FOR this week’s game review there were two options, either Portal 2 or Mortal Kombat. Two more polar opposite games you will never find.
Although I have much love for the classic fighter it would be a stretch to describe it as anything even approaching thought provoking.
Portal 2 on the other hand is just such a game. A fiendish puzzle-fest that can leave you scratching your head as you desperately search for solutions to some pretty abstract problems.
In fact Portal 2 possesses something that very few games do. Even today while I’ve been going about my business, every now and then the latest puzzle Portal has presented me with pops into my head as I wrack my brain for a solution.
There are few games which manage to be that thought provoking. Monkey Island, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Lure of the Temptress, all managed it but in terms of console gaming these days it’s very much plug in and play.
The original Portal was a game that took everyone by surprise and most people who sat down and played it for more than 30 minutes were left marvelling at its simplicity and depth.
The way it works is remarkably easy. You have a gun. Unlike normal video game guns this one doesn’t fire bullets, it fires portals... two of them.
One is orange and the other is blue. You can walk through the orange one and you come out of the blue one.
Now you have to use these portals to negotiate your way through a series of different rooms. Effectively set piece puzzles. The rooms are filled with varying obstacles all of which require some pretty deep thinking to solve.
That’s basically it. Although it doesn’t sound much it’s incredibly addictive and thoroughly satisfying.
Also because it’s developed by Valve, the creators behind the unparalleled Half Life series, it’s a brilliantly polished product. The storyline behind the puzzle-fest sees you playing Chell. A man revived after being held in stasis for several hundred years.
You awaken in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center and are faced with your foe from the first game, the vindictive robot GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System). She is the one who forces you through the levels, disguised as tests required to rebuild the centre.
She’s a superb character, embittered at her defeat in the first game and full of vitriol, spite and sarcasm. Combined with Wheatley, a robot voiced by Stephen Merchant, they help to add life and colour to an otherwise simplistic game.
Visually it has the typical Valve feeling and that’s fine by me, given that pretty much everything they do is a success.
It’s not your usual game but that’s what makes it fun. I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone who’s looking for something a bit different to first person shooters or button mashers.
RATING: 5/5