Happy ten-year anniversary, Portal 2 - Destructoid

Posted: 24 Apr 2021 01:00 PM PDT

How has it been a decade already?

_{[Narrated by Josh Picard]}

The year is 2011, and the haunting, distant sounds of the Aperture facility are reverberating through our unfinished basement. My brother's at basketball practice, I have free reign of the Xbox. I've spent the past half hour trying to solve this puzzle, but I'm not getting up until I solve it. "Hello, who's there?" the turrets chirp at me.

They always kind of creeped me out, but I push it aside and… aha! I climb up to the tallest platform in the room, throw myself off with reckless abandon, and land my portal at the last second. Now I'm hurtling through the air, and land gracefully in front of the exit. I pump my fist, celebrating my victory, and feeling like the smartest kid in the world.

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Back when Portal 2 first came out, you couldn't escape it. Kind of like Minecraft or Fortnite, it was one of those games that was everywhere. T-shirts, plushies, LEGO, stuff like that. My ninth-grade science teacher even had the Aperture Science safety posters on his classroom wall, which always provided me with a fun read when I would get bored in class.

Even as someone who only tangentially knew about games at the time, I knew what Portal 2 was. "The cake is a lie" had already taken over the internet years before as a meme, and Let's Plays of the co-op were all over YouTube. Portal 2 wasn't just a game, it was a cultural touchstone, and one that has become as big a part of gaming history as Call of Duty or GTA.

Of course, that could be said about nearly every Valve game. Their catalog is one of the most impressive out there: Team Fortress, Half-Life, Dota, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike. Basically everything they touch turns to gold — especially Steam, but more on that later.

That being said, all these years later when I went to replay Portal 2, I thought, "surely this can't be as good as I remember." I was so, so wrong.

After learning that one of my close friends had never played it before, a small group of us decided it was worth watching him struggle through the puzzles as we facepalmed in the background. Besides, nothing says quarantine like a game where you're trapped in a science facility, right?

I was so impressed with how the game had held up, I decided to look up when it came out. April 18, 2011. Damn, ten whole years? It's pretty hard to believe, to the point that if someone wiped my memory, and told me it came out today, I would probably fall for it.

When I first picked up Portal 2 back when it came out, I hadn't heard of the series before. I really wasn't gaming all that much either, as it was released when I was too busy with my nose in young adult books.

But I saw a commercial for Portal 2 on TV, and I knew right away it was something I wanted to try. So, I saved up my allowance and bought a copy to play on my brother's Xbox 360. I don't remember much about that playthrough, other than that I couldn't play it while I was home alone, because they nailed the uncanny, liminal feeling of the environments that creeped me out if no one else was there. It was crazy to have that feeling come rushing back to me, now sitting in my own apartment.

So when we decided on replaying, I was super excited about it. There's nothing better than a game that you remember really loving, but that's all you can remember. It's like having a clean slate so you can enjoy it all over again for the first time.

And enjoy it, I did. Within the first minute or so we were already laughing, and I cannot stress enough how much I love writers Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton's work. There's this quick, witty humor they have going on that I can never seem to get enough of. The sheer volume of jokes is already amazing, but the number of jokes that land is even more so (it's all of them).

One of my favorite jokes happens while the game is teaching you the controls right at the beginning, but I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't had the privilege of playing it yet. I just appreciate the fact that Portal 2 uses everything at its disposal to get a chuckle out of you, from the tutorial to the chapter titles to even the achievements.

For me though, I think my favorite part of the game is Stephen Merchant's performance as the idiotic AI Wheatley, the sequel's new addition to the series' minimal cast. Merchant is a prominent British comedian, best known for his appearance in the English (and original) version of The Office.

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Valve designed and wrote Wheatley's character specifically with Merchant in mind, because he was just too perfect for the job, which is obvious to anyone who has played it. In an interview with IGN, Merchant said he accepted the role without thinking much of it, but when he started telling his friends about the role, he began to understand the kind of pressure he was under. "I was petrified," he tells the interviewer, "what if I blow it?"

As I'm sure you could assume from what you've read so far, he in fact did not blow it. His comedic timing and delivery are always perfect, plus the fact that any time he goes off on improvised monologues (which is often) they're always so random and hilarious yet perfectly in character.

The real dramatic challenge of Wheatley's arc, though, is being both wacky and idiotic while also being maniacal, which Merchant yet again nails. Being a lovable villain is a fine line to walk, but Wheatley achieves it, just like GlaDOS before him.

As much as I could go on and on about how brilliant Merchant is, I have to also give props to Ellen McLain's return as GlaDOS, as well as J.K. Simmons' portrayal of Cave Johnson. Perfect casting is a theme with Valve (especially considering they have enough money to get whoever they want for a role), and the writing always allows for the actors' undeniable talent to shine through.

The introduction of Cave and Caroline's characters, and the deep dive into Aperture's history, was such an interesting way to give the game a new flavor while at the same time keeping true to the feeling of the original and expanding the world's lore all at the same time.

_{[Image Credit: YouTube user AmbiAnts]}

The commitment, humor, and ease of these performances are truly awe-inspiring, and enough to cement the game's place as one of the best ever created in my book. But the voice acting is only one aspect of what makes Portal 2 so incredible.

The visuals also hold up well, which is partially due to the fact that there aren't really any people on screen at any point. Attempts at photorealistic human faces seem to age the fastest in my opinion, so avoiding them all together definitely helps.

Even so, Valve seemed to go for a stylized version of reality that feels immersive and lifelike, but doesn't feel so cartoony that it takes you out of it. In our playthrough, I think the only sign of aging we saw were a few textures popping in, but that was pretty minor.

Like the performances, another aspect that will always age like fine wine is the core game design itself. The puzzles are ridiculously, addictingly fun. I'm so glad I didn't remember any of them, because I had a blast trying to work them out all over again.

I remember thinking that I wish we had more momentum-based puzzle games, because there's a certain kind of thrill to flinging yourself off of a high platform to be catapulted toward the exit. The fact that the game's field of view is in first-person makes it all the more thrilling.

Not only did the designers use the core portal mechanic intuitively, but there are so many other mechanics added on top of it, including some from the original game like cubes, emancipation grills, and turrets, as well as new ones like faith plates, the different kinds of gel, light bridges, excursion funnels, lasers, and so on.

The thing about all of these different elements that I was so impressed with is how organically they are introduced and utilized as the puzzles increase in difficulty. When we hit the last few puzzles, I was so shocked to see how many different elements we were using to solve, and how all of them fit together so nicely. Valve, color me impressed, even after all these years.

Even when everything else fades away, and what used to seem shiny and new feels dated, that game design is always going to feel fun and exciting, which to me is what sets apart a good game from a truly great one.

The craziest part of this is that in early development, Valve was exploring other types of puzzle mechanics other than the portals. In an interview with Fast Company right after the game's release, Wolpaw revealed that they thought there might be more to explore within the Portal franchise, but they "discovered through playtesting that people wanted portals in their Portal 2 — and GlaDOS, and the whole vibe of the first game." Thank you playtesters, whoever you were.

I know I've spent this whole time talking about Portal 2's impeccable single-player game design, but I have to throw in a shout-out to the co-op mode too. There was no greater joy than dropping your buddy to their doom or squishing them in that one maze puzzle (you know the one) and I will forever be chasing that high.

_{[Image Credit: GameSpot]}

The other thing I got to thinking about was Portal 2's length — its run time clocks in somewhere around the eight-hour mark. I feel like recently, there's this idea in the games industry that the bigger a game is, the better. Just look at the hype surrounding the worlds of games like Cyberpunk, The Witcher, or GTA V.

I think a great example of the inflation of playtimes is Naughty Dog's Last of Us series: the first game would run you roughly twelve hours, while the sequel was 25 to 30 hours. The sequel's doubling of the original's run time was a selling point during Part II's marketing campaign last year, and touting a game's long run time seems to be more and more common these days.

Now, that's not to say that these games are necessarily worse for being bigger or longer, it's just that when I was playing Portal 2, I couldn't help but notice how tight and polished the whole experience felt. As a writer, I was so damn impressed because every line spoken by a character felt amazing — every joke landed, every emotional beat hit.

It felt like if you took away one sentence a character spoke you would miss something big. Spending hundreds of hours in a game can really be a blast, but sometimes I can't help but wish for more short games that pack a hard punch in a smaller window.

I've played a lot of games, but I really can't think of a studio that has Valve's command over game design. The people who worked on Portal, and so many other titles, really are the best in the industry, and they have the success of their IPs to show for it. That's why it's such a shame that Valve all but stepped away from game development.

Steam, Valve's digital video game distribution service, was released in September of 2003. Initially it served as a platform to distribute updates to their own games, and soon expanded to put out games from third-party publishers as well.

In the first few years after Steam's creation, only publishers could get their games onto the storefront, but that all changed in 2008 with the introduction of the Steamworks software development kit. From then on, anyone could put their games up for sale, which revolutionized the gaming industry. Without Steam, the indie scene wouldn't be as successful and vibrant as it is today, thanks to Valve's ingenuity.

By 2013, Valve had taken over 75% of the market space for digital distribution of PC games, and by 2017, users purchasing games through Steam had soared to over $4.3 billion. Yeah, that's billion with a "b."

When you think about it, it makes complete sense that Valve wouldn't be making games anymore. Developing games is insanely expensive, risky, and takes a ton of work. Creating something like Steam is basically every company's dream — it's low maintenance but turns the maximum profit. It means they don't have to crunch, or worry about if they're going to get a return on their investment during the development cycle.

But at the same time, it's such an incredible shame that the studio decided to turn away from games as their main focus. Thanks to Valve's track record, how talented their developers are, and fans' enthusiasm for highly anticipated sequels, it seems impossible for them to fail. To have them step out of the spotlight feels like Tony Stark deciding not to build the Iron Man suit because it wasn't cost-effective, but what can we do?

Of course, Valve has released a few games over the past few years, like Dota Underlords and Half-Life: Alyx. These more recent titles have been met with mixed results (looking at you Artifact), but it's hard to say Valve has lost their touch when making games isn't their focus in the first place.

Players seem to get their hopes up with every new announcement, only to be disappointed when their next release isn't the full game we all hope it to be. Part of me wishes they would either go all in or stop developing altogether, just to save us the heartache.

Despite it all, I don't think I'm alone in saying that Valve's games will forever be remembered as some of the all-time greats. From Team Fortress to Half-Life to Left 4 Dead, these games raised us, in a way. Hell, Portal 2 was the game that taught me how to use twin-stick controls.

I'm certainly going to be secretly hoping Valve will make an epic comeback in game development, but even if they don't, I have plenty of fond memories to look back on, and for that I'm grateful. Happy anniversary, Portal 2.

11 Reasons Why Portal 2 is the Greatest Game of All Time - TheXboxHub

Posted: 19 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT

2011 was an absolute monster of a year. In any other year, you could have crowned Batman: Arkham City, Skyrim, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Dark Souls, Minecraft, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Bastion, Gears of War 3 or Dead Space 2 as the Game of the Year, and be confident that the gaming world would nod and say 'yup, that's the one'. They are all ironclad classics, and we're still seeing the influence of many of them. It's likely that several people's GOATs are on that list.

But yet, we would like to make a case that the best game of 2011 isn't even on that list. The best game of 2011, released on April 19th, is my greatest game of all time. And that game is Portal 2.

It may not be the longest, the most re-released, or the most sequel-ised of the list we've just given. But it's quality is undeniable, and today marks a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the moments that confirm its place in a future Hall of Fame. As GLaDOS would foresee, this is a triumph. So, use the ten moments here as a prompt to go play it again, or – if you've never played it before – then ignore this list completely, as it's heaving with spoilers. Just make sure you slot in some time to dedicate to it, as it's Valve's crowning achievement, and that is saying quite something.

Press A to Speak

Back in 2011, Stephen Merchant was a bit of a punt. He'd written The Office and Extras but barely appeared in them, had a semi-successful stand-up career and a role in the film Hall Pass. Sure, he was just about stretching his long legs over the Atlantic, and was beginning to get American recognition, but he wasn't what you'd call a name. But without him, there's no Wheatley. Few people could have captured the robot's turn-on-a-penny character pivots, from buffoonery, to sarcasm to pure evil.

Picking a best moment of his is difficult, so we included two, and this is the first. Arriving in your room, Wheatley questions whether you have brain damage, so quickly spins up a cognition test. He asks you to speak, with the classic 'Press A to speak' appearing as a prompt for Xbox players, and once you press it – pure genius – you jump. Congratulations, you have learned what the A button does, and you've humiliated yourself into the package.

Most games hold your hands tightly in tutorial sections, worried that you'll do something stupid. Portal 2 has the confidence to take the piss out of you, and make you do something stupid near immediately.

The Collapse

Anyone coming from Portal will feel a false sense of security. Everything about the original game's opening was safe and curated: a sterile set of guided tasks, completely authored by GLaDOS. Lesson after lesson. Portal 2 understands this, gets Wheatley to unconvincingly create a similar setup, and then tears the whole thing down.

The opening bedroom swings on its cable, slams into other, similar bedrooms, and the walls fall away to reveal that you're in a kind of battery pen of test subjects. There's nothing you can do but watch as you careen into – what Wheatley calls – a docking platform, only to find out that there is no docking platform, and you've busted through a wall and into the opening rooms of the original Portal.

The whole sequence is ridiculous grandstanding by the developers, showing that you're in for something cinematic and unexpected. You think you're getting sequences of puzzles once more? Uh-uh, think again.

The Callbacks

Of course, there's a rug pull after the rug pull. We were still reeling after the statement-making collapse section, which clearly said that you're not getting the original Portal. And then you walk into the original tutorial for Portal. It's the same room, the same 'joke' of seeing yourself wandering into a portal, just overgrown and left to rot.

It's both a callback and a mind twister, as you wonder whether you're going to be wandering through the exact puzzles you conquered in Portal 1. Of course, Valve know better than that, and it's more a reassurance that while everything has changed, everything is also the same. It's a contradiction that makes perfect sense as you play.

The callbacks keep coming. A cake recipe plays out in code on computer terminals. THAT ending song gets a sequel. GLaDOS recalls the things that worked – or didn't work – when torturing Chell.

Still Flying

The puzzles in Portal 2 are great, just as they were in Portal, but Valve understood the best bits of them. It's not necessarily their cleverness, which is on point, but often it's just about building up momentum and catapulting yourself across entire levels. More so than in Portal, you're Hail-Marying yourself out of portals just to see where you go. And that's just the best.

The levels take advantage of this. Once you're unshackled from test chambers, you can survey an entire environment for how to progress. There's something instantly satisfying about seeing a white platform at a 45 degree angle, just waiting for you to portal it up, drop into a corresponding portal, and then – boom – you're sailing across a precipice.

Propulsion Gel

Valve really knew that flinging yourself out of portals was fun. Not content with just creating infinite falling loops and boost pads, we were given the gels. These had effects like bouncing back turrets and blocks (repulsion gel) and creating platforms for portals (conversion gel), but the real MVP was the propulsion gel.

When slathered onto platforms, the propulsion gel would become a super-lubricant that would send you hurtling. With a well-placed couple of portals, you could fire yourself even further (and give you that 'Leeeeeeeeroooooy Jeeeeenkins!' feeling), reaching previously unreachable locations.

Any other game would have added in propulsion as a block or some other feature on the game map. What made propulsion gel so doubly fantastic was that you could sprinkle and hose it around as much as you liked. We spent an entire evening covering one section with the conversion gel, just because we could.

Potato GLaDOS

It's such a double-take moment. The item is just there, overlooking something like a quarry. "What's that?", you likely asked. "A potato?". And then it talked, and it was GLaDOS. 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. Having been relegated to her current position, she's also gained something like humility, and the relationship between you and her (as well as her admiring relationship with Cave Johnson, and her sniping at Wheatley) work brilliantly.

Again, in a lesser game, it would have been a wheeling out of the same enemy, a second-coming that we're used to from innumerable Ganons and Bowsers. But this is so much more dehumanising and embarrassing, and it fits Portal 2 like a glove.

Cave Johnson and the Lemon Rant

Some way through Portal 2, we're introduced to the late founder of Aperture Science, Cave Johnson. We will admit to groaning a little bit when we realised he was going to appear in audio journals, which – in 2011 – were getting old, off the back of too many BioShock clones. They're a step up from collecting text journals, but only one step.

We were so wrong. Cave Johnson is one of gaming's best characters, and you don't even get to meet him. The sass and gravitas of J.K. Simmons gives Cave Johnson presence, as he acts like the disappointed dad over Aperture's many, many failings.

The pinnacle of the Cave Johnsonisms is the lemon rant. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade", he says, as his body slowly dies from inhaling moon dust. But later, as death takes hold of him, he goes on a rant, demanding that life takes the lemons back. "I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down – with lemons!". Few people can rant like J.K. Simmons – just see Terence Fletcher in Whiplash – and you can see a little bit of that character come through in Cave Johnson.

This is the Part Where he Kills You

It's just so stupid and childish.

"Well, this is the part where he kills us", says GLaDOS.

"Hello, this is the part where I kill you", says Wheatley.

Up pops the achievement: "This is the part where he kills you".

Gold.

Want You Gone

"Well here we are again

It's always such a pleasure

Remember when you tried

To kill me twice?

Oh how we laughed and laughed

Except I wasn't laughing

Under the circumstances

I've been shockingly nice"

How would Portal 2 handle its ending? 'Still Alive' was one of the most iconic ending sequences in gaming, and people were expecting… something. 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.

Blowing Two Minds

And just like Portal arriving with the sheer generosity of Team Fortress and Half Life 2 in The Orange Box, Portal 2 came with its own form of generosity. A full co-op campaign was bolted onto Portal 2, bringing us ATLAS and P-body to complete their very own sequence of puzzles, with all the GLaDOS-taunting and cleverness of the solo campaign.

We have fantastic memories of the co-op campaign, mostly because it introduced a new kind of behaviour that we hadn't experienced in the many titles we'd played together: the "oh, just do it". A puzzle would blow our minds, until one of the two of us figured out what was needed. The problem with Portal is that it's never particularly easy to put a solution into words; it's likely why you see more video solutions than you do text walkthroughs. So, we'd stare at each other's explanation, frown, and say "oh, just do it". We'd hand them our pad, and they'd control both of the characters. It was just simpler that way.

The Menu Screen

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. No one asked for it, few people noticed it, but there it was: a 'welcome back' to the game with a reassuring display that Portal 2 had care and quality running through it like a stick of rock.

For a 'best game ever', Portal 2 has a strange effect on us. We often don't feel like we have the energy to play it again. That's because it demands so much of us, and we often feel like we need to be in the right mood. 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.

"I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager!"

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. And if you haven't played the game, pick it up from the Xbox Store right now.

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