![]() Valve provides small-scale guidance by allowing the player to become an active learner in their experience. GLaDOS, Wheatley, and Cave Johnson do an excellent job of shedding light on the story and add an extra dimension to Portal’s storyline. I rarely felt alone, and none of these “narrators” ever grew stale. Their presence helped move the story along and conveyed mood (especially since Chell is a mute protagonist). Simmons), who are just as charming as GLaDOS but also provide different flavors of commentary. New to the series are Wheatley, another AI character (voiced by Stephen Merchant), and Cave Johnson, Aperture Science’s founder (voiced by J. On a large scale, I always felt like I had company with me in the form of GLaDOS’ taunting and clever remarks. Proper guidance must come with new mechanics, and Valve provides it on both “macroscopic” and “microscopic” scales. I have never had this kind of influence on an in-game environment before and quickly indulged in it by coating almost any surface I could with any type of paint the developers gave me. I was able to coat almost any surface with each gel by placing my portals in the appropriate places, thus giving those surfaces a “bouncy” or “slick” property (depending on which gel you use). Certain test chambers contain pipes that dispense each type. The fascinating part about the gels is that they actually act as paint. The repulsion gel is blue paint that allows you jump higher and bounce off of the surfaces. The propulsion gel is orange paint that allows you to run faster across surfaces that happen to be coated in it. The two most notable mechanic-altering “devices” are the propulsion and repulsion gels. These tools allow you to explore (and really appreciate) the physics of the game. In order to freshen things up, Valve provides new tools to help you navigate your way through each testing chamber. Your portal gun and testing chamber act as your pencil and maze in Portal 2, just like in its predecessor. Valve not only allows you to break this rule through Portal‘s premise, but they also put you in the maze by creating an amalgam of an FPS and a puzzle game. Still, solving a maze was always satisfying for me because each of my solutions followed the one rule: don’t go through any walls. My solution to a maze was often a jittery, lead-colored line going from “start” to “finish” with a few hints of failed (and promptly erased) paths to a dead end. Portal 2 is brilliant, and everyone has to play it. Following through with these two rules would result in one of the most important gaming experiences on this generation of consoles. How will Valve go about making a proper sequel to the wildly successful Portal?Īfter playing Portal 2, Valve’s answer was clear: make sure the player receives a constant stream of new experiences and carefully guide them through these experiences. ![]() How does a developer make a sequel to a game of mazes? More mazes? I can see how making a sequel to Portal could be a difficult task. In this respect, the Portal games are just like mazes. ![]() The goal was simple: get from point A to point B. They were simple and helped develop spatial awareness. In elementary school, mazes were always my favorite kind of puzzle.
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