The item is just there, overlooking something like a quarry. One of the best bosses in modern video gaming, reduced to squatting on a vegetable. But rather than feel like a cash-in on past glories, it makes her dependent on you, and the dynamic is completely shifted.
But this is so much more dehumanising and embarrassing, and it fits Portal 2 like a glove. We will admit to groaning a little bit when we realised he was going to appear in audio journals, which — in — were getting old, off the back of too many BioShock clones. We were so wrong. The sass and gravitas of J. The pinnacle of the Cave Johnsonisms is the lemon rant. But later, as death takes hold of him, he goes on a rant, demanding that life takes the lemons back. Few people can rant like J.
Simmons — just see Terence Fletcher in Whiplash — and you can see a little bit of that character come through in Cave Johnson. How would Portal 2 handle its ending? There was the opportunity to do something different, to buck expectations in the same way that the opening did.
But, in contrary Valve style, they went for the straight sequel. Want You Gone was written by Jonathon Coulton, same as Still Alive, but what it lost on surprise and cleverness, it gained in melody. Want You Gone is just a cracking tune, and it carries all the memories of the previous six hours of gaming with it whenever we spin it on Spotify. A puzzle would blow our minds, until one of the two of us figured out what was needed.
It was just simpler that way. And if you wanted an example of the level of detail in Portal 2, then look no further than the menu screen. Updating with each level, it showed your progress with bespoke animated artwork in glorious HD. But writing this list has reminded us just how rewarding it would be to give it another ride. We might well go back and play it now. What am I supposed to do with these? Do you have memories of Portal 2?
Do you question its placing at the top of our own, personal best game list? Perhaps you have your own additions to these 11? If so, let us know in the comments. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. But Valve didn't just create a game with a highly compelling core gameplay mechanic. It created a game that was rich in atmosphere. I realize that this is as much by accident as by design; the game was designed as little more than a tech demo, and the reason there isn't a huge back story, or any real exposition, or many different characters is as much due to budgetary and timing constraints as any deliberate effort on the part of developers.
But the result is what matters, and the result had me gripped. I can't play Portal at night. The game has this pervasive, soul-destroying feeling of solitude. The Aperture Science Enrichment Center is incomprehensibly enormous, and yet moving through it we meet not a single living thing. The test chambers are equipped with observation rooms—plainly there should be people up there—this should be a busy, bustling science lab. But they're all empty.
The lights are all on, but there's literally no one at home. Even when we break out of test chambers, there's nothing. No scientists, no research assistants, no secretaries, no janitors, no maintenance men—not even any other test subjects. The closest thing we get to companionship is GLaDOS, the murderous experimentalist forcing us to perform these tests. She calls it science, but she's no more a scientist than Josef Mengele. She voyeuristically watches over us, putting us deliberately in harm's way, and ultimately trying to kill us directly.
Comedic moments, sure. But all thoroughly tinged with evil. This loneliness is further compounded by the Companion Cube. We're so desperately alone in the world that we form an emotional attachment to a metal box with hearts on it. We're willing to reach out even to an inanimate object in the vain hope that it will reciprocate our desires for interaction.
And finally, we have the Aperture Science Sentry Turrets. Oh, the turrets. As the name so cunningly suggests, this mod is based around the gels, making each level a parkour puzzle space that is far harder than the main game. You get to fire the gel out of the gun in this mod, bringing it far closer to the student game that inspired Portal 2.
Rocket League has a number of Portal-based accessories for your cars. But my favourite is in Skyrim. That genuinely happened, btw. I suspect poor Phil would have had many more sleepless nights if Valve had made the competitive game mode. It involved two teams trying to manoeuvre a ball around a map. It was a mix of the old Amiga game Speedball and Portal, except with none of the good parts of either of those two. The game was super chaotic and no fun, so the only good news about this part was that we cut it pretty quickly and were able to use those resources to develop co-op a little bit more.
Believe it or not, they don't even officially endorse Portal 2, despite the fact that it's a really excellent game. This browser game is a post-apocalypse Glasto meets non-violent tech Wicker Man and it's rad as hell. Letter From The Editor notes from our survey. We should see more of Bethesda's Starfield next summer. EWS podcast episode the best celebrities in games. If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.
You can see that here: To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Portal 2 was announced inside Portal To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings There are two versions of the original Portal. Manage cookie settings Valve famously hired the team of DigiPen students who made Narbacular Drop , a game about navigating levels with portals, to make Portal. There is motion control DLC To see this content please enable targeting cookies.
Manage cookie settings VR has been a good place to continue to play Portal 2, albeit without any portals.
0コメント