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[NUKE9.13]

Just finished off the co-op campaign (thank you Thendash); it is better than single-player. Four portals allows for more interesting puzzles, and the less, er, story-driven story was more true to the spirit of the first game, I thought. So if you haven't played co-op yet, do. Seriously.

[Draco18s]

Just finished off the co-op campaign (thank you Thendash); it is better than single-player. Four portals allows for more interesting puzzles, and the less, er, story-driven story was more true to the spirit of the first game, I thought. So if you haven't played co-op yet, do. Seriously.

They're not hard puzzles though.  I did the 5th set with a friend and they were fairly trivial.  There were only about 2 that gave us any trouble, and even then it was due to a slightly off assumption or due to user error ("Whoops, I didn't see that disintegration grid.  Oops, I dropped the cube in the water")

[Fikes]

It took me 7 hours to beat the game (single player) at most. That is too short for a $50 game any way you slice it. Even if Co-op takes double the time it is still a little too short IMO.

I did like the game, however. It is fun and made me stop and really review the puzzles. Did anyone else forget basic game practices when new stuff got introduced?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Like on the moon gel level where you had to coat the walls in moon gel and then catapult yourself on to the platform. I spent 10 or 15 minutes trying to get moon gel onto the platform before I remembered the most basic way of going up in portal.

I liked some of the new systems, like the light bridge and laser beams, but found the tubes too slow. I also did not find it as funny as Portal 1, and definitely liked the first ending better.

I am a little disappointed by the title overall.

[NUKE9.13]

Just finished off the co-op campaign (thank you Thendash); it is better than single-player. Four portals allows for more interesting puzzles, and the less, er, story-driven story was more true to the spirit of the first game, I thought. So if you haven't played co-op yet, do. Seriously.

They're not hard puzzles though.  I did the 5th set with a friend and they were fairly trivial.  There were only about 2 that gave us any trouble, and even then it was due to a slightly off assumption or due to user error ("Whoops, I didn't see that disintegration grid.  Oops, I dropped the cube in the water")

Well, yes. The entire game suffers from a dumbing down compared to the original. Hopefully map-packs / an editor will provide truly challenging maps in the future. However, whilst they may not be especially hard, there were very few that weren't puzzles; you always had to take a look, think, and then act. Whereas in single player, there were some maps where I stood at the exit and could not remember how I got there.

[Thexor]

Just finished off the co-op campaign (thank you Thendash); it is better than single-player. Four portals allows for more interesting puzzles, and the less, er, story-driven story was more true to the spirit of the first game, I thought. So if you haven't played co-op yet, do. Seriously.

They're not hard puzzles though.  I did the 5th set with a friend and they were fairly trivial.  There were only about 2 that gave us any trouble, and even then it was due to a slightly off assumption or due to user error ("Whoops, I didn't see that disintegration grid.  Oops, I dropped the cube in the water")

Well, yes. The entire game suffers from a dumbing down compared to the original. Hopefully map-packs / an editor will provide truly challenging maps in the future. However, whilst they may not be especially hard, there were very few that weren't puzzles; you always had to take a look, think, and then act. Whereas in single player, there were some maps where I stood at the exit and could not remember how I got there.

I don't think I'd agree with the statement that Portal 2 was "dumbed down compared to the original". Honestly, excepting the advanced chambers, I don't believe there was ever a single puzzle in Portal 1 where the solution wasn't easy to see. Several puzzles in Portal 2 (single-player, mind you) had me staring at them for ages before I saw the solution. (Specifics spoilered below.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The first real stumper was attempting to enter the first "Old Aperture" lobby, where you have to fling yourself through the hanging sign. I spent ages, trying to climb over the pipes, and trying different fling positions, before I noticed the sloped support pillar. More precisely, I noticed the recently-formed hole in the Aperture Science logo, and backtraced from there to the wall.

Another notable one was one late test chamber - I can't remember the number, but it's the one with three turrets behind glass that you have to soak in Repulsion Gel. I knew I had to catapult myself using the repulsion gel, and I knew I had to use the recently-formed angle wall to do it (there had to be a reason I spent all that time getting access to that button!), but it took me a while to realize that I could fling myself by getting height via the Excursion Funnel. It also took me a while to notice the portal-susceptible wall in the distant, partial test chamber - at first, I thought I was trying to hurl myself all the way to the far catwalk, and was wondering how I could possibly gain more distance to reach it.

Portal 1 also felt like it had more timing-based puzzles, and more puzzles where actually using portals was sidelined (the first half of the Companion Cube level comes to mind - climbing stairs and blocking balls with your Cube could just have easily taken place in HL2).

[Draco18s]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Another notable one was one late test chamber - I can't remember the number, but it's the one with three turrets behind glass that you have to soak in Repulsion Gel. I knew I had to catapult myself using the repulsion gel, and I knew I had to use the recently-formed angle wall to do it (there had to be a reason I spent all that time getting access to that button!), but it took me a while to realize that I could fling myself by getting height via the Excursion Funnel. It also took me a while to notice the portal-susceptible wall in the distant, partial test chamber - at first, I thought I was trying to hurl myself all the way to the far catwalk, and was wondering how I could possibly gain more distance to reach it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh, that one.  The solution to the fling was actually a duplicate from a prior puzzle--the one where he was playing classical music with the two faith plates.  Took me forever to see it the first time, and used a walkthrough hint the second time, and it was when he casually moved the portal (to "conveniently the right place") did I recall the solution.  And then I smacked myself.

[Omegastick]

Finished the game earlier and I loved it. Personally, I think it was better than Portal 1 in just about every aspect. The levels were more challenging (excluding the advanced levels) than Portal 1, I loved the story and, in my opinion, it was more funny.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Another notable one was one late test chamber - I can't remember the number, but it's the one with three turrets behind glass that you have to soak in Repulsion Gel. I knew I had to catapult myself using the repulsion gel, and I knew I had to use the recently-formed angle wall to do it (there had to be a reason I spent all that time getting access to that button!), but it took me a while to realize that I could fling myself by getting height via the Excursion Funnel. It also took me a while to notice the portal-susceptible wall in the distant, partial test chamber - at first, I thought I was trying to hurl myself all the way to the far catwalk, and was wondering how I could possibly gain more distance to reach it.

That one had me for a good half-hour, I ended up getting a friend to take a look at that level before finally doing it on my own.

[Nistenf]

Best. Game. Ever.

[Ivefan]

It took me 7 hours to beat the game (single player) at most. That is too short for a $50 game any way you slice it. Even if Co-op takes double the time it is still a little too short IMO.

really, 8 hrs is the average for all games that is not strategy games, many shooters is like 6 hrs.

[Fikes]

It took me 7 hours to beat the game (single player) at most. That is too short for a $50 game any way you slice it. Even if Co-op takes double the time it is still a little too short IMO.

really, 8 hrs is the average for all games that is not strategy games, many shooters is like 6 hrs.

Not any of the games I have bought recently with the exception of maybe Bad Company 2, but no one buys that game for single player anyways.

I had way way more than 8 hours into Just Cause 2 or GTA IV. 8 hours is short, I am sure I could quote this very forum as saying that many times.

[Thexor]

It took me 7 hours to beat the game (single player) at most. That is too short for a $50 game any way you slice it. Even if Co-op takes double the time it is still a little too short IMO.

really, 8 hrs is the average for all games that is not strategy games, many shooters is like 6 hrs.

Not any of the games I have bought recently with the exception of maybe Bad Company 2, but no one buys that game for single player anyways.

I had way way more than 8 hours into Just Cause 2 or GTA IV. 8 hours is short, I am sure I could quote this very forum as saying that many times.

It really depends on what you're expecting.

The single-player campaign is ~7 hours long. From what I've heard, the co-op campaign doubles that, so we'll say ~15 hours.

Compare to, say, Portal 1, which is ~2 hours long, and currently retails for $10. Given that it was originally 1 of 5 games in the $50 Orange Box, $10 is a perfectly reasonable number for a launch price, too. This gives Portal 1 a value of roughly one hour per $5, and Portal 2 a value of roughly one hour per $3.33 - in other words, Portal 2 actually gives you 50% more value than the original, factoring in only play-time.

If we also consider that half of Portal 2's content is online co-op, I'd say that Portal 2 is most definitely not a 'bad deal'.



More importantly, comparing a fine-tuned experience like Portal 2 to a semi-scattered sandbox like Just Cause 2 or GTA IV is silly. Sure, JC2 took me longer to beat (I've got something like 60-odd hours logged on it), but half of that time was travel time, and a lot of it was pretty generic and repetitive - fun, but a different kind of fun. In comparison, Portal 2 is an incredibly finely-tuned experience. A simple "cost per hour" balance to non-puzzle games is ridiculous; the pacing and design of a story-driven game simply cannot be compared to the expansive, freeform time-sink that is a sandbox game.

[Tilla]

I've never been a big fan of equating $$$ to length of game. You could make a game that's infinitely long and the worst piece of crap ever made (I'm looking at you Battlecruiser series), it certainly isn't worth more than a well polished 15 hours such as Valve has presented here.

[Saint]

You shouldn't account co-op or any multiplayer features into the time because some people do not use them or cannot use them.

You actually get $8.57 American per hour of play which is 58% more expensive than the previous game.

[forsaken1111]

How about:

If you enjoyed the game and had fun, you got your money's worth.

If you did not, you didn't.

You can't put a dollar value on entertainment because entertainment is highly subjective. I have 23 hours logged on the original Portal, have replayed it numerous times and beaten some of the advanced levels. I 'only' have 9 hours logged on Portal 2, having beat the single player campaign now and part of the co-op. Do you think I will stop once I beat the co-op? No... I'm certain I will replay it, I enjoyed the game a lot. I'm certain I will play through the co-op with other friends as well, and mods will come out which I will enjoy.

If you feel like you didn't get your money's worth, then you probably didn't. Perhaps next time don't buy a game right when it comes out, and wait for the price point to drop or wait for reviews to come out. I only pulled the trigger on this purchase because I knew I would love it, there are many games I wait on or just ignore because I'm unsure if I'd like them or certain I wouldn't.

[Tilla]

You shouldn't account co-op or any multiplayer features into the time because some people do not use them or cannot use them.

You actually get $8.57 American per hour of play which is 58% more expensive than the previous game.

There is nobody who cannot use them because it's a Steam game and thusly requires internet access If someone doesn't want to play Co-op, I guess that's their choice although I hear it's actually a better campaign than the singleplayer so they're missing out a lot.