I’ve been playing the shit out of Portal 2, and it’s a damn good game. I know I’m way behind on this one, but the disc STILL isn’t all that cheap at Gamestop. Not to mention that going into Gamestop means having a really weird discussion about Bulletstorm with a guy who has a head so big that I would consider it a medical concern.
Anyway, I’m not going to waste anyone’s time selling this game beyond saying that this is one of the very few games that I think everyone should play. Everyone, everyone.
The thing I want to talk about is, why is it good? We can all agree it’s good, but why?
Some theories I’ve heard:
It’s more than just some mindless shooter
I do agree with that, I suppose. But to find a triple-A-caliber title that isn’t a shooter really shouldn’t be all that amazing. Shooters are a big genre, and they’re big money, but I think that I find most gamers enjoy as many non-shooters as anything else. In fact, I think most gamers find a shooter/series to be a favorite, and after that nothing else is as good. So just saying what it ISN’T doesn’t really get at what it IS.
It does the little things well
I do agree with that as well.
What a novel concept, to get good, real actors to do some of the voices in your game. Spend some of the budget on that.
There’s a lot of time put into the playability and the control in most games, small things that feel like big things. I love Portal, but I’m not going to lie, the control isn’t really one of the appeal factors. And what’s smart about the game is that the control is suited to the gameplay.
What a lot of games forget are the big things that look like small, things such as emotion, voice acting, and an overall aesthetic. But again, I think this meets expectations. We should be expecting video games to do these things, not shitting ourselves when they get it right.
Okay, so what is it that makes Portal great?
If you take a look at this room, you begin on the far side and have to make your way to the platform you can see on the right side of the image. We’re not going to get into too much of how Portal works, but a good deal of the game involves using physics to launch yourself from one spot to another. When I was looking at this room, gauging the options to get to the platform, I considered shooting from below, dropping from above, and any number of options. And then I thought “It would be awesome to launch right through the big, circular Aperture logo.” Lo and behold, that’s exactly how you’re supposed to do it.
What I’m saying is that this game was designed to be fun. Shooting through the ring like a human cannonball is fun. They didn’t need to hang that big sign from the ceiling. And they didn’t need to have the player launch through it. But they did.
This treads dangerous territory in some ways. For one, it can make the player feel the designer’s hand, shattering the fictional world. However, because the narrative also incorporates the designer’s hand in this game, you can kind of cheat that one. It’s good thinking!
The other potential pitfall is that by taking the fun activities that players want to engage in and making them game, you are removing some of the fun screwaround factor.
Screwaround was always a big thing for me as a kid. In Mario 64 there is one part in the entire game where you can surf on a turtle shell. I surfed the shit out of that turtle shell. There’s no reason, nothing to be gained. But I did it because I had to know if I could surf it all the way to the top of some stupid spiral mountain.
The concern is that if someone made that into part of the game, I’m discouraged from exploring the game on my own, from finding the little extras that end up in a finished product.
And I have to say, I don’t think that matters to me so much. Because to be frank, there are so many goddamn games out there that I can’t imagine many people are doing much beyond finishing games and moving on to something else.
I thought about this while deciding how much of Batman: Arkham City to finish. I was thinking how if I could make a time machine and send this game back to myself at age 15, I would have played the bejeezus out of it, collected every last trophy and been happy to do it. But that was a time when I was starved for really great games. Now? Now there are more great games than I can play, or at least play as much as I’d like.
I think the challenge now is to incorporate as much of the screwaround fun into the game as possible because it’s more than likely that 90% of players will only play through once. So you have to give them a good experience.
Anyway, the quick summary is that it’s a game that’s designed to be fun. It feels that way, anyway. I think games all have an overall aesthetic. A game like Super Meat Boy is designed to be difficult. A game like Braid is designed to make you think. And Portal is designed to be fun. I fucking love that.