GlaD to be Wrong

Picture the scene: a little over a year ago, in a darkened bar in North London. It was the first ever Ready Up staff meet, and over drinks we were discussing the obvious: games. Ready Up’s James was holding court at the bar, discussing the recent news that there was to be a Portal 2. To my shame, I was very late to play Portal, and in fact had only just played it before last year’s meet. I was still in that six month long period after playing the game where you constantly have “Still Alive” looping around in your head.

James had a slightly controversial opinion on Portal 2 – in a nutshell, he thought it was a bad idea. He postulated that as the original game was such a masterpiece, trying to better it would not only be pointless but would cheapen the memory of the original. Having just played Portal, and loved it, I was right with him on that. How could you out-Portal Portal? It surely couldn’t be done. The idea was absurd.

Roll forward to a few weeks ago, at the second annual Ready Up team meet, and once again there was a lot of chat about the now imminent Portal 2 (particularly from Dan, who had a review copy arrive on the day of the meet and therefore couldn’t play it until afterwards). This time, however, the mood had changed. Everyone was itching to play it. James and I had both changed our minds, and shared a chuckle about how wrong we were.

Of course, it wasn’t until last week that I finally realised just how very, very wrong we were. Portal 2? They should have called it Portal Squared. I was stunned by what they had achieved, a game that was bigger, graphically amazing, and – shockingly – even funnier than the original. Stephen Merchant’s impeccable comic timing had me laughing out loud just a few seconds into the game, and kept me amused throughout the entire campaign. I think what impressed me the most though, well, aside from the excellent gameplay, brilliant writing and superb graphics, was that it managed to keep that magical Portal-ness about it. That wonderful X factor that the original game had, shone through the sequel like a ray of sunshine.

Having finished the main storyline I am now attempting to work through the co-operative mode with Anthony, and that really is a head-scratcher. Rarely have I actually had fun in a co-op game where both players are simply standing still, looking around, and going “Ummmmmmmmm” a lot, but in Portal 2, it works.

It’s incredibly rare for me to finish any game, even some of my all-time favourites, and then consider starting the campaign again, but I did for Portal 2. If you don’t have it, sell whatever you can get your hands on (your granny, a kidney) and get down to the shops and buy it now. You won’t regret it.

If Valve had asked me to write a short quotation to adorn the box for Portal 2, I would have simply told them to put:

This was a triumph.