h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Portal 2 - the Computer Game - A3889092
Author: Gnomon - Guide Editor - building the Approved Guide - U151503

Haven't written anything in a while. Hope you find this interesting.

Ah, sounds nice but too complicated for me.

Do you *have* to have the sound on? I hate sound in games, it's always the first thing I switch off.

Aww... you'd have to have the sound on! To my mind, the Portal games are more like stories with some puzzles in than 'games'. Without the sound, you could probably still do the puzzles, but you'd be missing a huge part of the experience. Plus the voice acting is excellent from all concerned.

Gnomon - great Entry. I was hoping for a bit more about the two-player part, as I'll probably never get to play this! Is there as much story as in the one-player game, or is it more of a straight series of puzzles?

You'll miss a lot of the fun and humour with the sound down, but I don't think it would be a problem. In the very early stages, some of the features are explained by characters telling you about them, but they're all pretty obvious, and in the later stages nothing is explained.

Hi Danny! Did you not spot that I haven't played the two-player game yet?

I have to admit I did wonder..!

I've played the 2 player. It was most fun. Not played it in a while, mind, although that might change as I was watching a Gamespot thingy on the Xbox earlier about the science of Portal. Most interesting.

We love winding GLaDOS up in between levels and playing Rock, Paper Scissors. Very amusing.

Good entry

I just asked my son. he has Portal and Portal 2 but says they won't run on my PC. Maybe you could add a sentence about system requirements?

Btw, my sons played Portal 2 together - in five hours!

And you must be right about the conversations, even my son said it was better to play the English version because the conversations were funnier.

Oh, here are a few videos my youngest son made (while he and his brother were playing) portal 2 co-op: http://www.youtube.com/user/o11o2oo8?feature=watch

I've added some information about the 2-player game. It seems to be much simpler than the single-player version.

I've added some links.

It might be getting a bit obscure, but you could mention that Portal 2 is set in the same 'world' as the Half-Life series of games (A481033), and there are overlaps between Portal 2 and Half-Life 2 (and its sequels).

I think that is a bit obscure.

Obscure, but the sort of thing readers might be interested in. After all, Valve is one of the most loved games companies on the planet, and Half Life & Portal have very vocal fanbases.

Should this be called "the Video Game" rather than "the Computer Game"?

I'm not sure about 'video' vs 'computer'.

I just wanted to weigh in and say I thoroughly enjoyed this game description. It sounds like a lot of fun, and the story made me chuckle.

It might be wort it just for JK Simmons.

Checking in the Guide, there seem to be many games described as "Computer Game", but recently I've seen a few shown as "Video Game". In most cases, they are designed to run on PC, Macintosh and games consoles such as the PS/3 or XBox.

I'll leave it as "Computer Game", then.

I added a footnote about Portal being in the same "world" as Half Life.

I believe that's all comments addressed.

Anybody anything else to say about this?

All looks good to me

I'd add that while the quality of the writing, acting and plot, and the attention to detail of the environments present in the one player game make parts of it worth replaying, the two player game lacks replay value. Once you (and your partner) have got your heads around how to solve a room, there's no further challenge to be had, unfortunately. If you've never played the 2 player game, it's therefore extremely important to do so ONLY with someone else who is similarly clueless. If you partner up with someone who already knows the answer, you could well end up simply doing as they tell you and not working anything out for yourself.