Game Title: Portal 2
Game Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
Console(s): Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Valve
Developer: Valve
Date Released: April 19th - 21st, 2011
Retail Price: $29.99 USD (Amazon.com)
Age Rating:: ACB: PG - ESRB: E10+ -PEGI: 12
Players: 2 players max.
Co-Op: Yes
Achievements: 50 known achievements
Xbox Live Compatable: Yes
Online Multiplayer: Yes
Xbox System Link: No
HDTV Support: Yes
Previous Edition: Portal
Visuals & Graphics..The visuals of Portal II are outstanding as usual with the textures much sharper and rendered than the first. Mostly due to the fact that you are running about in the catwalks behind the chambers, the objects and the pathways have to be easily spotted from a distance. Its much like the environment in Half Life 2 got a nice polish to look even better.
But moreover, it allows you to see how much the facility has changed since the first game. In the first few moments, you can see growing plants and other foliage poking through the dirty tiles of the test chambers. Much like the mold stuff that's currently growing along the walls of your shower. It's a nice contrast to when you walk through the test chambers again when GLaDOS restores most of them to their clean and sparkly white state. The deep toxic water looks as discouraging as the first and it still kills you. It's nice how some things are still constant, isn't it?
The only bad thing about this is from a distance, even some portal-able walls are still hard to see, but overall aesthetics are still great and give the facility a nice atmosphere.
Visuals & Graphics Rating: 9.8/10Achievement Difficulty..The achievements aren't hard to get not especially if you have a nice friend to play Portal with online or just a nice friend in general to sit with you through the entire playthrough of Portal. Co-op is surprisingly fun to sit through and you are encouraged by GLaDOs herself to kill your partner in a variety of ways. Which is great if you're getting annoyed with them.
Otherwise they're pretty easy to achieve. And you can have fun doing so.
Achievement Difficulty Rating: 9.5/10Story Mode / Campaign Difficulty..The campaign isn't difficult at all unless you're either not good at physics or you are naturally horrible at puzzle games. Portal isn't a brain training game, but it does require some thought at how you'd solve puzzles. The enemies aren't hard at all and all you'd normally need to do is to flank them by any means necessary and to just drop them onto their side, drop them off a sizable ledge that acts like a cliff, dropping cubes on them and the list goes on. And should you fail in something and end up dying, death is pretty instantaneous so you don't have to worry about a long death sequence and then the really long game reload.
Story Mode / Campaign Difficulty Rating: 9.5/10Game Depth & Navigation Details..The depth of the story is not that hard to pick up on and often you're more preoccupied in the test chambers to keep track of the overall story. However, it follows pretty much the events of the first story and the final boss fight is pretty much the same.
Navigation isn't too sticky as you really have no need for an in game menu or an inventory screen so, swapping of portals is really a button press away. Getting stuck in Portals is usually confusing but easy to solve. Best not to try and solve it next to a ledge though. That might just confuse the utter hell out of you like it did with me.
Co-op has the added feature of gestures which are selected through a system similar to the shortcut inventory dial in Dragon Age: Origins. It's not a hassle if you accidentally press it. And most of the gestures you perform will result in a reply from GLaDOS about getting back to work or a fun animation from your character.
Storyline Depth & Navigation Details Rating: 9.6/10Value For Money..Portal II is not so much a value for money game as most fans will play it for a specific part or moment.
I find it hard to sit through the game again as there's not much that really changes. You run through the same storyline and do the same puzzles. So this is where it might lose a few points with me.
Value For Money Rating: 8.2/10Ratings Round-Up..Visuals & Graphics: 9.8/10Achievement Difficulty: 9.5/10Story Mode / Campaign Difficulty: 9.5/10Game Depth & Navigation Details: 9.6/10Value For Money: 8.2/10Overall Rating: 46.6/50
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