After having played through the Xbox Live Arcade trial multiple time, last Sunday I finally got Portal: Still Alive. I think it's a truly innovative game, which apart from Narbacular Drop, on which the game was inspired, no other game was used a similar mechanic of using inter-connected portals to traverse the environment. Still Alive took me the best part of four hours to complete and I was impressed it. I was even more impressed by its sequel, which I also got hold of.
I would like to mention now that this post will contain spoilers of the ending to Portal, so if you have yet to complete it, or simply wish not to, please skip ahead to the paragraph after next.
Portal 2 follows on the rather puzzling ending of Portal, in which, for those of you who have played the game via Steam and seen the updated ended, Chell is firstly sucked up to the surface after her encounter with GLaDOS and then dragged away from the burning wreckage around her by an unknown entity who thanks her for assuming the ''party escort submission position''.
After this the second game begins, with Chell awakening it what appears to be a hotel room. After being woken, a pre-recorded message instructs her to do a few simple tasks. After that a knocking is heard at the door and after opening it the player meets Wheatley, are somewhat sarcastic and witty personality core who is voiced by Stephen Merchant. It soon becomes clear that Chell is back within the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre and has been in stasis for a great number of years and the world she has woken up to is a crumbling ruin of what she left behind, with the Enrichment Centre now overgrown and falling apart.
After meeting Wheatley, it becomes clear that if he and Chell are to escape they will need her to use again weld the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or more simply, the Portal Gun.
It also becomes clear that they will have to pass though "her" chamber and after passing through and entering the centre's main breaker room, Wheatley manages to reactive GLaDOS.
GLaDOS instantly recognises Chell and describes that in being 'murdered' she discovered a black box safety feature, thereby she could replay the last to minutes of her life, over and over. Straight away she decides to begin putting Chell through more tests, which leads to another dose of portal based mayhem.
As well as offering more use of the Portal Gun. Portal 2 introduces a number of new physics mechanics to further expand the gameplay. The largest additions are that of three new paint-like gels that can be used to manipulate the environment and aid the player in completing puzzles. The second new mechanic is excursion funnels, which work like tractor beams that can be set to either repel or attract object can within the beam. The final major new mechanic is aerial faith plates. The plates act like flippers which are designs to be able to launch all matter of objects into the air and up to higher areas and places that otherwise couldn't be reached.
Beyond the single player story, Valve have also given Portal 2 a co-op campaign. The co-op can be played by pairing up with a random player, although the and heavily recommends that it is played with a friends, for better communication and enjoyability. For the co-op players assume the role of Atlas and P-Body, a modified personality core and turret respectively. Both of the robots have the same abilities, although as players progress through the game's co-operative portion they will begin to unlock gestures, which can be used to both interact with their team-mate or simply show off. These gestures include being able to high-five and hug the other player. To continue Portal's humorous themes, the bots have a mix of both robotic and human qualities in their personalities, with can been seen in the gestures, one example being that a player can be 'left hanging' if the other does not high-five them too.
Atlas and P-Body
Having spend most of my time playing the game once I got it I was extremely impressed with the title and what it has been able to offer. Being a full retail release, Valve have clearly been able to expand upon the gameplay of the original game, which was a smaller game which was first included in the Orange Box, before later having a stand alone version, Still Alive being released on Xbox Live Marketplace. I have not really played the co-op campaign, but have completed the single player and was constantly surprised with the new features, expansive story-line and general feel of the game.
Each section of the game has been carefully planned out, not leaving players overly confused and struggling or left to complete parts too quickly allowing for an equal paced game. Having said that, around the mid-point of the single player I did find some of the challenges particularly difficult, with one puzzle taking noticeably longer, forty five minutes in total. The single player campaign is said to take around six hours to complete. It took me around ten, but even so, the puzzles and challenges still never felt patronising nor like the game was taking me by the hand.
To further add to the positive aspects of the game, it has remarkable graphics for such a game and I think more so given that I have played the console version.
Overall I would recommend Portal or Portal 2 to anyone who is looking for an individual and different puzzle game, or just a story with clever and witty jokes.
Portal 2 is out now for a regular retail price of £39.99, for the PS3 and 360 versions.
So, that's my opinion of Portal 2, I have been randomthings and until next time, thanks for reading.
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