it came out on switch and well i've spent one-two days just casually shuffling my way through it. it does help that i haven't played it in ten years, and also i haven't heard or seen a cave johnson meme in a while
well, give or take the GDQ announcer who did a great impression, "BRING ME PICTURES OF SPIDER MAN"
anyway, i went over the director's commentary this time around and i was surprised to learn that portal 2, much like portal 1 before it, was based on a student game. the weird blue and orange goo mechanics are inspired by a wholly different game from the same university that produced the prototype for portal 1. they also didn't plan for GLaDOS's back story, caroline, and those elements just sort of happened as they built out the level.
it just goes to show how much of a game is discovered along the way.
the other thing i learned from the commentary was that he puzzling aspect was toned down to be a bit more careful in introducing mechanics and ideas, and that a lot of the harder ideas just left playtesters stumped.
which explained why I was so disappointed with portal 2 at first. sometimes you don't really feel like you're solving a puzzle and you're just following instructions. it does take a much longer time for the game to "warm up".
in portal 1, "you can portal anywhere, good luck" and portal 2 instead chooses "portal right here. look for the white bit. you can do it!" that said, some of the later puzzles did leave me stumped for a bit, but i still breezed through most of the game.
anyway
the first time i played portal 2, i was hoping for more of the same, and i was a little disappointed at first, but i think i had more fun this time around.
i think the big part is that i wasn't expecting portal 1.5, i was expecting a story game with puzzle elements, and i spent a lot more time appreciating the attention to detail, rather than bemoaning what i thought portal 2 would be.
but my first impressions were wrong: portal 2 is a great game.
