Gamescom: Portal 2 Impressions

Back at E3 2010 Valve showed off a few videos of Portal 2 for the first time, and if anyone who saw it wasn't impressed, well, not to be too mean but I'd imagine it's really difficult to buy you a birthday present since apparently nothing makes you happy. It's the follow up to one of the most gleefully creative games that's been released in recent memory, and looks to be doing quite a bit different.

The boss from the first, GLaDOS, is back to batter you with her strangely charming mix of overt violence and passive aggressive approach to communicating murderous intentions. But there's much more than just you and a few puzzles and hours separating the beginning and end of the game. As unforgettable as the companion cube from the first game was, Valve has added in a number of personality spheres to the sequel that'll act as secondary characters that chirp up when GLaDOS isn't blabbering about murder and cake.
Back at E3 2010 Valve showed off a few videos of Portal 2 for the first time, and if anyone who saw it wasn't impressed, well, not to be too mean but I'd imagine it's really difficult to buy you a birthday present since apparently nothing makes you happy. It's the follow up to one of the most gleefully creative games that's been released in recent memory, and looks to be doing quite a bit different.

One shown off at Gamescom, where Valve displayed a series of videos to highlight what's new, was a talkative little floating sphere who'd been incorrectly informed that turning on his flashlight would kill him. When the lights go out in a level he screams loudly as he flicks it on, only to discover no harm has descended upon him at all. Instead, he floats merrily beside you, apologizing profusely for calling humans smelly, as you trot around a darkened facility past rows of ominous sentry bot assembly machines and sets of clear pipes carrying curiously large quantities of cubes stretching all throughout the facility in which the game is set.

When your portal gun is ready to go, you'll need to consider a lot more than portal placement and fall speed as you pass through puzzles. A number of new tools have been added to the game to clear out sentry bots and cross gaping gaps. Blue goo spews from pipes in some areas in a continuous flow. This lets you drop a portal just underneath where the stream is striking the ground and redirect it elsewhere, coating the ground wherever it drops. If you're able to catch the stuff with a portal as it soars through the air it'll fly out the other side at a higher velocity, sending it a distance further than normal. That is, of course, assuming I was interpreting what I saw onscreen correctly.

Different liquids have different effects. The blue stuff solidifies when it makes contact with a surface, acquiring a springy quality capable of sending sentries bounding to oblivion or coating walls so you can pinball your way across gaps. The orange stuff boosts your run speed, letting you hop further or hurtle past the gnashing jaws of motorized spike traps. In combination with excursion tunnels, blue columns of light that act like slow-acting tractor beams that can be redirected with your portal gun, there's a huge amount of potential for some fiendish and, ideally, fun puzzle designs.

Also, good news, the game got a release date of February 9th, 2011 at Gamescom. From what's been shown so far, that will be a very good day.