Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Test Portal 2, PC

More than three years after his arrival as a bonus gift in the inevitable Orange Box from Valve Software, Portal coming back for a second episode now emancipated and ready to stand on its own. On paper, the program and the cast have not changed much since 2007, although this second episode is not without a few surprises.

The goals have not changed since the first episode: we are always asked to go from point A to point B by exploiting the capabilities of the famous gun interdimensional portals, allowing you to open an interdimensional entry left click, and an output of a right click. Portal 2 still far away from the infancy narrative architecture of its predecessor.

Where Portal's first name was in the form of a very experimental prototype, whose development was more or less screenplay nonexistent until the very last level of the game, its sequel is as a true story we follow from the first seconds of Part until the final credits screen (and even beyond through the cooperative mode).

If the entry for Portal 2, we plunge into the model fast enough "test room" typical of the franchise, we will still have the opportunity to wander in "behind the scenes" laboratories of Aperture science, and do so regularly enough to bring a breath of fresh air and narrative content to our adventure to get us out of the routine.

The gameplay alternates between classical and travels off-track does not occur quickly enough to see the workings of the parties "test chambers", which suffer from a very procedural side consistently with their construction based on a model such as: loading, Part of the joke of the narrator, unique puzzle room, part of the joke of the narrator, loading.

The emergence of a number of mechanisms for new game still allows to avoid a certain feeling of fatigue throughout the game, despite the sharp drop in the difficulty of the puzzles from the first episode. The evolution of the frame is parallel to the arrival of these small innovations as the more fluid the world with a very appropriate use of the talent of staging developer Valve Software.

Unfortunately, we can not say that all parts of the adventure solo Portal 2 are housed in the same boat since we suffer such a sharp slump in the middle game (especially in Chapters 6 and 7) who will struggle to fascinate us whether a narrative point of view or play. If doublers poached by Valve for the different characters of the game are always exemplary work (at least in VO), we note nevertheless a very frank loss of power on the side of comic writing since 2007.

If Portal's first name was undeniably funny, he made use of a particularly caustic humor who gave a very dark side to GLaDOS undeniably disturbing and experiments conducted in Aperture. Portal 2 will pay him in the joke much more basic, with aftershocks often funny but significantly less fine and a game world that is becoming all too absurd to really intriguing.

Damage. We still takes six to seven hours of the solo part with a good impression with a particularly glorious end. That's a start. PINK COLORED GLASSES Adventure Portal 2 evidently does not stop here because we have yet to discover the brand new cooperative mode. Launched from a very archaic lobby (a practice since Valve Left 4 Dead) to play two shows in the company of an unknown (it is) or a member of our list of friends (that is better), it will put us in control of two small robots charged with a particularly important mission in the bowels of Aperture Science.

As in the single player mode, you can alternate between phases by conventional testing and some occasional visits to the former premises of the mysterious desert laboratory even if the architecture of the whole is much more mechanical here. Construction puzzles obviously benefits from the presence of our two protagonists (and hence two cannons gates) even if the difficulty is again below what we could live in the first episode.

A system of interaction between our two little robot hero can communicate quickly with our sidekick, in order to indicate such button to press or that object to be lifted while it is activated on our side. Nothing can really replace the voice communication, but rather a useful and well done.

Shorter than the single player (after a little over four hours to overcome), this part is interesting cooperative through its integration with the main plot of Portal 2. A satisfying experience that would probably deserved a few more massive and convoluted puzzles. From a technical standpoint, Portal 2 reuses once again the famous Source Engine from Valve, which gives us here a swan song more than adequate.

The immaculate rooms Aperture Science has never been as beautiful as in Portal 2, but the age of the engine begins to clearly see the textures of the devastated parts of the science facility. A sure sign that it is finally time for the developers of Half-Life 2 to move on after nearly seven years of loyal service, before reaching the "game over".

The ubiquity of loading screens is much more disappointing, even if their duration is relatively short, since we wonder sometimes having to go through twice in the space of five minutes and even on one occasion without anything performed between the two loadings. It was still a little hard to believe that the relatively small size of the test chambers of Portal 2 ask such a barrage of cargo.

Later life, the dozens of hours to skim Portal 2 may appear more than respectable at the time of Homefront and Call of Duty condemn some appetizers but still a replay itself nonexistent. Finally, note the presence sadly comical enough in the game a cosmetics boutique items sold at prices prohibitive.

We understand that they have no influence on the gameplay and that their purchase is therefore completely optional, but prices still prove that Valve is now out of the field offers for bigger and takes fanatics openly players for cash cows. 7 / 10: good. Successful emancipation for Series Portal, which is freed from its former status as a bonus game with a Portal 2 which revolutionizes certainly not the formula but still manages to justify its new status.

Reinforced by a narrative structure more developed than in 2007 and the sparseness of new gameplay mechanics to refresh the gameplay as much as possible based portals, this suite is accompanied by a more cooperative mode rather nice despite the lack of challenge generalized. We still regret the turn made by comic writing replicas of the game, moving away from their origins clearly refined to adopt a culture of absurd farce much less subtle.

Some rhythm problems are also noteworthy, either side of the mechanical structure and routine testing of the parties or the central chapters of a forgettable bit of our adventure. This article was originally published on Gamekult.

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