Portal 2, Single player mode completed.
Apr. 27th, 2011 09:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsPortal 2 is pretty much as good as everyone is saying it is.
Portal 2, part of the Half Life universe, and the sequel to Portal, is set in the underground testing facility of Aperture Science. You, a young woman named Chelle, gifted with an ability to fall from incredible heights unharmed (as well as smacking into walls) and rapid healing from bullets and lasers, are the plaything of GlaDOS, a crazed AI who is using you as a "test subject" to determine the usefulness of the Portal Gun, a device which can tear two holes in the fabric of space/time, through which your character can fly/jump/walk to get to distant positions. Portals can only be made on reasonably flat surfaces. Each round consists of a series of puzzles which involves figuring out where to place portals in order to reach your intended destination.
The original game consisted of twenty such deliberate tests, followed by an escape from GlaDOS's sadistic test facility and an equally long and difficult trip through the Aperture Science laboratories to reach GlaDOS and shut her down.
Portal 2 picks up somewhat after that. You're Chelle again, and GlaDOS is back, and there are three times as many puzzles as last time. Not all of them belong to GlaDOS, though; you find out that testing is in the blood of Aperture Science, and that tests like the ones GlaDOS is putting you through have been a staple of the business since Cave Johnson, founder of Aperture Science, founded the business in 1949. The tests are hard, the revelations surprising, and the commentary, delivered by a variety of ancient recorded messages and by the two AIs (the sadistic GlaDOS and the ridiculous Wheatley) absolutely hilarious.
There is also a mystery: Who are you? I believe you are the adopted child of Cave Johnson and Caroline, Cave's assistant and the woman who provided GlaDOS with her morality core. At one point, you pass through some offices having a "Bring Your Daughter To Work Day" (first alluded to in Portal), a sort of science fair affair, and most of the children have made batteries out of potatoes and pennies. There's one potato grown huge and out of control, and if you look closely (use the zoom feature on the Portal gun), you can see the name of the student: "Chelle."
Later, if you're very lucky, you come upon a hidden office and a painting of Cave and an unnamed woman. If you screenshot that painting, pull it up in Photoshop and adjust the levels, you'll find a young woman lurking in the shadows, wearing orange.
It's also possible to find a canon list of test subjects. Chelle's last name has been erased. Also, at one point, GlaDOS says (while she's in a mode where she supposedly cannot lie, although there's one scene during this period where she might have been lying), "You are adopted, and that's terrible, but work with me here."
Until [REDACTED], for GlaDOS every day is Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, and she's doing her best.
I also completed all of the single-player achievments. Some of these constitute mini-games in their own right, such as "Smash every video monitor in the fifth set of test chambers." It's a different set of requirements to use the equipment in the room to shoot, fry, or crash something into a monitor, than it is to press the buttons, re-arrange the furniture, and power on the laser stations needed to open the EXIT door, and they are quite a challenge. "Overclocker" (complete a certain very hard room in under 70 seconds) was a nightmare. I also found several easter eggs: rat man lairs, the Secret Society of Opera-Loving Gun Turrets, and (yes) The Borealis, in dry dock. Which is interesting in itself: if it's here, when in time are we? Before the events of Half Life 2 Episode 2, presumably. But when? We don't know.
A hint: start a new game. During the "calisthenics portion of your assessment," look at the painting. Then, after the wake-up, look at the painting a second time. That's your first clue, and it is to your last act.
Portal 2 successfully takes Portal, a throwaway amusement put together by a very small team at Valve, and makes it a first-class game with more surrealism, more fun, and more sadism than the original. It incorporates itself completely into the Half-Life universe, while adding its own collection of mysteries. Both the script writer and the puzzle masters deserve the accolades: Portal 2 is a first-person shooter where you never get to shoot anything, but instead must solve fiendishly difficult puzzles, all the while uncovering the deep weirdness of Aperture Science, Cave Johnson and his unfortunate crew. It is that effective narrative that makes it worth your time.
Portal 2, part of the Half Life universe, and the sequel to Portal, is set in the underground testing facility of Aperture Science. You, a young woman named Chelle, gifted with an ability to fall from incredible heights unharmed (as well as smacking into walls) and rapid healing from bullets and lasers, are the plaything of GlaDOS, a crazed AI who is using you as a "test subject" to determine the usefulness of the Portal Gun, a device which can tear two holes in the fabric of space/time, through which your character can fly/jump/walk to get to distant positions. Portals can only be made on reasonably flat surfaces. Each round consists of a series of puzzles which involves figuring out where to place portals in order to reach your intended destination.
The original game consisted of twenty such deliberate tests, followed by an escape from GlaDOS's sadistic test facility and an equally long and difficult trip through the Aperture Science laboratories to reach GlaDOS and shut her down.
Portal 2 picks up somewhat after that. You're Chelle again, and GlaDOS is back, and there are three times as many puzzles as last time. Not all of them belong to GlaDOS, though; you find out that testing is in the blood of Aperture Science, and that tests like the ones GlaDOS is putting you through have been a staple of the business since Cave Johnson, founder of Aperture Science, founded the business in 1949. The tests are hard, the revelations surprising, and the commentary, delivered by a variety of ancient recorded messages and by the two AIs (the sadistic GlaDOS and the ridiculous Wheatley) absolutely hilarious.
There is also a mystery: Who are you? I believe you are the adopted child of Cave Johnson and Caroline, Cave's assistant and the woman who provided GlaDOS with her morality core. At one point, you pass through some offices having a "Bring Your Daughter To Work Day" (first alluded to in Portal), a sort of science fair affair, and most of the children have made batteries out of potatoes and pennies. There's one potato grown huge and out of control, and if you look closely (use the zoom feature on the Portal gun), you can see the name of the student: "Chelle."
Later, if you're very lucky, you come upon a hidden office and a painting of Cave and an unnamed woman. If you screenshot that painting, pull it up in Photoshop and adjust the levels, you'll find a young woman lurking in the shadows, wearing orange.
It's also possible to find a canon list of test subjects. Chelle's last name has been erased. Also, at one point, GlaDOS says (while she's in a mode where she supposedly cannot lie, although there's one scene during this period where she might have been lying), "You are adopted, and that's terrible, but work with me here."
Until [REDACTED], for GlaDOS every day is Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, and she's doing her best.
I also completed all of the single-player achievments. Some of these constitute mini-games in their own right, such as "Smash every video monitor in the fifth set of test chambers." It's a different set of requirements to use the equipment in the room to shoot, fry, or crash something into a monitor, than it is to press the buttons, re-arrange the furniture, and power on the laser stations needed to open the EXIT door, and they are quite a challenge. "Overclocker" (complete a certain very hard room in under 70 seconds) was a nightmare. I also found several easter eggs: rat man lairs, the Secret Society of Opera-Loving Gun Turrets, and (yes) The Borealis, in dry dock. Which is interesting in itself: if it's here, when in time are we? Before the events of Half Life 2 Episode 2, presumably. But when? We don't know.
A hint: start a new game. During the "calisthenics portion of your assessment," look at the painting. Then, after the wake-up, look at the painting a second time. That's your first clue, and it is to your last act.
Portal 2 successfully takes Portal, a throwaway amusement put together by a very small team at Valve, and makes it a first-class game with more surrealism, more fun, and more sadism than the original. It incorporates itself completely into the Half-Life universe, while adding its own collection of mysteries. Both the script writer and the puzzle masters deserve the accolades: Portal 2 is a first-person shooter where you never get to shoot anything, but instead must solve fiendishly difficult puzzles, all the while uncovering the deep weirdness of Aperture Science, Cave Johnson and his unfortunate crew. It is that effective narrative that makes it worth your time.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 04:56 pm (UTC)The Borealis was gone when I went to look. Was it different for you? In HL2 Ep2, it had been missing for some years.
I like how things hinted at early on (AI cores can run on as littl as 1.1 volts for extended amounts of time, Conversion gel is made from moon rock) became quite important later.
Was I the only one struck by the significance of the Prometheus Turret and its simple declaration, "I'm different!" ?
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 05:20 pm (UTC)I do miss the difficulty of the first game, though. A lot of times in Portal 2, I felt like the level design was broadcasting the solution (e.g. if there's a small patch of portal surface on the wall, you know that section of wall is going to be important at some point). The first game left things a lot more up in the air, and it also had more puzzles that required good timing and coordination. I can understand why they might want to deemphasize those aspects in favor of tapping into a larger, more casual audience, but I missed 'em.
(About the Borealis, I don't think you actually see the ship itself, just the place where it had been docked before...whatever happened to it happened. The Half-Life 2 series is supposed to take place a decade or two in the future, whereas Portal 2 is (if the relaxation timer at the beginning is to be believed) at least 274 years after the first game, and maybe even a few orders of magnitude more. And the timing of the first game isn't really clear either, although a few hints are dropped that it takes place between Half-Life and Half-Life 2.)
Number 127
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 05:56 pm (UTC)I don't believe the Relaxation Timer, but who knows?
And I found Portal 2's puzzles puzzling enough without them hiding the portal surfaces, thank you very much. And the one portal surface that was/was not obvious at the end... lunacy!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 10:57 pm (UTC)They want the Moon.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 06:26 pm (UTC)SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
That is all.
(I'm in space!)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 06:49 pm (UTC)Speaking of which: http://store.valvesoftware.com/product.php?i=CP214
You know you want one.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 06:46 pm (UTC)http://mrskachmar.wikispaces.com/Lyrics+Portal+2+Turret+Opera+Song
Several people out on the interwebs are speculating that Chell's birth parents were Eli and Azian Vance (and hence that you are Alyx's sister), but the character model seems a little, uh, pale to be Eli's kid, so I'm dubious.