I bought it on XBLA and just started playing. The first few tests were pretty easy, a couple of “oooh, OK, I see now” moments. I just started one that has me stumped, about 7 or 8 in - you walk in, there is killer liquid below, a couple of platforms, the gun thing shooting the flaming ball thing into a wall and it bounces back and forth. Clearly need it to somehow hit the activator orthogonal and across the room. Making a portal for the flameball to go through is obvious, and then a portal on the other wall, but haven’t yet figured out an obvious way to get it down to where it needs to come out.
But I will sit and puzzle on it some more. 5 hours is probably going to be on the short end for me. ;)
Five hours is the “hardcore gamer with a brain age of 7” time, Jeff. Plan on about eight hours of fun for us normal folks.
If we can get the time zone issues wrangled, BTW, I’d be down for doing the Portal 2 co-op with you after you finish the P2 single-player. Still have that on my to-do list.
I’ve only been able to play a short bit at a time (Portal 1) and at first I was very “eh” - but I just finished level 16 or 17, and I really get a kick out of being stumped, standing there looking at the walls around me, thinking “OK, I’ve stared at this and tried everything there is to try, I am going to have to find a walkthrough,” then staring longer and having that “a HA!” moment, and the joy of “It WORKED!” It took a few levels to get the hang of how the Portal world works, of course.
But re: Portal 1, in some ways it is quite sterile. You get that voice when you enter a level, then it is simply you alone, within a puzzle.
actually i just checked a youtube vid to check your progress, and unless you or the vid got the level number wrong, level 16 has a bit of “non-sterility” in that level.
Yeah, but that voice is key… As you reach the game’s denouement, you realize just how core to the game that voice is. It gets less sterile as you approach the end.
Hmm. I’m thinking of the level where you have stairs pop up as you get close, a receptor thingiee, a box up where it appears to be impossible to get to, and down the other end of a long hall a door that requires you put the box on a pressure switch to open it, which leads to some other stuff.
By sterility I just mean that every level so far has just been me alone, with some switches and boxes and platforms.
Not finished yet because I’ve only been able to play in quick, short burst, but I suspect my total time will be close to 6 or 7 hours. I’ve not used any hints or walkthroughs, so there have been a couple of levels where I just stared at the room for a while, thinking, OK - I don’t see any way at all to make this happen. Try a couple of things that don’t work, stare some more, then have an aha moment, then try a few times to make it work. I also completely missed a button being present on a pedestal on one level, which made that one take a long time.
The game has grown on me, the only thing I have not enjoyed has been where fast reflexes and perfect timing combined are required. For example, the one area where platforms are moving towards you in a zig zag shaped hall, and you have to quickly jump onto one via a portal, then quickly shoot and create a portal in the right place in the wall, then quickly create another at exactly the right place while on a moving platform, then immediately jump to another, shoot immediately and quickly, etc.
