, but the ride in Portal 2 is so enjoyable that I didn’t much care - I was just thrilled that I had a game I could share with my girlfriend - and the ride is indeed so enjoyable that I was very happy to watch her play through it. Does that make Portal 2 less of a game and more of a story unlocked by puzzles? If so, is that a bad thing? I enjoyed it regardless.

Other Reviews and News

Here's what else we have written about this:

More Tired Gamer reviews, chronological or alphabetical.