portal 2 video game review
Test: Portal 2
Attention, approaching masterpiece. If some doubted the interest of offering a suite to Portal, a unique gem of its kind, Valve proves to them how wrong they were. Portal 2 is undoubtedly one of the most intelligent, original and funny games that has been released for many years. Simply unavoidable.
As a preamble, know that we will try to avoid any form of spoiler in this test, so do not be surprised if, at times, the descriptions seem a little vague. It would then be good to briefly recall the context of Portal 2 which takes place a good hundred years after the first part. As a reward for successfully passing the Aperture Science Personal Enrichment Center tests, Chell wakes up in a shabby room and meets Wheatley, a round robot tasked with watching over sleeping test subjects. A hilarious encounter that foreshadows the continuation of your relationship with what could have been the 7th member of the Monty Pythons. Without going into details, a gruesome catastrophe and a total abandonment of the place have made the center a ruin that you will endeavor to leave. What your old GLaDOS friend won't let you do, you can imagine. For you, the adventure will begin in these dilapidated remains which will give you the opportunity to visit behind the scenes of the center and discover its colossal logistics, a disproportionate gas factory which only reinforces the absurdity of this complex. Then gradually, the awakening of GLaDOS will be accompanied by the reconstruction of the premises and the establishment of brand new rooms full of new toys.
In the first Portal, Valve found a way to turn our brains around with a single tool: the portal gun capable of creating a passage between two points. In this suite, you are entitled to a package of new features. Lasers can activate a switch and can be diverted using optical cubes and projected via a portal, faith plates (bumpers) propel you or an object in the air. This is basic. Then, we discover the tangible light bridges, passages produced by a generator placed in the room and which we can pass through the portals that can serve as bridges or dams. Then come 3 types of gel that flow from gigantic taps or pipes with questionable tightness. The first, blue, is a repellant gel, applied to a wall, allowing it to bounce off anything that strikes it or, if you spread it on an object (cube or turret), to transform them into a balloon. Orange gel for its part greatly accelerates your movements. Finally, the white gel makes it possible to transform the surfaces on which it was not possible to create a portal into a receptacle for the latter. Most of the time, we will have to find a way to get these gels where we need them, either through well-placed portals, or, for example, using the latest innovation: tunnels. Like light bridges, these come from a generator and can enter and exit a portal. The difference is that they are self-propelled, if you or something else gets into it, it goes by itself. A switch allowing the opportunity to change the direction of the flow.
All of these elements are often combined in unexpected and varied ways. Not to say twisted. Trying to describe some of the Portal 2 puzzles is a big challenge and we won't do it for two good reasons. The first is that it is hard to see how to explain a 3D puzzle in text, the second is that we are not going to ruin the surprise for you. On the other hand, what we will not be deprived of specifying, is to what extent the level design of the game is art. With each new discovery, a simple room helps you to understand the mechanics introduced, then, finished playing, you are put to the test. The ingenuity of the rooms is admirable. The player finds himself confronted with a twisted enigma, tries things, crashes and when, eureka, comes the solution, we very often find ourselves screaming with genius, a smirk. One of the points that should be welcomed also concerns the progression curve and the dosage of the difficulty of the game. Even the least patient of the players (hem) never plagues against the soft, despite moments of intense blocking and complete failures of his attempts. The most exciting thing is that even the seemingly most complex tests actually have a solution that ultimately is silly. Besides, know that the pure and hard skills, hyper sharp acrobatics, are not really used and that the level of skill required is not higher than in the first Portal. On the other hand, let those who expect to be taken by the hand go their way. At a time when it is fashionable to indicate everything to the player, Valve on the contrary lets you walk around, never explains where to go and never puts you on the path to the solution. This is particularly noticeable during the second act of the game.
Portal 2 and its 10 chapters are divided roughly into 3 segments during which you will see different things in terms of mechanics but also of atmosphere. Thus, after 5 chapters, you will be entitled to a whole new vision of Aperture which we will not give you the detailed description (again and always the spoil). Just be aware that here the puzzles take on a very different shape that has nothing to do with the relatively small test rooms you are used to. Here, we give in the giant puzzle, bordering on exploration, in which the first difficulty will not only be how to get from point A to point B but to find that damn point B which is out of view. During these two chapters "off topic", the gameplay changes quite clearly, offering an unexpected diversity and a light on the history of Portal. As an example, one of these characteristics is the multiplication of "anti-portal" surfaces which will seriously sharpen your sense of observation and pixel hunting. We regret, however, that this also marks a small drop in rhythm, both in progression and in the atmosphere. A relative fall, however, and which ultimately only lasts a short time (2 chapters out of 10). In general, Portal 2 offers more varied, larger environments and a few staging scripts that give it a more epic appearance, a little less clinical, without giving up in an escalation of a great show, again, the right balance is achieved and the original spirit is preserved.
Not content to be devilishly pleasant to play, Portal 2 is also a pearl of writing and one of the very few games really, really funny. And we are not talking about little smiles but bursts of laughter. In this absurd camera, you will be confronted with a GLaDOS vexed like a louse that you have killed it and which will not stop for a while throwing you all kinds of sharp and strangely childish spikes. Aftershocks that reveal, despite his coldness, the depth of the character forced to have only company as the human who murdered him. But your relationships will evolve slowly, as will its expression which, in a subtle and perfectly brought about way, changes over the course of the game. As for Wheatley, who will accompany you punctually, he has everything from the icon to the future of video games. Performed in a masterful V.O. by actor Stephen Merchant, his British accent contrasts with his unstoppable stupidity and his loser side. Never painful or heavy, each of his interventions is a treat. And if the OV is obviously preferable, do not worry, the VF is as good, whether we talk about Wheatley, GlaDOS, the sentries or the additional character you will get to know, if we Can say. The writing, the humor, the interpretation are intelligent, fine, brilliant even and have nothing to envy in the cinema. Portal 2 on this point refers to the locker room quantity of video game productions with illusory cinematic ambitions.
Are you ready for a new coat? After completing the single player campaign (between 8 and 10 hours), you will be entitled to almost as much co-op playing time. A fashion that is not the icing on the cake but squarely a second cake. In these test rooms designed for pair work, these are two robots that the players control, Atlas and P-Body, each armed with its own portal gun. Each gun creating two gates connected to each other and with the possibility for one of the two to cross the gates of the other. All the additional elements of the solo mode are of course reused (gels, tunnels, bridges, lasers). We find in coop the same genius of level design, maybe even more. Suddenly, there either, no question of having fun making descriptions of what awaits you, but have no doubt, you will rack your head, do acrobatics in duo and especially have to rely on one the other. Besides, one of the big strengths of this co-op mode is its way of never leaving a player in the dark, we always have something to do. It goes without saying that Valve has thought of a whole host of tools designed to facilitate duo work. The first is a picture in picture system which allows a player to display on his screen what his teammate sees. The pointer system is used to designate an area and indicate what should be done there. Finally, certain actions having to be carried out simultaneously, it is possible to start a countdown. And then of course, you have to chat, a lot, all the time. And to make you look pretty, a panel of gestures like high five, dance or cuddle are present, antics that will often earn you reprimands from GLaDOS, because yes, AI is also in the coop mode.
Constantly present, GLaDOS will not miss an opportunity to house the players according to their actions or their inaction. Frequent valves, references to solo mode (better to finish it before), GLaDOS adapts its replies to what happens in the game, regularly pushing a player or congratulating him on certain achievements, including those consisting in killing, more or less accidental, his partner. The different test rooms are accessible from a central hub in which you can even consult some statistics. And if we could have been tempted to consider the coop mode as a complement to the ground, it is nothing. The number of challenges will be enough to keep you busy for a while and you can count on around 8 hours of play which will be extended by the inevitable arrival of DLC.
The notes
Graphics 14/20
The graphics engine is not the strong point of the game. The Source Engine is really aging despite some updates and we recognize textures from Half-Life 2. In addition, on Xbox 360, aliasing is strangely very pronounced while the PS3 and PC versions do not suffer from it. Fortunately, aesthetics and design save the day and it is enough to have admired Atlas or P-Body to take a wall in full jump to forgive the technical shortcomings.
Gameplay 19/20
To play Portal 2 is to rediscover the happiness of facing a complex enigma, which seems insoluble and which nevertheless has a solution which in the end seems so obvious to us that it is necessarily brilliant. The mechanics are intelligent and the gameplay is as original as innovative, solo as in the excellent coop mode.
Lifespan 16/20
The completion time of the solo mode varies a lot from one player to another, there will be 8 to a good ten hours depending on the case. The coop mode can keep you going between 6 and 8 hours. We will easily replay the solo just for the atmosphere.
Soundtrack 19/20
The soundtrack relies on electronic music, both discreet and of quality, which sticks perfectly to the universe. The vocals are of rare quality, mainly thanks to the actor Stephen Merchant (Wheatley). The V.F. also does not have to be ashamed and in both cases, the dialogues are enjoyable.
Scenario 17/20
The scenario includes some twists and turns, and a light on the history of the Aperture laboratories but above all, it is the very particular universe of Portal, wedged between the Monty Pythons and Kafka, which perspires from each end of the wall, which one love and we don't want to leave. Note that if you were hoping for the link between Portal and Half-Life to be highlighted, don't expect too much beyond the blink of an eye.
In its mechanics as much as in its writing, Portal 2 is simply brilliant, intelligent and terribly funny. This is true for both its solo mode and its co-op mode, which will even convert allergy sufferers to multiplayer. A resolutely essential title endowed with a constantly renewed gameplay and replicas which will soon become cult.
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