So I got a friend, who works in retail, to pass it on to me three days before release by placing a generic charge on my store account and handing it off in a concealed bag.
And it's good. Great, even--while I haven't delved into the single-player extensively (nor done more than spectated the original Portal, for that matter), the cooperative play is both logically rewarding and elaborate, with each of its eight sections (akin to "worlds") partitioned into eight, increasingly difficult levels (themselves each comprised of one or more puzzles) which focus on the exploitation of a particular technique (so for example, creating Portals and falling into them from an upward height as a means of creating momentum). In total, the co-op features (I believe) sixty-four levels--eight by eight, right?--which are all accessed from a lobby à la Super Mario 64, meaning it's easy to revisit past challenges.
Co-op, of course, is available in both online and split-screen modes--on PS3, at least--meaning the technics of it have to accommodate both mediums, and they do, owing to a range of options available to both the beanpole-shaped P-Body and the circular Atlas (a BioShock homage, maybe?)--among them the ability to create visual markers for the other player, perform countdowns (for puzzles that require both players to--for example--hit switches at the same time), and perform humorous "gestures", which GLaDOS objects to as being unnecessary ("how is touching hands going to help solve the puzzle?", she asks rhetorically if you high-five). As is expected, the dialogue and plotting--to the extent that they complement the gameplay rather than directing it--are excellent, with GLaDOS making frequent comparisons between the robots you play as and the unappealing attributes of humans ("one thing you can do if you want to upset humans is comment on the relative size of their body mass"--quotation marks approximate--she murmurs dispassionately).
The particulars of puzzle construction, as mentioned before, are commendable. The game's eight sections each have their own, internal difficulty arc concerning the particular type of exploitation they emphasize (using portals to channel force field walkways, for example), and tend to engage whilst rarely frustrate--mind you, I'm only at the end of World 3 (so, the twenty-fourth level). In one memorable level, (I think 2-8), one player must stay standing on a button to turn off a giant fan so that another player can catapult themselves through it without dying (they catapult themselves by leaping into a portal from a story above it). However, reaching the other side, the player who successfully catapulted themselves through the fan cannot simply create a portal warping the other player directly over, as the only place they can launch them on the other side of the fan is an enclosed room with a glass pane that has a force field on its door stripping you of the portals you've created. The solution--in this instance--is for the player who hasn't crossed the fan already to use a reflective cube on the other side to redirect a laser beam through a set of portals and into the room the other player is in via the glass pane. Once the laser beam has entered the room the player whose already crossed the fan is in, they simply use a new set of portals created solely within the enclosed room (because they cannot connect portals from outside the room to those inside owing to the aforementioned force field) to redirect the laser into a hole in the wall that permanently shuts off the fan--and finally, the player who hasn't yet catapulted themselves across the fan can, without fear of it cutting them apart because they aren't standing, fixed, on the button.
The PS3 version, it should be mentioned, reads like an impressive features list--not only can you play the cooperative mode either online or using split-screen (as far as I'm concerned, the only real way to play it), it also allows you to play with either Macintosh or PC users online rather than solely PS3 ones, and by associating your Steam and PSN accounts you can receive the PC version of the game (which reminded me, in a weird way, of how C&C games used to include two discs--I mean, how many people are likely to give one to a friend, even with associated annoyances?). Valve's logic here seems to be that the enemy of my enemy is my friend--Steam is mostly involved in the PC marketplace, whereas PSN is mostly involved in the console marketplace, and so it makes sense for the two of them to conspire against Games for Windows/XBL, who compete with both. In any case, this is the first Valve game that one can comfortably say the best version of is for console--while PC owners have the benefit of arguably superior controls, Portal 2 is not a reflex-intensive game anyway, and so the the PS3 version's split-screen support and dual-version wielding makes it the Portal 2 iteration to have (which some may fans may understandably feel resentful about, given that The Orange Box on PS3 sold a measly 300,000 copies).
. . .Did I mention the music in this game is great? So far, Portal 2 the best game I've played on PS3--easily besting the likes of Red Dead Redemption, BioShock, Uncharted 2, et al. inasmuch as a comparison is helpful. What's more interesting, though, than comparing it to other games in the industry which have received a heap of accolades--not much of a standard, these days--is contemplating where it sits in the pantheon of Valve releases. And to this end, I'd argue that the only games that are comparable are Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and--if one is feeling generous--the millenial retail release of Counter-Strike, or perhaps the original Portal. Yet, in a way, Portal 2 even eclipses Half-Life--possessing as it does the supreme confidence of a developer whose migration away from the restrictive tenants of first-person shooters and into the realm of the casual-universal has only made their releases more rewarding, in spite of abandoning the tropes that sustain most games.
So buy it when it comes out.
And it's good. Great, even--while I haven't delved into the single-player extensively (nor done more than spectated the original Portal, for that matter), the cooperative play is both logically rewarding and elaborate, with each of its eight sections (akin to "worlds") partitioned into eight, increasingly difficult levels (themselves each comprised of one or more puzzles) which focus on the exploitation of a particular technique (so for example, creating Portals and falling into them from an upward height as a means of creating momentum). In total, the co-op features (I believe) sixty-four levels--eight by eight, right?--which are all accessed from a lobby à la Super Mario 64, meaning it's easy to revisit past challenges.
Co-op, of course, is available in both online and split-screen modes--on PS3, at least--meaning the technics of it have to accommodate both mediums, and they do, owing to a range of options available to both the beanpole-shaped P-Body and the circular Atlas (a BioShock homage, maybe?)--among them the ability to create visual markers for the other player, perform countdowns (for puzzles that require both players to--for example--hit switches at the same time), and perform humorous "gestures", which GLaDOS objects to as being unnecessary ("how is touching hands going to help solve the puzzle?", she asks rhetorically if you high-five). As is expected, the dialogue and plotting--to the extent that they complement the gameplay rather than directing it--are excellent, with GLaDOS making frequent comparisons between the robots you play as and the unappealing attributes of humans ("one thing you can do if you want to upset humans is comment on the relative size of their body mass"--quotation marks approximate--she murmurs dispassionately).
The particulars of puzzle construction, as mentioned before, are commendable. The game's eight sections each have their own, internal difficulty arc concerning the particular type of exploitation they emphasize (using portals to channel force field walkways, for example), and tend to engage whilst rarely frustrate--mind you, I'm only at the end of World 3 (so, the twenty-fourth level). In one memorable level, (I think 2-8), one player must stay standing on a button to turn off a giant fan so that another player can catapult themselves through it without dying (they catapult themselves by leaping into a portal from a story above it). However, reaching the other side, the player who successfully catapulted themselves through the fan cannot simply create a portal warping the other player directly over, as the only place they can launch them on the other side of the fan is an enclosed room with a glass pane that has a force field on its door stripping you of the portals you've created. The solution--in this instance--is for the player who hasn't crossed the fan already to use a reflective cube on the other side to redirect a laser beam through a set of portals and into the room the other player is in via the glass pane. Once the laser beam has entered the room the player whose already crossed the fan is in, they simply use a new set of portals created solely within the enclosed room (because they cannot connect portals from outside the room to those inside owing to the aforementioned force field) to redirect the laser into a hole in the wall that permanently shuts off the fan--and finally, the player who hasn't yet catapulted themselves across the fan can, without fear of it cutting them apart because they aren't standing, fixed, on the button.
The PS3 version, it should be mentioned, reads like an impressive features list--not only can you play the cooperative mode either online or using split-screen (as far as I'm concerned, the only real way to play it), it also allows you to play with either Macintosh or PC users online rather than solely PS3 ones, and by associating your Steam and PSN accounts you can receive the PC version of the game (which reminded me, in a weird way, of how C&C games used to include two discs--I mean, how many people are likely to give one to a friend, even with associated annoyances?). Valve's logic here seems to be that the enemy of my enemy is my friend--Steam is mostly involved in the PC marketplace, whereas PSN is mostly involved in the console marketplace, and so it makes sense for the two of them to conspire against Games for Windows/XBL, who compete with both. In any case, this is the first Valve game that one can comfortably say the best version of is for console--while PC owners have the benefit of arguably superior controls, Portal 2 is not a reflex-intensive game anyway, and so the the PS3 version's split-screen support and dual-version wielding makes it the Portal 2 iteration to have (which some may fans may understandably feel resentful about, given that The Orange Box on PS3 sold a measly 300,000 copies).
. . .Did I mention the music in this game is great? So far, Portal 2 the best game I've played on PS3--easily besting the likes of Red Dead Redemption, BioShock, Uncharted 2, et al. inasmuch as a comparison is helpful. What's more interesting, though, than comparing it to other games in the industry which have received a heap of accolades--not much of a standard, these days--is contemplating where it sits in the pantheon of Valve releases. And to this end, I'd argue that the only games that are comparable are Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and--if one is feeling generous--the millenial retail release of Counter-Strike, or perhaps the original Portal. Yet, in a way, Portal 2 even eclipses Half-Life--possessing as it does the supreme confidence of a developer whose migration away from the restrictive tenants of first-person shooters and into the realm of the casual-universal has only made their releases more rewarding, in spite of abandoning the tropes that sustain most games.
So buy it when it comes out.
