I have to say, I didn’t expect to see someone touch on this subject. I played Portal 1 first, and I enjoyed it immensely, took my time with it, did some achievements and challenges. I really didn’t want to let it go too soon, because I heard that the sequel was better in every way, and I already liked the original. I thought I woud stop appreciating it after playing the second one. And when I played Portal 2, I was of course having a great time too, but to my surprise it wasn’t the same, and bizarrely, I still preferred the original. The vagueness and creepiness of the first game gave it this unique charm where you could fill the gaps with your own experience. It made the story feel more personal - less like I was playing a role, and more like as if I, the player, was the one trapped in Aperture. In the sequel, although I still loved GLaDOS’s sassy remarks, it didn’t feel like *my* GLaDOS. In Portal, GLaDOS talked to me, in Portal 2, GLaDOS talked to Chell. The atmosphere of the first game is also what, in my opinion, made the Companion Cube work so well there. Many players got attached to an inanimate object just because of how lonely and isolated they were in the chambers, with the cube not only being the first being that didn’t want to kill them in this harsh environment, but a helpful asset throughout an entire chamber as well. I denied being attached to a glorified metal box, until in a challenge chamber it was replaced by an incredibly annoying and uncooperative ball that made me curse it to hell, and want my cube back. In the secong game, the Companion Cubes are not only numerous, as GLaDOS states herself, but they don’t ignite the same feelings because we have a much more sentient and animate ally on our side in the form of Wheatley. We are not alone anymore, so we don’t need to pack bond with an inanimate object. In summary, from my perspective, Portal 2 was the same journey that everyone experienced and loved the same way, but Portal 1 was an individual journey that was unique for everyone, and because of that, it had an individual and unique impact on each person. Plus "Still Alive" is easier to sing than "Want you gone" if you're not a trained vocal artist, fight me
I’ve always preferred Portal 1’s tone and atmosphere. I like how grounded and real it feels as well. OST is definitely moodier, and it has a very desolate feel. Portal 2 is great don’t get me wrong, but I wish Portal 2 continued the tone that Portal 1 set.
It is rather ironic that whilst setting wise Portal 2 is darker and edgier than the first game, the focus on comedic and safe and linear gameplay almost totally undermines this. It's not even the lack of blood for the sake of the E10+ rating. The only real place where the more mature nature and immersion of the first game comes back to me is in select fan created content or stories that actually care about being something more than a comedy like before.
@@sulphurous2656 Yeah. The 2nd game could’ve been real depressing considering the immense size of Aperture in that game. But that tone is ignored with the amount of comedy in it. Comedy is fine, not everything has to be edgy. But there shouldn’t be too much of it.
@@MauricioJara I agree, there has to be a way to balance out the tone of Portal 2 without making swing from one overwhelmingly dominant tone to another. Otherwise things will become tone deaf or moods will seem overly forced.
Portal 1 had accomplished something I never thought I could experience again, the feeling of isolation amongst some industrial complex/liminal spaces that I had gotten from Half-Life 1 that I loved so much. Valve had managed to capture that again. And if you subtract Cave Johnson from the old Aperture, you sort of get that feeling as well. But CJ undercuts that atmosphere.
I've put 40 hours into Portal 2 since it launched, and 20 into Portal 1 since I bought the Orange Box. I can confidently recall pretty much all of Portal, but any of Portal 2 outside of the opening and ending. Just something about Portal 1 is more memorable. But clearly both are masterpieces. Edit: Oh, and lemons
I have the inverse problem. I can hardly remember any of the middle of portal 1, but portal 2 is burned into my memory. I MUCH prefer glados in portal 2 over portal. In the first game she speaks with a completely flat tone with no real personality in it. Most of her jokes don't land for me because of that. To me, hearing Portal 1 glados speak has no real impact because she doesn't actually feel like anything special. It feels like listening to a toneless text to speech generator read off lines. I much prefer her in portal 2 where they actually gave her inflection, tone, sarcasm, and personality. She was just boring to me in 1.
The thing is, way more stuff happens in portal 2 than in portal. If i were to give a summary of both games, I'd would be something like this Portal: You wake up in a chamber, you do puzzles with GLaDOS talking in the background, you get emotionally attached to a cube, you find out the cake is a lie, GLaDOS tries to kill you, you escape her, you fight her, you kill her, you get dragged back into aperture science Portal 2: You wake up after a long ass time, you meet Wheatley, you do puzzles, you wake up GLaDOS, you do new puzzles, you make her arsenal of weapons not work, you put Wheatley into power, GLaDOS is potatofied, you fall, you explore the original aperture science, you do new puzzles, you climb back up, you do new puzzles (but wheatley calls you fat this time), then there's the part where he kills you, then you shoot him to the moon, you get released. You can see that portal 2 has MUCH more lore and gameplay in it, which is why i think you don't remember as much of it as you do of portal 2 (or maybe you're just biased, idk tho)
I absolutely LOVE this video because it completely nails and emphasizes the criminally overlooked parts of the first game. The dark tone, incredible learning curve, and flexibility of the solutions from Portal 1 are so underappreciated. I often tell my friends that I prefer Portal 1 over 2, but I often look silly because it's a bit hard to truly articulate why that's the case. This video really summarizes just what makes Portal 1 so special! I do think the humor of 2, despite it being more blunt and comedic, is still incredibly appealing and it in itself is what most people associate with Portal nowadays. 1 definitely just nails it in every aspect, however, and I really do agree with pretty much all of the points made here!
That is especially true when it comes to visual aesthetics, Portal feels run down while not LOOKING run down, Portal 2 feels very clean and well kept when it shouldn't.
I generally agree. The first one is more cohesive and the way the difficulty of the puzzles is the groundwork that most puzzle games are based off of, at least partially. I definitely got stuck a couple times in the overworld looking for tiny portal spots in what felt like an art showcase. The difficulty of the puzzles in the second one was more often discovering the different areas they wanted you to work with than puzzling out the solution with all the pieces in front of you.
I think that's a fair observation. There's definitely a somewhat different puzzle style in play in the sequel, in addition to a different puzzle difficulty structure. Thanks for the comment.
Just wanted to say thank you for always having perfect subtitles on your videos right when they go up. You're one of only like two channels I seen do that, and I can't hear too well anymore so it is very appreciated.
Of course! I started doing custom captions for all of my videos in late 2019, and since then my stats have shown that around 10% of viewers now use them. So that's a strong incentive to keep doing it.
I'll be honest, I did enjoy Portal 2's story more, but I think that's mostly because I just really enjoy comedy and while parts of it do fall flat - the GLaDOS fat jokes early on are pretty dire and weirdly petty - Wheatley's endlessly distracted adlibbing remains a tour-de-force (I still feel like Stephen Merchant was robbed of that one voice acting award: sure, Mark Hamill's Joker is amazing, but we already *knew* that), as do things like the defective turrets. I feel like you do down The Part Where He Kills You a little bit because yes, it is very obviously played for laughs, but it plays for those laughs so well (particularly the comedic timing and repetition of the titular phrase). Saying that, you've given me a lot of food for thought on the things Portal 2 could have done better (seriously, those fat jokes 😬) as well as making me want to replay Portal 1 which - big admission here - I never got round to finishing (I got stuck on that one level with the moving platforms in a tight corridor...). Like all good criticism, even if I don't agree with it, this has made me examine my own feelings and preferences and introduced me to other points of view. Thank you, and I just want to say that from what I've seen of it so far (this and the Dark Souls and VVVVVV vids) this is a really neat channel!
I did like the fat and adoption jokes. Simply because they didnt really work. It shows how angry they are at the player and I just imagine chell having a PokerFace for me that makes it very funny. The part where he kills you has to be the funniest part. Dude keeps throwing tatrums while you just move forward. It's incredible 😂
before watching this, i really loved portal 2, and even after i still love it, its still in my top 3 favorite video games. but now that im watching this, i really realize how true everything your saying is. great video, everything your saying is spot on
I've played both for the first time recently, and I feel like portal 2 expands on so much and is so utterly satisfying that... I just can't conceive myself that the original is superior
@@FoxLosst Well actually quality in a video game is entirely subjective, and while I agree that Portal 2 is the superior game because of how much it expands on the previous game's mechanics, the simpler gameplay and darker tone of the original are of course qualities that others may prefer over that, just not you or I. We should encourage healthy debate like this since it brings Portal fans closer together and keeps discussion alive, not try to shut it down.
Excellent analysis of how Portal and its sequel are completely different in terms of tone and atmosphere. I've always felt that Portal is fundamentally a puzzle game with some dark humour layered on top, whereas Portal 2 is a comedy foremost with some puzzles to break up the pacing. This tonal inconsistency might not necessarily be the result of Valve misunderstanding why Portal was so successful, but rather the result of an ambitious desire to make the sequel more than simply a level-pack expansion. Pivoting the entire franchise into an absurdist farce starring Stephen Merchant and J. K. Simmons is certainly one way of achieving this, although it does mean I often struggle to remember that the wacky deathtrap of pre-GLaDOS Aperture Science in Portal 2 is the exact same clinical, more down-to-earth Aperture Science that's depicted in Portal 1. One minor point worth considering is how The Part Where He Kills You fits into the broader picture of Portal 2's third and final act, which essentially acts as a deconstruction (if not self-parody) of Portal's earlier narrative. Much like the first game, you're working through a series of test chambers run by a rogue AI that you'll eventually confront during the climax. However, by placing the potential of Aperture Science into the hands of a deeply insecure and incompetent buffoon, Wheatley's power-mad behaviour can directly contrasted against GLaDOS'; His scatter-brained nature and lack of control results in the near-destruction of the facility; His attempts at witty put-downs are merely childish and pathetic insults (and only marginally more petty than GLaDOS' earlier remarks about Chell); So when it comes to the obligatory Part Where He Kills You, Wheatley's complete lack of tact and subtly leads to the entire scene being heavily signposted, ridiculously overblown, and incredibly trivial to escape from. The lack of credible threat is therefore deliberate - not only does The Part Where He Kills You completely fail as a twist in a narrative, but so too does Wheatley ultimately fail in his attempts to become GLaDOS' replacement.
Great analysis! Thank you for your comment. I do agree that Wheatley's physical and mental breakdown across the final chapters of the game serves as both an explanation for, and a parody of, GLaDOS' behavior in the first game. But I'm not convinced that even the idea of an incompetent AI paralleling GLaDOS' activities absolutely had to make for a significantly wackier tone or a noticeably easier game. I've seen this notion in a few places over the years (including in at least one other comment on this video), that changing the tone of the game is the only way that something new could be brought to the experience. But I'm not convinced that a similar tone to the first game would've made the sequel 'simply a level-pack expansion.' As I said in response to that other comment, "Perhaps it's an obvious point, but the original Resident Evil is not the only Resident Evil game with a mix of corny action one-liners and horror content; the original Ratchet & Clank is not the only Ratchet & Clank game with irreverent and humorous parodies of capitalism; and so on. Tone can be maintained between entries in a series while expanding on gameplay and themes, even when that tone rides a line between multiple moods." Even new characters can (and usually should) be added in a sequel without losing the atmosphere of the original; along those lines, even speaking specifically of Valve, Half-Life 2 is not just a level-pack expansion for Half-Life. Ultimately, Portal belongs in the Half-Life universe; Portal 2 belongs in the TF2 universe.
as someone who played Portal 2 first, I wholeheartedly agree. The tone is something I miss when playing 2. Cave Johnson is brilliantly written, don't get me wrong, but his humor keeps the darker parts of the game light.
Left 4 Dead has the same issue in my opinion. The first game had a way creepier mood, partly due to all the levels taking place at night. You can tell even by the intros alone that L4D2, while now obviously the superior choice as it simply rolled all of the first game into the second, feels more action oriented than survival/ horror.
I've always wanted to make commentary videos like this. After watching your Philosophy of Dark Souls and now this, I'm reminded of how articulate and interesting other people have relayed their views, and not gonna lie, it makes me a little less motivated to create content when people like you exist lol
I am so glad, that I played the first game before the second! Otherwise the incredible atmosphere of the first would have been spoiled as well as the cake being a lie.
Something to note about Portal 2: The story seen in retail was thrown together in about a year and a half. Valve scrapped their original story for Portal 2, the Multicore Era story would of had Chell teaming up with multiple disgruntled personality cores to overthrow GLaDOS, then escape. However, due to Wheatley's popularity among playtesters (and a other myriad of reasons we likely aren't aware of) they scrapped the Multicore storyline for the retail one. And even the retail one was watered down due to a strict, unmovable deadline resulting from a console deal. What we ended up missing out on due to Portal 2 having to come out in 2011 was: * GLaDOS having a longer and more believable character development * EVERYTHING regarding Caroline, and her transfer into GLaDOS (we were meant to see that) * Cave Johnson's consciousness, uploaded to a AI stored in a cube, regretful over everything he's done and asking you to kill him * TONS. OF. CHAMBERS. Like, ALL conversion gel tests, more advanced chambers, etc. * And, most importantly, downtime between major character moments and j o k e s. A lot of Portal 2's scenes were cobbled together from Multicore lines, and the new ones written in that one and a half year dev time. In short, we missed out on a much more tonally cohesive game that balanced out it's humor with it's darker elements.
Heck, there's left over logic in some of the Act 2 chambers that imply that the G-Man was meant to have a role in the story at one point, possibly during Multicore. Dunno if it actually got farther than that, but it exists if you look through a decompile of one of the maps.
Okay I didn’t hear about the multi core thing before but now I’m wondering could the core we see in aparture tag possibly be a scrapped core from the original portal 2?
I particularly liked a series of Portal 2 maps called "No Elements" which returned to the simplicity and difficulty of the first game and even surpassed it. It has no buttons, cubes, funnels, lightbridges, gels, lifts, or fizzlers. It manages to fit quite a few puzzles and quite a bit of cleverness with basically nothing but portable surfaces and non portable surfaces. Highly recommend it. Also, "Still Alive" > "Want You Gone" any fucking day.
I've always been fascinated by instances when the author(s)/creator(s) of a piece of art or media makes something amazing, but they themselves do not understand WHY it is so amazing, and subsequently are unable to follow up on it properly.
Agreed! In my opinion, the best example of that kind of thing is Anthony Burgess. He's the author of the novel A Clockwork Orange, and after it became successful he despised the book for the rest of his life---based primarily on his assumption that everyone interpreted the work the same way as him. I actually wrote an article on that topic, which ended up being a relatively big hit back when The Gemsbok was only a blog website: thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/tuesday-tome-clockwork-orange-anthony-burgess/
Well It was pretty clear that Portal 1 was always going to be a comedy , and Also Portal 2 is Also pretty scary, PotatOS Lament is scarier than any Kelly Bailey Portal 1 song.
Or maybe they understood and still wanted to go out of their way to try something different, in which case they did so successfully, in my opinion. I'm glad to have both games as they are; I love them *because* of the aspects that make them so different from one another. I'd rather have more to love than more of the same.
Can you link that by any chance? I’d love to see it. The developer commentary for portal 2 indicates how much stuff they scrapped because of playtester feedback and instead steered the game in a much “safer” and imo worse direction, really a shame to see.
Portal one always gave me such an edge of my seat feeling, like something is wrong. The loneliness makes it even more scary, the confusion adds to it “why am i here?”, “who is this voice?” The atmosphere feels disturbing like something went wrong but you don’t know what n why, the ratman dens add to this sure they were in portal 2 but it didn’t have the same impact anymore as in portal 1 rat-man was the only other character who ever semi talked to us. Although portal 2 is still amazing and one of my favourite games, Portal 1 glados felt more menacing with her passive aggressive voice. The Ost of portal 1 is incredibly unnerving to me it just adds to the loneliness with somber and slow music.
One of my favorite parts from the first game was the platforms you needed shoot the portal gun mid-air and remember alternate your portals to climb higher. In the second game, once you're airborne everything is automatic, no input from the player was needed, and I remember feeling a little disappointed by that.
Absolutely true, and very succintly put. Something I noticed very late into this project (too late to include it in the video, unfortunately), is that the 'fling' maneuver is considered the most important portal mechanic taught to the player in Portal, yet is essentially absent from the second game. (The 'fling' is what the devs call it when you place a first portal on a high wall, go through any nearby surface, then place a portal below yourself in mid-air to fly out of the first portal with greatly enhanced horizontal momentum.) The developer commentary of the first game talks about the mechanic a lot, and how it's sort of the final challenge to getting players "thinking with portals." Hence why it's the last thing you do to fetch the last core in the boss fight.
Ah, if only the channel grew to a large degree every time someone told me it should already be huge . . . then I guess it would hit an equilibrium point and people would stop saying it. Ha. Anyway, I should have a new game video ready in early July. Thanks for subscribing!
In portal 1 the path you take seems like you found it yourself in many cases (even tho ratman has left hints), in Portal 2 you go straight to the exit/do not go here signs.
This was a really insightful and interesting reflection on the series. I came into it expecting the same nostalgic-lens garbage most people have when criticizing a sequel, but your points were well made and supported. I’m gonna go replay Portal with this video in mind.
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I have to agree with you. I played Portal and Portal 2 many times, but only with Portal i have feeling like a want play it just one more time.
Couldn't agree more. One thing I'd add to this is, that Portal 2's aperture science feels much more organic, given that the panels and everything move around all the time. For me the fact that in Portal 1, it feels more manmade, more like an actual abandoned building makes it far creepier. The impossible architecture of 2 just doesn't feel as intimidating given the tone, with maybe the exception of some parts of old aperture. While in 1 you've got this crumbling facility that's just a bit off, with you only starting to realise that slowly.
Thank you for the kind comment! Part of the nature of Valve's aggressive approach to playtesting is that their games end up purpose-built to make the strongest possible first impressions. It's a valid strategy, for sure, but it can definitely lead to situations where cracks show up in retrospect or on a second playthrough.
@@FoxLosst it is my opinion, I just thought he had a nice video laying out the details of why some people might like the first game better than the second. Also I have replayed them and the first one is more fun for me. The tone and atmosphere is so much better
@@FoxLosst i formed my opinion a decade ago when portal 2 came out, and it's not significantly different from OPs. a video like this is hardly "brainwashing", and thats a very strange accusation to levy.
I've seen a few mods that aim to recreate portal in portal 2's engine and art style I want to see a mod that recreates portal 2 in portal's engine and art style
Absolutely. Although I can understand how it would be a much more challenging and potentially unpopular project, it would be very interesting to see that (especially if it included an editing down of the script, and applying a filter more in line with the first game on the dialogue of GLaDOS and Wheatley).
@@nike2136 True, but both engines have modifications made to them to get certain things to work, on top of visual flair, it's not as easy as just putting the Portal 2 stuff in Portal 1 and it will work because both are the same engine.
Very well explained, i love both games as their own very different experiences each, but i understand the comparison, as it is a direct sequel and there can be some expectations set. Great video.
Great video. Even though I disagree, and think that Portal 2 is better, I can still see why some people might like the 1st one. Still, both are excellent games, and great video is a great video.
One thing I can't help but wonder about that might have been a contributing factor was the desire to move away from Half-Life. Portal was made using some Half-Life 2 assets, such as the button noises, chapter intros, and the orange energy balls. I can't help but think it's possible that part of the tonal shift in Portal 2 may be from a thought process of "If it becomes more of its own thing and establishes its own identity separate from Half-Life, it's an automatic improvement!" I did notice essentially every last thing derived from the Half-Life series had been thoroughly stamped out.
honestly i clicked the video thinking there was no way you could pull this off but this is video is so well crafted that it's hard to disagree with. great work. subbed!
It's not well crafted and to be honest I actually think that anyone who has agreed should replay both games paying attention to every tiny detail to see how Portal caused GLaDOS to be what she is and how Portal 2 improves on everything.
Valve has a habit of playtesting their games to a fault. I still prefer the sequel overall but I definitely agree with most of the criticisms particularly the difficulty.
Portal 1 had a subtle humor which added to the overall morbid undertone and sometimes was like a comedic relief. Portal 2 ist just comedy from start to finish. It doesn't feel creepy or claustrophobic at any point in the game. I'm not sure but I think at the time they made Portal 2, many people involved in HL2 and the Orange Box were already gone.
In my opinion portal 2 two is awesome but original portal had that specific mood of being a lonely test subject. There was something little bit scary about the atmosphere
Great video. I think they wanted to expand the audience of the game so they attempted to make it more appealing to children. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in Australia the first game is rated M (15+) and the second is PG (parental guidance recommended). I think they tried to compromise for the original fans by still having dark themes, like the dens at the start of the game, but then put a silly comedy coat of paint over the top so kids would be allowed to play. It bugs me because I played the first game as a kid and loved it, but I imagine they wanted to make a co-op game that was family friendly that strict parents would be ok with, that also explains why there is no longer blood from the turrets and the tests are easier. While I prefer the creepy atmosphere of the first game, I still love the over the top humour of the second, so I feel they did succeed in the end.
I got into the series with portal 2 and I STILL believe the OG portal is far better, though it does feel like it gets overshadowed by the tone set with the sequel. Like the time of "The cake is a lie" Feel so much different from "A COMBUSTIBLE LEMON THAT WILL BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN"
I couldn't agree more. Especially with how much Portal 2 feels like it is, "on rails." I felt like the puzzles were almost a distraction to get to the next bit of story, compared to Portal 1 where the puzzles were the adventure. In one game I am doing puzzle which progress the game, in the other I am doing puzzles to progress the game. That being said, Portal 2 suffers from being the sequel to a game whose unknowability was its greatest asset.
yeah, i think the game suffered from not having the sharpest testers. It's possible the devs streamlined puzzles the testers were getting stuck at a bit too much.
@@yol_n lmaooo the fact that I got stuck at Wheatley chambers for longer than any chamber in the Mel while people find it harder is so funny. Like genuinely the only "hard" chamber in Mel seemed to be the one where you have to bring the cube over the goo (I hope it was Mel, I've done some mods after it) by destroying it so it respawns. That chamber was the only one that I got stuck at for around 30 minutes, asked my gf to help, she didn't find a solution either, so we just went for the TH-cam walkthrough. Probably the level design flaw, instead of the actual chamber solving issue.
@@Sergonizer are you playing in story mode or challenge mode? Challenge mode was the normal campaign before they changed in a patch to "challenge mode" and the new campaign being story mode which is akin to portal 2 puzzles.
Portal is an adult game. Very hopeless atmosphere, self restraint with the jokes, more immersive. Portal 2 is a childs game. Flashy colors, comedy, drama and a surprisingly hopeful atmosphere.
I've been having this exact same feeling about the two games recently, I think because I introduced my then-girlfriend-now-wife to games a couple years ago. One of the first I had her play was Portal 1, which I have considered an essential experience for 16 years now. I never thought of Portal 2 the same way.
The thing that put me off portal 2 is the sci-fi and wacky feel of the inviroment and instead of lonely deselect feel in portal 1 which takes the fact that there are no humans alive
It is interesting to see someone prefer P1 because of the the story and thematic elements, whereas for myself, I prefer P1 because of the slight differences in physics and movement mechanics. There is a similarity in how things change for both of us between the games. For the story part of it, you may feel that it loses the seriousness by focusing on comedy, while for the physics, I believe it loses its seriousness by redefining the player's movement and abilities. To explain my concern: I seriously love the (even if unintentional) Accelerated Backwards Hop and the portal pellet delay. These two mechanics make for such interesting movement opportunities that I find myself feeling stuck when playing P2 (playing community maps on the regular). While the ability to mess around in that way could break lots of chambers and "ruin" parts of the game from a puzzle perspective, for me they are more fun than the rest of the game itself. Thankfully P2 has a decent amount of movement to mess around with, even if things like bhop speed are handicapped. The ability to speed up by walking along a wall/railing at the right angle always makes me feel satisfied thankfully. Just as you find the comedic elements to hold back the game from achieving the right atmosphere/story/theme, I find myself feeling literally held back from moving myself when playing. But anyway, looking at things from a story perspective I definitely agree that the thematic shift is dramatic between the games, thank you for pointing it out. Nice vid.
There's a general jankiness in Portal 1 that I prefer. Like when you send a cube through a portal in 1, it doesn't always land perfectly where it should, there's an element of randomness, but in 2 it does because the devs made sure it does. Walking around feels more like gliding; you don't "trip" on small objects or bumps in the floor as much. In my mind this is related to player freedom issues like not enough portalable surfaces, but it's hard to explain how. Like, in 2 there are railings that you can't jump over. Why not? It's like everything has to be just so, it has to go smoothly and perfectly just the way Valve intended.
The rails! For real man, I remember that feeling of the rails being visibly climbable but then block for no reason. It was frustrating realizing the virtual world around me was limited; it lost the respect for the surroundings i felt in P1. @@eccentriastes6273
It's not said very much, i also prefer the way Aperture itself looks, it looks like it was always run by humans and feels realistic and lived in, Portal 2 looks cool, but the facility looks like its always been run by robots, and is suddenly 500x larger.
@@XCloak_PersonXAnd the facility was broken down in that time due to GLaDOS being destroyed, yet everything looks different. It makes no sense for it to look the way it does. They just changed the art style because they could. They retconned everything, and it sucks.
I do like Portal 2 but i've always loved Portal 1 more for its tone, atmosphere and because it's so nostalgic to me. Portal is my second favourite game of all time.
What a fantastic breakdown of something that is only just barely consciously perceptible when casually playing games. I had previously seen Matthewmatosis' video, and this was equally insightful. I too loved Portal 2 but always felt that the first game was special somehow, but not simply because it was more original. You nailed it.
Thank you for that very kind comment. It's a nice shot of confidence to read on this day in particular, because (coincidentally) I'll be publishing my next game analysis video tomorrow.
You explained very well the differences between the two games, but you didn't really explained why one *should* be better than the other... Yeah the tones are really different but we can't really say one is objectively better than the other, it's just two different directions, both with great executions. The idea that the "serious" tone is better than the other one is kinda subjective. I personally also tend to prefer the atmosphere of Portal 1, but while the atmosphere of Portal 2 is very different it still does an excellent job to make it consistent and to use every qualities this kind of atmosphere has to bring, and I don't think this really breaks the immersion, it's just not the same tone. So overall, it feels more like it's only personal preferences. Which is fine but asserting that Portal *is* better than Portal 2 because of that is a bit awkward, it just sounds like you present this as an objective fact, maybe it wasn't your intention but for me it felt more like you talked about that as a fact rather than an opinion. Anyway, one thing I disagree on is about the difficulty of Portal 2. On most Portal 2 first playthough I saw, players didn't find the solution to everything so easily, I think the difficulty is well balanced. The fun in Portal 2 is more about discovering and learning new mechanics rather than challenging the player. I would also argue that Portal 1 wasn't intended to be a challenge either, we can see Portal 1 is a kind of giant tutorial to make the player learn how to think with Portals ; and because Portal 2 consider that the player already knows how to think with portals, the new way to bring them more stuff to learn is new testing components. Still a nice video with good comparisons though
Of course it's subjective. All substantial art criticism and reviewing is subjective. There is no meaningful difference between saying that I consider one work of art to be better than another and expressing that I prefer one over the other. If you want to see a review of a game that is purely objective instead, Sterling once produced one: th-cam.com/video/H1BiLrOGfpM/w-d-xo.html Even if you don't have the 5 minutes to spare for that video, I'd recommend taking a moment to skim through some of the comments underneath it.
Man portal frightened me as a highschooler. Portal 2 in college came at a great time for me to laugh but in reflection portal was the superior game. You put all the reasons very well. I also have like, orders of magnitude more in portal 2. Plus those co-op levels people make can be brutal. Felt actually smarter after solving them but also had to take a nap.
I am so, so glad someone agrees with me on this. I always say I prefer portal 1 but I could never put it into words well enough. thank you ^^ [edit : as someone who is generally bad at video games : despite having to google puzzles in both games at some point (;;), portal 1 felt more natural to me. it starts off easy, and gets increasingly difficult while introducing new mechanics alongside getting the player well-versed in basics. in 2, it's more like 'easy tutorial levels, chambers get more complex, new gimmick is introduced, more easy tutorial levels to accommodate for new gimmick etc etc...'. it almost gets there, but then realises it's a sequel and needs to add new stuff, so scrambles to throw more on. with portal 1, items are introduced slowly, allow the player to do things they normally are unable to, and change up how the player approaches puzzles. in 2, it feels more like 'hey here's some wacky shit I just dug up, go use it' even though puzzles would flow exactly the same, if not better, without said wacky shit. COUGH those stupid panels that completely automate building up momentum for no reason, sometimes even being used at the same time COUGH]
Portal 1's tone was so eerie to a point where i was anxious of getting jumpscared, i wish it couldve been longer. Portal 2 is great but the whole part when you were underground was just exhausting i was so happy when i finally got to see Wheatley again, while Portal 1 was just an amazing experience throughout, there was no downs at all (but tbf Portal 1 is a lot shorter)
Well, basically the major downside (downgrade?) in Portal 2 are characters. I don't mind comedic C. Johnson, because he's a new character. I don't mind Wheatley, because it's just another whacky/crazy core. Heck, I wouldn't even mind changes in GLaDOS. However, they are all funny from the start to the end and it's a little bit too tiresome sometimes - for example these GLaDOS puns when we bring her alive again. I'm surprised you didn't mention how story and narrative is paced differently in P1 and P2. In first Portal there are usually few lines when we enter/exit a chamber done by GLaDOS until there is escape sequence. Other than that we are finding "clues" in silence (Rattman hideous). In Portal 2 almost everything is shown by talking.
This seems like a problem with video game franchises in general, where the first game places a heavier emphasis on atmosphere over more "cool" elements in the game (Halo 1, Mass Effect 1, Left 4 Dead 1, Doom 2016, etc.), and it sucks cause generally the atmosphere of those first games entice me, while the later games in the franchise don't have that same effect. In Portal's case, it seems more like a lot of the general mysteries in the game are solved. Why are there no humans? Is GLaDOS sentient? Where does this take place? Is this related to Half Life? Why are they testing? In the first game, a great majority of these questions are answered. As a result, I feel like it would be out of character for Portal 2 to keep that mysterious and creepy atmosphere, because you automatically know more about the universe and story by the end of the first game. Like a monster in the 1st act of a horror movie, it's scary until you know its motivations and how it works. I do think Portal 2 requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, especially with lines like the mantis men or the TF2-esque Cave Johnson lines, and this feels like a discredit to the universe since this also takes place in the (much more serious) Half Life universe.
The truth is that you can’t do the same atmosphere twice. Maybe in survival horror you can, because the atmosphere is driven by gameplay. But left 4 dead is a great example. That game has stellar atmosphere. Yet after playing it for a while, the effect rubs off. And if a creepy left 4 dead 3 dropped right now, it honestly wouldn’t phase like the first game did. It’s just not novel anymore and it gets old. You get familiarized with the game world. And you be honest the cool factor is usually better anyway. Mass effect 2 is better than the first game. Halo 2 is better than the first game. Doom eternal is better than Doom 2016. The cool and fun factor is just better. Devs don’t just abandon creepy themes to cash out. It’s because fear is based in ignorance ultimately. And players aren’t ignorant about your game world after the first game
One of the extremely subtle things about Portal's Atmosphere that I just don't feel Portal 2 captures... The way it sometimes feels like the facility is *breathing* around you, like you are deep in the belly of a terrible technological monster.
Portal 2 accomplished that feeling to It shows how all walls are moveable and controlled by Glados, you see the walls broken and just starting to come back to life revealing it's true power, it feels really alive and dangerous especially when you see them failing and malfunctioning And portal 2 showed us just how massive Aperture really is, it felt like you were being revealed all the secrets of the facility you didn't get to see is portal 1.
@theholygamer969 hmmn no not really Portal 1 and 2 have completely different tone and themes and different ways to convey it It's unfair for both games to try and argue which is better cause both did amazingly at portraying aperature And remember both games are set in very very different time frames It wouldn't make sence for portal 2 to have the same clean eerie mysterious atmosphere It's stupid to try and argue if both games are better, cause both games are masterpieces that nailed there atmospheres perfectly
Personally Portal 2 is my favorite game, though it is rather overrated. Never once did it actually make me laugh. If it went for a more serious tone like portal 1 with more restrained humor then it could have been a lot more impactful atmosphere-wise. Portal 1 definitely has it beat in those areas, just not the behind-the-scenes style or the workshop support, thats what won me over to the second game.
Yes, it would be reasonable for someone to say that I am being somewhat unfair by restricting this video to the main campaigns of the games. After all, the co-op campaign and workshop/mod support of Portal 2 are huge benefits in its favor, and Portal 1's similarly-ignored-here bonus features are negligible by comparison. I still stand by the logic of the decision in the video, that the singleplayer campaigns provide the 'quintessential Portal experience.' But I could easily understand how someone taking a more holistic view of each entry's features would feel differently.
If you haven't already tried it, Portal Stories: Mel is available on Steam for free as a standalone fan-made expansion, styled as a prequel to Portal 2. The writing is still a bit goofy for my taste, the quality of the voice acting is all over the place, and there are some indulgently long sections spacing out tests at two points; but the gameplay inside the test chambers is basically what I would've wanted in Portal 2. Not ridiculously difficult like some of the Steam Workshop chambers---but puzzles that occasionally challenge you.
@@TheGemsbok Portal Stories of Mel, is easy in the history mode. Certainly no hard in the right way in the other mode, I expect hard puzzles no skill requeriments.
There's actually a mod for Portal 2 that ports the levels from Portal 1. It's not finished yet but you can get up to the first part of the escape section. It's neat!
the issue brought up at 17:50 succinctly describes what I think is the largest mistake of Portal 2's level design. It's so obsessed with keeping the player on track, even during the puzzles themselves, that the portal surfaces were limited. Portal 2's levels have a certain "language" that silently guides the player to the solution, often times reached when first interacting with an element. Part of this is compounded by the necessity to limit these surfaces with how many new elements are introduced. The lack of confidence in integrating new mechanics leads to more linear puzzle design, which demands simplicity or risks being both impossibly easy for some players or unclear and difficult for others. This "language" works to their advantage in the escape and old aperture sections, although I think the effect it has is best described by the Neurotoxin Generator "puzzle" solution. Both games are built around a consistently communicated set of rules for portal placement, one of such being that portals cannot be moved with panels. This becomes intuitively clear over the course of the games, but they choose to break this rule here specifically for the sake of spectacle. You must place portals on a moving panel to cut the tubes. This solution would be terribly unclear in the context of portal 1, given the abundance of surfaces and how this rule is demonstrated during the momentum "tutorial". Yet, for portal 2 most people get the solution without second thought. The lack of depth means consistency and clarity are no longer necessary for a solution, and this heavily hinders the level design. Difficult puzzles built around portal 2's mechanics are often deemed impossible simply because the boundaries are never pushed throughout the singleplayer campaign and, while silent rules exist and are well understood, they are never capitalized upon to make engaging puzzles. Every room is filled with clutter, and nothing gets the time to expand. I think Mike Daas' videos on "hidden" portal mechanics (closed portals, cube respawns, etc.) are incredibly interesting for these reasons. There's a lot of potential that goes unexplored in portal 2, and while almost every unseen rule is intuitively understood it becomes difficult to utilize because portal 2 avoids mechanical depth like the plague.
Yeah, I adore Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 (in fact, they're one of my favorite games) but I always come back to its predecessors more often. In Half-Life it's for the gameplay and in Portal it's for the tone.
I 100% agree with absolutely everything you said, though my subjective opinion still likes Portal 2 more than 1 with consideration of the changes they made. The only difference you noted in the second game that I also didn't like was the lack of overall difficulty within the puzzles. Edit: Altered Statements Slightly
From a design perspective, I've grown to like the brighter and cleaner look of Portal 2 as it gives the game its own identity, and the sound cues from the puzzle elements are greatly appreciated (something I found myself missing when I recently replayed Portal: Still Alive). However, it felt like something was missing, something crucially different, but I couldn't put my finger on it for years. The Portal Gun and the portals themselves. *Portal Gun* ~In the first game, the Portal Gun sounds bold and hefty, making each shot feel heavy and pronounced. In the second game, it sounds softer and more mechanical, almost feeling like a light toy. ~Originally if fired, the light would match whatever was fired last, as well as leaving a trail of a prominent colored streak behind the shot; if it hit a surface where a portal couldn't be supported, one of many beautiful and detailed spark or particle effects would happen. Now the light only matches the last opened portal, the trailing streak is lighter and thinner, and there are fewer and less prominent failed portal effects. *Portals* ~When opening in Portal, the blue ones would have a soft and gentle opening sound, while the orange one sounded like it was ripping a hole in reality itself. I'm sure they have their own sounds in Portal 2, but they aren't anywhere near as noticeable or memorable. ~Walking through the first game's portals had unique and iconic sounds, and when traveling at terminal velocity it sounded like you were whizzing by them. The second game's portals sound like a strange gel and aren't anywhere near as satisfying to listen to. ~The original portals' flames looked like they were fused with the walls and licking the air around the opening. The new flames don't have that same look or feel. ~If portals were placed across from each other, the tunnel effect was deep and would update smoothly as you walked through. Now the tunnel effect is shallower and has a noticeable reconstruction every time you walk through. ~Ultimately, because Portal has a more grounded/realistic look (which still looks amazing 15 years later), you could envision having portals in the real world. Portal 2's lighter look removes that sensation.
Portal for me is like how I feel about Left 4 Dead. I think the first one had a better tone and story, but the sequels make some improvements in the gameplay. Admittedly, Portal 2’s single player campaign is a little too easy at times but I like how the game is a little longer. I think Portal deserves a Black Mesa style remake that combines the best elements of the first and second game to make a more definitive version of the original Portal
I've always found weird that people say Portal 2 can be too easy when most of Portal 1 is extremely rudimentary in terms of gameplay complexity. There isn't much in Portal 1 that can get you stuck save for a couple of areas, usually you look around and you know exactly what to do. I feel a lot of people just played Portal 1 when they were younger and were more mentally developed by the time they got to play Portal 2 so they had an easier time figuring stuff out.
I wholheartedly believed that portal 2 was perfect. It feels awesome to learn a new perpsective presented in the way that you did. Congratulations for the excellent viewpoints.
"puzzles that solve themselves" THANK YOU. Surely my number one top complaint about portal 2. Valve sandblasted it with play testing so hard that almost the whole game feels more like a puzzle themed walking simulator than a puzzle game
I don't really understand this complaint. The game assists you with many things (portal placement aim assist, trajectory adjustment etc.) but those are things that are just quality of life and don't necessarily make the thought process of the puzzles easier. But the puzzles themselves get really challenging, especially in old Aperture (talking about the actual test chambers, not the inbetween parts) and Wheatley's later (stolen) chambers. The main difference is you don't have to deal with the jank of Source physics object cubes or slow, hard to predict energy balls. The puzzles in portal 1 may be challenging on a first playthrough when you're still getting used to the base mechanics of portals, but if you were to play Poartal 1 for the first time after playing the first half of Portal 2, they'd probably already be extremely easy to solve.
@@ethanlivemere1162 People who prefer Portal 1 like shitty execution based puzzles, while people who prefer portal 2 like logically complex puzzles which are easy to execute when you find the solution.
really dont get this point. the first 14 chambers in portal 1 are rudimentary to the point where theyre basically just elaborate walks to the exit. if "puzzles solve themselves" is a complaint being levied towards portal 2 then surely you must feel the same way about portal 1
Portal 2's engine is still better even if you don't like the campaign (Also you can make maps for Portal 1 they're just slightly harder to put into your game)
@@goldenbendy I mean maybe, Portal and Portal 2 have slightly different Portal Mechanics so Portal could still be relevant today for certain types of puzzles
I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I also think that the change in tone wasn't as bad as you put forward. I found the jokes in portal 2 genuinely elevate the experience, especially when mainly going through simple chambers. I would have been happier to see harder puzzles, but I am also pretty happy that because of the difficulty spikes being sanded down I managed to get my mother to play the game, which I wouldn't have been able to with portal 1 because it just requires more experience with the medium. I also think that as a horror-adjacent comedy series continues, it has to choose between doubling down on horror or accepting that its contents aren't going to scare players any more. Playing portal 1 again is not scary, even though I was genuinely scared upon my first time playing it as a young-ish teen, so if portal 2 had been more of the same, it wouldn't have just limited comedy without providing anything new.
Replaying any game usually won't result in the same impact as the first playthrough, but that is exactly as true of the comedy in Portal 2 as it is of the tension in Portal. Moreover, that doesn't mean that sequels to games set in tense or horrifying realities have always failed to be tense or horrifying. Perhaps it's an obvious point, but the original Resident Evil is not the only Resident Evil game with a mix of corny action one-liners and horror content; the original Ratchet & Clank is not the only Ratchet & Clank game with irreverent and humorous parodies of capitalism; and so on. Tone can be maintained between entries in a series while expanding on gameplay and themes, even when that tone rides a line between multiple moods.
i was quite young when i played portal 2 on xbox, and it was one of my first games outside of whatever i could get on the DS or sometimes the wii. i never got far in it cause my brother would always kick me off the xbox, so for the longest time to me the parts that stuck with me are the first few chapters. it was this empty, abandoned, melancholy facility. like the kind of place you would find in the woods with your friends. it really surprised me to come back years later and see the most of the game was lighthearted and clean.
100% agreed, Portal 1's tone is something incredibly special and one of a kind. Portal 2 is an amazing game as well, but the tone is a bit off and doesn't feel as cohesive and interesting as Portal 1's. But I will say Portal 2's variety in my opinion is it's biggest strength the map of Portal 1 was sterile and emotionless which was perfect for the tone of the game, but Portal 2 has some amazing set-pieces and is much more visually interesting if it looked the same as Portal 1 I couldn't see myself not finding it dull. Also the part where you shoot a portal onto the moon and the way it's built up is honestly my faovurite moment in all of gaming, nothing can beat that experience for me.
This video was created before the Talos Principle 2, I see certain parallels between the first and second game. TP2 is easier and introduces new gadgets with limited use and combination in puzzles and it introduces companions and lots of dialogue. That doesn't mean TP2 is a not a brilliant game. The story and environments are great. I guess both sequels tried to appeal to a broader player base and did succeed but that removed the grittiness and loneliness of the original and most important a sequel can never reproduce the emotions of being thrown into a new unknown game universe.
This video is very well made and I really appreciate hearing the point of view. But, I do disagree completely. It's actually fascinating to hear a deep dive on this argument becasue I think both games are comedies and Portal 2 is just about the closest thing we have to perfect video game.
I love it’s simplicity and story- I find the gameplay more fun and how it follows a track instead of dipping back into testing and back out again, like portal 2, despite portal 2’s continuous puzzles throughout the game. But i prefer portal 2 in terms of the plot and characters. It’s visuals are stunning. It’s characters are lovable. It’s funny. But there’s a lack of fear and mystery like the first game. In the first game, you’re rather clueless and can be scared by some of the dialogue, but the second one has a set plot, and the twists are more sad and aggravating than surprising Most people probably don’t expect the whole GLaDOS fight. But in portal 2. Based on Wheatley’s already erratic and easily irritated but surprisingly light tone, you might expect that if you mix that with the quiet insanity that is GLaDOS’s personality, you might predict a nervous and angry breakdown. Especially since GLaDOS still makes fun of him. It it any wonder he turns on us? The story feels more... predictable. Sure i was’t expecting the whole.. sending them to the moon thing. But the anxiety and emotional points were kind of predicted. If you just study the characters. In portal 1, it’s not as predictable. The jokes hint towards something much darker. The dark tone isn’t telling, but may imply something bad. Wheatley’s comedic personality and his stupidity allowing him to be telling doesn’t hide the future. He tells us he wants to kill us. He tells us his whole plan. He tells us A LOT With no hints or jokes like GLaDOS has in her threatening dialogue I love portal 2 because of the characters. The music, the scenes. But i can’t deny it’s lacking story. It’s still my favorite of the two! Portal always felt dull to me. Not that i didn’t love that atmosphere. But portal 2 has always been more my style. It’s funny, rather quick-paced, it has huge maps. When i was younger it felt harder. But it feels more PG geared than the first despite them both being PG. There’s more jokes, more dialogue, pretty landscapes, there’s *assistance* The first game still stumps me sometimes, especially in the whole escape sequence. But the difference between them is what makes them both good. An eerie, discomforting puzzle game and it’s pretty humorous twin. I adore old apertures large spaces. But the small tests of portal 1 were just as good. I also prefer the old GLaDOS. There was more variety to the jokes, they were more uncomfortable rather than childish. (Though i’m pretty sure P2 GLaDOS is like that because of the cores she lost.) A sequel never beats the original, but should never be the same. Creating and unbeatable original, like Valve did? Is an actually huge thing. I applaud them for it. Portal 1 will never be beat, but portal 2 will never be bad.
I always thought of Portal 1 and 2 to be different games that don't built ontop of each other. I think that makes much more sense. They share some mechanism, but so do all ego-shooters. That doesn't mean all are the same, but that single titles can be seen as single entities.
I've tried to consider that point-of-view while working on this video, but ultimately I couldn't maintain it. They share the same primary characters, the same primary setting, the same primary mechanics, etc. That makes it too hard for me to see them as truly independent on the basis of their small (though numerous) differences.
One thing that always annoyed me about the 2nd game is how many tiny visual design things were changed for the flimsiest reasons. Elevators between levels are completely different, 'storage cubes' now light up on buttons as though touching buttons is what they're for, energy balls are replaced by lasers, Chell's face is totally different to be prettier, Glados is animated like a Pixar character instead of just swaying, etc etc. I mean, yeah, okay, each thing like that makes the game 1% smoother to play. But all of those things also screw up the continuity between the games so it's a bad trade.
Very well said. That point about the difference in GLaDOS' animations is something I considered discussing in the video at one point while working on it, because I think it's another solid example of how restraint could've led to a better outcome with less work. There's a part in the Q&A of a different GDC talk than the one I quoted here, which was delivered about a year after the release of the original Portal, where someone asks Erik Wolpaw how Valve can replicate the limitations faced by the team of the first game (given that a lot of the preceding talk was about how some of Portal's best attributes resulted from embracing limitations---and that Portal 2 was then practically guaranteed to get a much less restrictive budget, schedule, and team size), and Wolpaw is completely at a loss; he waffles through some jokes for a minute or so before finally declaring, "I don't know." Ultimately, that's one question to which I'm not sure they ever found an answer.
I feel it was important for them to make something that actually looked and felt different from the first game, since retaining the same art style of Portal 1 would've felt like a map pack more than a proper sequel. There was a gameplay explanation over them replacing the energy balls with lasers, as lasers made puzzle solving flow much better.
I don't get why game devs keep acting like "more is better". More things to do, more game mechanics, bigger game world, etc. etc. When the smaller predecessors keep being the better games!?
6:40 I think the reason why Glados is less monotone in 2 is because the explosion from the ending of portal 1 as well as her rebooting herself actually woke up Caroline in her, so shes got more humanity
To be fair Portal 2 is really the only Valve game oriented towards children and families . Because everything else they released before then was violent as hell.
I have to say, I didn’t expect to see someone touch on this subject. I played Portal 1 first, and I enjoyed it immensely, took my time with it, did some achievements and challenges. I really didn’t want to let it go too soon, because I heard that the sequel was better in every way, and I already liked the original. I thought I woud stop appreciating it after playing the second one. And when I played Portal 2, I was of course having a great time too, but to my surprise it wasn’t the same, and bizarrely, I still preferred the original.
The vagueness and creepiness of the first game gave it this unique charm where you could fill the gaps with your own experience. It made the story feel more personal - less like I was playing a role, and more like as if I, the player, was the one trapped in Aperture. In the sequel, although I still loved GLaDOS’s sassy remarks, it didn’t feel like *my* GLaDOS. In Portal, GLaDOS talked to me, in Portal 2, GLaDOS talked to Chell.
The atmosphere of the first game is also what, in my opinion, made the Companion Cube work so well there. Many players got attached to an inanimate object just because of how lonely and isolated they were in the chambers, with the cube not only being the first being that didn’t want to kill them in this harsh environment, but a helpful asset throughout an entire chamber as well. I denied being attached to a glorified metal box, until in a challenge chamber it was replaced by an incredibly annoying and uncooperative ball that made me curse it to hell, and want my cube back. In the secong game, the Companion Cubes are not only numerous, as GLaDOS states herself, but they don’t ignite the same feelings because we have a much more sentient and animate ally on our side in the form of Wheatley. We are not alone anymore, so we don’t need to pack bond with an inanimate object.
In summary, from my perspective, Portal 2 was the same journey that everyone experienced and loved the same way, but Portal 1 was an individual journey that was unique for everyone, and because of that, it had an individual and unique impact on each person.
Plus "Still Alive" is easier to sing than "Want you gone" if you're not a trained vocal artist, fight me
k ill fight you :)
Want you Gone is better.
This comment was a triumph
idk portal 1 had 0 impact on me and never creeped me out
When you take adderall before writing your comments ……
I’ve always preferred Portal 1’s tone and atmosphere. I like how grounded and real it feels as well. OST is definitely moodier, and it has a very desolate feel. Portal 2 is great don’t get me wrong, but I wish Portal 2 continued the tone that Portal 1 set.
It is rather ironic that whilst setting wise Portal 2 is darker and edgier than the first game, the focus on comedic and safe and linear gameplay almost totally undermines this. It's not even the lack of blood for the sake of the E10+ rating. The only real place where the more mature nature and immersion of the first game comes back to me is in select fan created content or stories that actually care about being something more than a comedy like before.
@@sulphurous2656 Yeah. The 2nd game could’ve been real depressing considering the immense size of Aperture in that game. But that tone is ignored with the amount of comedy in it. Comedy is fine, not everything has to be edgy. But there shouldn’t be too much of it.
@@MauricioJara I agree, there has to be a way to balance out the tone of Portal 2 without making swing from one overwhelmingly dominant tone to another. Otherwise things will become tone deaf or moods will seem overly forced.
I understand but how much worse would Wheatley turning evil be with no music
I played both games, but I prefer portal 2.
Probably because the spanish portal 1 voice of GLaDOS is siri
Portal 1 had accomplished something I never thought I could experience again, the feeling of isolation amongst some industrial complex/liminal spaces that I had gotten from Half-Life 1 that I loved so much. Valve had managed to capture that again. And if you subtract Cave Johnson from the old Aperture, you sort of get that feeling as well. But CJ undercuts that atmosphere.
I've put 40 hours into Portal 2 since it launched, and 20 into Portal 1 since I bought the Orange Box. I can confidently recall pretty much all of Portal, but any of Portal 2 outside of the opening and ending. Just something about Portal 1 is more memorable. But clearly both are masterpieces.
Edit: Oh, and lemons
opposite for me
Doesn't help that portal 1 can be done in an hour if you are good at it. But for what it was, that is a perfect runtime.
Well it’s easier to remember something that is a quarter of the time
I have the inverse problem. I can hardly remember any of the middle of portal 1, but portal 2 is burned into my memory. I MUCH prefer glados in portal 2 over portal. In the first game she speaks with a completely flat tone with no real personality in it. Most of her jokes don't land for me because of that. To me, hearing Portal 1 glados speak has no real impact because she doesn't actually feel like anything special. It feels like listening to a toneless text to speech generator read off lines. I much prefer her in portal 2 where they actually gave her inflection, tone, sarcasm, and personality. She was just boring to me in 1.
The thing is, way more stuff happens in portal 2 than in portal. If i were to give a summary of both games, I'd would be something like this
Portal: You wake up in a chamber, you do puzzles with GLaDOS talking in the background, you get emotionally attached to a cube, you find out the cake is a lie, GLaDOS tries to kill you, you escape her, you fight her, you kill her, you get dragged back into aperture science
Portal 2: You wake up after a long ass time, you meet Wheatley, you do puzzles, you wake up GLaDOS, you do new puzzles, you make her arsenal of weapons not work, you put Wheatley into power, GLaDOS is potatofied, you fall, you explore the original aperture science, you do new puzzles, you climb back up, you do new puzzles (but wheatley calls you fat this time), then there's the part where he kills you, then you shoot him to the moon, you get released.
You can see that portal 2 has MUCH more lore and gameplay in it, which is why i think you don't remember as much of it as you do of portal 2 (or maybe you're just biased, idk tho)
I absolutely LOVE this video because it completely nails and emphasizes the criminally overlooked parts of the first game. The dark tone, incredible learning curve, and flexibility of the solutions from Portal 1 are so underappreciated. I often tell my friends that I prefer Portal 1 over 2, but I often look silly because it's a bit hard to truly articulate why that's the case. This video really summarizes just what makes Portal 1 so special! I do think the humor of 2, despite it being more blunt and comedic, is still incredibly appealing and it in itself is what most people associate with Portal nowadays. 1 definitely just nails it in every aspect, however, and I really do agree with pretty much all of the points made here!
If I were to draw a parallel, portal one is more akin to HL2 and portal two is closer to TF2
Well said!
That, sums it up surprisingly well.
no portal 2 is more closer to black mesa
@@mrfoxfam562 i do not see it tbh
That is especially true when it comes to visual aesthetics, Portal feels run down while not LOOKING run down, Portal 2 feels very clean and well kept when it shouldn't.
I generally agree. The first one is more cohesive and the way the difficulty of the puzzles is the groundwork that most puzzle games are based off of, at least partially.
I definitely got stuck a couple times in the overworld looking for tiny portal spots in what felt like an art showcase. The difficulty of the puzzles in the second one was more often discovering the different areas they wanted you to work with than puzzling out the solution with all the pieces in front of you.
I think that's a fair observation. There's definitely a somewhat different puzzle style in play in the sequel, in addition to a different puzzle difficulty structure. Thanks for the comment.
Just wanted to say thank you for always having perfect subtitles on your videos right when they go up. You're one of only like two channels I seen do that, and I can't hear too well anymore so it is very appreciated.
Of course! I started doing custom captions for all of my videos in late 2019, and since then my stats have shown that around 10% of viewers now use them. So that's a strong incentive to keep doing it.
ok boomer
I'll be honest, I did enjoy Portal 2's story more, but I think that's mostly because I just really enjoy comedy and while parts of it do fall flat - the GLaDOS fat jokes early on are pretty dire and weirdly petty - Wheatley's endlessly distracted adlibbing remains a tour-de-force (I still feel like Stephen Merchant was robbed of that one voice acting award: sure, Mark Hamill's Joker is amazing, but we already *knew* that), as do things like the defective turrets. I feel like you do down The Part Where He Kills You a little bit because yes, it is very obviously played for laughs, but it plays for those laughs so well (particularly the comedic timing and repetition of the titular phrase).
Saying that, you've given me a lot of food for thought on the things Portal 2 could have done better (seriously, those fat jokes 😬) as well as making me want to replay Portal 1 which - big admission here - I never got round to finishing (I got stuck on that one level with the moving platforms in a tight corridor...). Like all good criticism, even if I don't agree with it, this has made me examine my own feelings and preferences and introduced me to other points of view. Thank you, and I just want to say that from what I've seen of it so far (this and the Dark Souls and VVVVVV vids) this is a really neat channel!
The glados fat jokes were supposed to be petty since glados is petty herself lol
I did like the fat and adoption jokes. Simply because they didnt really work. It shows how angry they are at the player and I just imagine chell having a PokerFace for me that makes it very funny.
The part where he kills you has to be the funniest part. Dude keeps throwing tatrums while you just move forward. It's incredible 😂
before watching this, i really loved portal 2, and even after i still love it, its still in my top 3 favorite video games. but now that im watching this, i really realize how true everything your saying is. great video, everything your saying is spot on
I've played both for the first time recently, and I feel like portal 2 expands on so much and is so utterly satisfying that... I just can't conceive myself that the original is superior
Thank you! There are people here who must not be able to fathom what a good video game is if they think Portal is the better game
@@FoxLosst Well actually quality in a video game is entirely subjective, and while I agree that Portal 2 is the superior game because of how much it expands on the previous game's mechanics, the simpler gameplay and darker tone of the original are of course qualities that others may prefer over that, just not you or I. We should encourage healthy debate like this since it brings Portal fans closer together and keeps discussion alive, not try to shut it down.
the idea of aperture just collapsing and seeing the facility just crumble down is so COOL to me
Wholeheartedly agreed
Did you even watch the video? This guy dismantles Portal 2 as a game.
Excellent analysis of how Portal and its sequel are completely different in terms of tone and atmosphere. I've always felt that Portal is fundamentally a puzzle game with some dark humour layered on top, whereas Portal 2 is a comedy foremost with some puzzles to break up the pacing. This tonal inconsistency might not necessarily be the result of Valve misunderstanding why Portal was so successful, but rather the result of an ambitious desire to make the sequel more than simply a level-pack expansion. Pivoting the entire franchise into an absurdist farce starring Stephen Merchant and J. K. Simmons is certainly one way of achieving this, although it does mean I often struggle to remember that the wacky deathtrap of pre-GLaDOS Aperture Science in Portal 2 is the exact same clinical, more down-to-earth Aperture Science that's depicted in Portal 1.
One minor point worth considering is how The Part Where He Kills You fits into the broader picture of Portal 2's third and final act, which essentially acts as a deconstruction (if not self-parody) of Portal's earlier narrative. Much like the first game, you're working through a series of test chambers run by a rogue AI that you'll eventually confront during the climax. However, by placing the potential of Aperture Science into the hands of a deeply insecure and incompetent buffoon, Wheatley's power-mad behaviour can directly contrasted against GLaDOS'; His scatter-brained nature and lack of control results in the near-destruction of the facility; His attempts at witty put-downs are merely childish and pathetic insults (and only marginally more petty than GLaDOS' earlier remarks about Chell); So when it comes to the obligatory Part Where He Kills You, Wheatley's complete lack of tact and subtly leads to the entire scene being heavily signposted, ridiculously overblown, and incredibly trivial to escape from. The lack of credible threat is therefore deliberate - not only does The Part Where He Kills You completely fail as a twist in a narrative, but so too does Wheatley ultimately fail in his attempts to become GLaDOS' replacement.
Great analysis! Thank you for your comment. I do agree that Wheatley's physical and mental breakdown across the final chapters of the game serves as both an explanation for, and a parody of, GLaDOS' behavior in the first game. But I'm not convinced that even the idea of an incompetent AI paralleling GLaDOS' activities absolutely had to make for a significantly wackier tone or a noticeably easier game.
I've seen this notion in a few places over the years (including in at least one other comment on this video), that changing the tone of the game is the only way that something new could be brought to the experience. But I'm not convinced that a similar tone to the first game would've made the sequel 'simply a level-pack expansion.' As I said in response to that other comment, "Perhaps it's an obvious point, but the original Resident Evil is not the only Resident Evil game with a mix of corny action one-liners and horror content; the original Ratchet & Clank is not the only Ratchet & Clank game with irreverent and humorous parodies of capitalism; and so on. Tone can be maintained between entries in a series while expanding on gameplay and themes, even when that tone rides a line between multiple moods."
Even new characters can (and usually should) be added in a sequel without losing the atmosphere of the original; along those lines, even speaking specifically of Valve, Half-Life 2 is not just a level-pack expansion for Half-Life. Ultimately, Portal belongs in the Half-Life universe; Portal 2 belongs in the TF2 universe.
@@TheGemsbokOh, my gosh, Portal 2 is just a parody of its predecessor.
Now I REALLY hate it.
as someone who played Portal 2 first, I wholeheartedly agree. The tone is something I miss when playing 2.
Cave Johnson is brilliantly written, don't get me wrong, but his humor keeps the darker parts of the game light.
Left 4 Dead has the same issue in my opinion. The first game had a way creepier mood, partly due to all the levels taking place at night. You can tell even by the intros alone that L4D2, while now obviously the superior choice as it simply rolled all of the first game into the second, feels more action oriented than survival/ horror.
And thats not a bad thing.
DOOM 2016 Vs DOOM Eternal here as well
Dark, gloomy spooky vs brighter action with spooky elements
@@Allstin Mario Galaxy 1 vs 2 it reminds me of
I've always wanted to make commentary videos like this. After watching your Philosophy of Dark Souls and now this, I'm reminded of how articulate and interesting other people have relayed their views, and not gonna lie, it makes me a little less motivated to create content when people like you exist lol
Same🥲
I am so glad, that I played the first game before the second! Otherwise the incredible atmosphere of the first would have been spoiled as well as the cake being a lie.
Something to note about Portal 2: The story seen in retail was thrown together in about a year and a half. Valve scrapped their original story for Portal 2, the Multicore Era story would of had Chell teaming up with multiple disgruntled personality cores to overthrow GLaDOS, then escape. However, due to Wheatley's popularity among playtesters (and a other myriad of reasons we likely aren't aware of) they scrapped the Multicore storyline for the retail one.
And even the retail one was watered down due to a strict, unmovable deadline resulting from a console deal. What we ended up missing out on due to Portal 2 having to come out in 2011 was:
* GLaDOS having a longer and more believable character development
* EVERYTHING regarding Caroline, and her transfer into GLaDOS (we were meant to see that)
* Cave Johnson's consciousness, uploaded to a AI stored in a cube, regretful over everything he's done and asking you to kill him
* TONS. OF. CHAMBERS. Like, ALL conversion gel tests, more advanced chambers, etc.
* And, most importantly, downtime between major character moments and j o k e s.
A lot of Portal 2's scenes were cobbled together from Multicore lines, and the new ones written in that one and a half year dev time. In short, we missed out on a much more tonally cohesive game that balanced out it's humor with it's darker elements.
Heck, there's left over logic in some of the Act 2 chambers that imply that the G-Man was meant to have a role in the story at one point, possibly during Multicore. Dunno if it actually got farther than that, but it exists if you look through a decompile of one of the maps.
Okay I didn’t hear about the multi core thing before but now I’m wondering could the core we see in aparture tag possibly be a scrapped core from the original portal 2?
@@XCloak_PersonX No. Nigel is an original character by the mod developers.
@@RememberCitadel oh sorry I just recently found out about portal and didn’t know it was a mod lol
There... there WAS meant to be more? And they threw it out?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
I particularly liked a series of Portal 2 maps called "No Elements" which returned to the simplicity and difficulty of the first game and even surpassed it. It has no buttons, cubes, funnels, lightbridges, gels, lifts, or fizzlers. It manages to fit quite a few puzzles and quite a bit of cleverness with basically nothing but portable surfaces and non portable surfaces. Highly recommend it.
Also, "Still Alive" > "Want You Gone" any fucking day.
Do you remember the author of those maps?
I've always been fascinated by instances when the author(s)/creator(s) of a piece of art or media makes something amazing, but they themselves do not understand WHY it is so amazing, and subsequently are unable to follow up on it properly.
Agreed! In my opinion, the best example of that kind of thing is Anthony Burgess. He's the author of the novel A Clockwork Orange, and after it became successful he despised the book for the rest of his life---based primarily on his assumption that everyone interpreted the work the same way as him. I actually wrote an article on that topic, which ended up being a relatively big hit back when The Gemsbok was only a blog website: thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/tuesday-tome-clockwork-orange-anthony-burgess/
Well It was pretty clear that Portal 1 was always going to be a comedy , and Also Portal 2 is Also pretty scary, PotatOS Lament is scarier than any Kelly Bailey Portal 1 song.
George Lucas is a good example of this.
Or maybe they understood and still wanted to go out of their way to try something different, in which case they did so successfully, in my opinion.
I'm glad to have both games as they are; I love them *because* of the aspects that make them so different from one another. I'd rather have more to love than more of the same.
Valve knew exactly what they were doing when they made Portal 2. What they were doing was sanitizing it for mass market appeal.
Theres old animations of an early portal 2 where it kept the same look and feel, wish they went with that
Can you link that by any chance? I’d love to see it. The developer commentary for portal 2 indicates how much stuff they scrapped because of playtester feedback and instead steered the game in a much “safer” and imo worse direction, really a shame to see.
Portal one always gave me such an edge of my seat feeling, like something is wrong. The loneliness makes it even more scary, the confusion adds to it “why am i here?”, “who is this voice?” The atmosphere feels disturbing like something went wrong but you don’t know what n why, the ratman dens add to this sure they were in portal 2 but it didn’t have the same impact anymore as in portal 1 rat-man was the only other character who ever semi talked to us. Although portal 2 is still amazing and one of my favourite games, Portal 1 glados felt more menacing with her passive aggressive voice. The Ost of portal 1 is incredibly unnerving to me it just adds to the loneliness with somber and slow music.
Yeah, OST in Portal is amazing. Procedural Jiggle Bone is kinda scary but Self Esteem Fund is beautiful
youre overreacting
@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 no I’m not i just love the atmosphere of portal 1 that much
One of my favorite parts from the first game was the platforms you needed shoot the portal gun mid-air and remember alternate your portals to climb higher. In the second game, once you're airborne everything is automatic, no input from the player was needed, and I remember feeling a little disappointed by that.
Absolutely true, and very succintly put. Something I noticed very late into this project (too late to include it in the video, unfortunately), is that the 'fling' maneuver is considered the most important portal mechanic taught to the player in Portal, yet is essentially absent from the second game. (The 'fling' is what the devs call it when you place a first portal on a high wall, go through any nearby surface, then place a portal below yourself in mid-air to fly out of the first portal with greatly enhanced horizontal momentum.)
The developer commentary of the first game talks about the mechanic a lot, and how it's sort of the final challenge to getting players "thinking with portals." Hence why it's the last thing you do to fetch the last core in the boss fight.
How's it automatic? If you want to fling you still need to alternate portals the game doesn't place them for you.
What the hell dude, this is insanely well made. i assumed this had at least 50k views. Well done! Subscribed
Ah, if only the channel grew to a large degree every time someone told me it should already be huge . . . then I guess it would hit an equilibrium point and people would stop saying it. Ha. Anyway, I should have a new game video ready in early July. Thanks for subscribing!
In portal 1 the path you take seems like you found it yourself in many cases (even tho ratman has left hints), in Portal 2 you go straight to the exit/do not go here signs.
YES so true
I went into this expecting to get angry and yet instead I almost completely agree with all your points. Great job!
This was a really insightful and interesting reflection on the series. I came into it expecting the same nostalgic-lens garbage most people have when criticizing a sequel, but your points were well made and supported. I’m gonna go replay Portal with this video in mind.
I have to agree with you. I played Portal and Portal 2 many times, but only with Portal i have feeling like a want play it just one more time.
no fucking way is that freddy fazbear
can you sing your famous line for me please fredrick
Couldn't agree more. One thing I'd add to this is, that Portal 2's aperture science feels much more organic, given that the panels and everything move around all the time. For me the fact that in Portal 1, it feels more manmade, more like an actual abandoned building makes it far creepier. The impossible architecture of 2 just doesn't feel as intimidating given the tone, with maybe the exception of some parts of old aperture. While in 1 you've got this crumbling facility that's just a bit off, with you only starting to realise that slowly.
Well articulated on all counts. I enjoyed Portal 2 immensely when I first played it, but in hindsight, I think I have to agree with you
Thank you for the kind comment! Part of the nature of Valve's aggressive approach to playtesting is that their games end up purpose-built to make the strongest possible first impressions. It's a valid strategy, for sure, but it can definitely lead to situations where cracks show up in retrospect or on a second playthrough.
amazing video, I never knew why I liked portal 1 much much better than the second but now I do. thanks
@@FoxLosst it is my opinion, I just thought he had a nice video laying out the details of why some people might like the first game better than the second. Also I have replayed them and the first one is more fun for me. The tone and atmosphere is so much better
@@FoxLosst i formed my opinion a decade ago when portal 2 came out, and it's not significantly different from OPs. a video like this is hardly "brainwashing", and thats a very strange accusation to levy.
I've seen a few mods that aim to recreate portal in portal 2's engine and art style
I want to see a mod that recreates portal 2 in portal's engine and art style
Absolutely. Although I can understand how it would be a much more challenging and potentially unpopular project, it would be very interesting to see that (especially if it included an editing down of the script, and applying a filter more in line with the first game on the dialogue of GLaDOS and Wheatley).
Both are made in the same engine the engine is the source engine
@@nike2136 True, but both engines have modifications made to them to get certain things to work, on top of visual flair, it's not as easy as just putting the Portal 2 stuff in Portal 1 and it will work because both are the same engine.
Very well explained, i love both games as their own very different experiences each, but i understand the comparison, as it is a direct sequel and there can be some expectations set. Great video.
How does this have so few views? Very well articulated (and produced)!
The Portal 2 "Lab Rat" tie-in comic perfectly matches the tone of the first game. It's weird to me that the main game didn't keep that up.
Great video. Even though I disagree, and think that Portal 2 is better, I can still see why some people might like the 1st one. Still, both are excellent games, and great video is a great video.
One thing I can't help but wonder about that might have been a contributing factor was the desire to move away from Half-Life. Portal was made using some Half-Life 2 assets, such as the button noises, chapter intros, and the orange energy balls. I can't help but think it's possible that part of the tonal shift in Portal 2 may be from a thought process of "If it becomes more of its own thing and establishes its own identity separate from Half-Life, it's an automatic improvement!" I did notice essentially every last thing derived from the Half-Life series had been thoroughly stamped out.
honestly i clicked the video thinking there was no way you could pull this off but this is video is so well crafted that it's hard to disagree with. great work. subbed!
Haha, well I'm glad you gave it a chance despite your initial reaction. And thank you for the sub! Next game video will be available in early July.
It's not well crafted and to be honest I actually think that anyone who has agreed should replay both games paying attention to every tiny detail to see how Portal caused GLaDOS to be what she is and how Portal 2 improves on everything.
@@FoxLosstlol
Valve has a habit of playtesting their games to a fault. I still prefer the sequel overall but I definitely agree with most of the criticisms particularly the difficulty.
Portal 1 had a subtle humor which added to the overall morbid undertone and sometimes was like a comedic relief. Portal 2 ist just comedy from start to finish. It doesn't feel creepy or claustrophobic at any point in the game. I'm not sure but I think at the time they made Portal 2, many people involved in HL2 and the Orange Box were already gone.
Played one of the Portal games, probably P2 on my dad's steam account years ago, definitely need to get it on mine and play it again
They're both short and they both hold up well, so I foresee you enjoying yourself.
In my opinion portal 2 two is awesome but original portal had that specific mood of being a lonely test subject. There was something little bit scary about the atmosphere
Great video. I think they wanted to expand the audience of the game so they attempted to make it more appealing to children. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in Australia the first game is rated M (15+) and the second is PG (parental guidance recommended). I think they tried to compromise for the original fans by still having dark themes, like the dens at the start of the game, but then put a silly comedy coat of paint over the top so kids would be allowed to play. It bugs me because I played the first game as a kid and loved it, but I imagine they wanted to make a co-op game that was family friendly that strict parents would be ok with, that also explains why there is no longer blood from the turrets and the tests are easier. While I prefer the creepy atmosphere of the first game, I still love the over the top humour of the second, so I feel they did succeed in the end.
I got into the series with portal 2 and I STILL believe the OG portal is far better, though it does feel like it gets overshadowed by the tone set with the sequel.
Like the time of "The cake is a lie"
Feel so much different from "A COMBUSTIBLE LEMON THAT WILL BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN"
Both are funny but the "I am a potato" quote is iconic too
I can't believe that i've been playing portal for 15 years, it is such a brilliant game that deserves more than what the internet says about it
I couldn't agree more. Especially with how much Portal 2 feels like it is, "on rails." I felt like the puzzles were almost a distraction to get to the next bit of story, compared to Portal 1 where the puzzles were the adventure.
In one game I am doing puzzle which progress the game, in the other I am doing puzzles to progress the game.
That being said, Portal 2 suffers from being the sequel to a game whose unknowability was its greatest asset.
In earlier Portal 2 trailers the puzzles actually seemed more difficult
yeah, i think the game suffered from not having the sharpest testers. It's possible the devs streamlined puzzles the testers were getting stuck at a bit too much.
@@Niyucuatro portal stories Mel solved this. Difficulty levels!
@@yol_n lmaooo the fact that I got stuck at Wheatley chambers for longer than any chamber in the Mel while people find it harder is so funny. Like genuinely the only "hard" chamber in Mel seemed to be the one where you have to bring the cube over the goo (I hope it was Mel, I've done some mods after it) by destroying it so it respawns. That chamber was the only one that I got stuck at for around 30 minutes, asked my gf to help, she didn't find a solution either, so we just went for the TH-cam walkthrough. Probably the level design flaw, instead of the actual chamber solving issue.
@@Sergonizer are you playing in story mode or challenge mode?
Challenge mode was the normal campaign before they changed in a patch to "challenge mode" and the new campaign being story mode which is akin to portal 2 puzzles.
Portal is an adult game. Very hopeless atmosphere, self restraint with the jokes, more immersive. Portal 2 is a childs game. Flashy colors, comedy, drama and a surprisingly hopeful atmosphere.
I've been having this exact same feeling about the two games recently, I think because I introduced my then-girlfriend-now-wife to games a couple years ago. One of the first I had her play was Portal 1, which I have considered an essential experience for 16 years now. I never thought of Portal 2 the same way.
The thing that put me off portal 2 is the sci-fi and wacky feel of the inviroment and instead of lonely deselect feel in portal 1 which takes the fact that there are no humans alive
It is interesting to see someone prefer P1 because of the the story and thematic elements, whereas for myself, I prefer P1 because of the slight differences in physics and movement mechanics. There is a similarity in how things change for both of us between the games. For the story part of it, you may feel that it loses the seriousness by focusing on comedy, while for the physics, I believe it loses its seriousness by redefining the player's movement and abilities. To explain my concern: I seriously love the (even if unintentional) Accelerated Backwards Hop and the portal pellet delay. These two mechanics make for such interesting movement opportunities that I find myself feeling stuck when playing P2 (playing community maps on the regular). While the ability to mess around in that way could break lots of chambers and "ruin" parts of the game from a puzzle perspective, for me they are more fun than the rest of the game itself. Thankfully P2 has a decent amount of movement to mess around with, even if things like bhop speed are handicapped. The ability to speed up by walking along a wall/railing at the right angle always makes me feel satisfied thankfully.
Just as you find the comedic elements to hold back the game from achieving the right atmosphere/story/theme, I find myself feeling literally held back from moving myself when playing. But anyway, looking at things from a story perspective I definitely agree that the thematic shift is dramatic between the games, thank you for pointing it out. Nice vid.
There's a general jankiness in Portal 1 that I prefer. Like when you send a cube through a portal in 1, it doesn't always land perfectly where it should, there's an element of randomness, but in 2 it does because the devs made sure it does. Walking around feels more like gliding; you don't "trip" on small objects or bumps in the floor as much. In my mind this is related to player freedom issues like not enough portalable surfaces, but it's hard to explain how. Like, in 2 there are railings that you can't jump over. Why not? It's like everything has to be just so, it has to go smoothly and perfectly just the way Valve intended.
The rails! For real man, I remember that feeling of the rails being visibly climbable but then block for no reason. It was frustrating realizing the virtual world around me was limited; it lost the respect for the surroundings i felt in P1. @@eccentriastes6273
It's not said very much, i also prefer the way Aperture itself looks, it looks like it was always run by humans and feels realistic and lived in, Portal 2 looks cool, but the facility looks like its always been run by robots, and is suddenly 500x larger.
To be fair, it was atleast 1000 years since humans were actually working there
@@XCloak_PersonXAnd the facility was broken down in that time due to GLaDOS being destroyed, yet everything looks different. It makes no sense for it to look the way it does. They just changed the art style because they could. They retconned everything, and it sucks.
At least we have portal stories mel! The challenge there is hard since puzzle are complex
This video is great, needs more views.
One question: How would you rate Portal and Portal 2 from 1 to 10?
I do like Portal 2 but i've always loved Portal 1 more for its tone, atmosphere and because it's so nostalgic to me. Portal is my second favourite game of all time.
What a fantastic breakdown of something that is only just barely consciously perceptible when casually playing games. I had previously seen Matthewmatosis' video, and this was equally insightful. I too loved Portal 2 but always felt that the first game was special somehow, but not simply because it was more original. You nailed it.
Thank you for that very kind comment. It's a nice shot of confidence to read on this day in particular, because (coincidentally) I'll be publishing my next game analysis video tomorrow.
in my opinion, yes the single player campaign is better, the second is a better game in total purely because of the workshop and editer.
You explained very well the differences between the two games, but you didn't really explained why one *should* be better than the other...
Yeah the tones are really different but we can't really say one is objectively better than the other, it's just two different directions, both with great executions.
The idea that the "serious" tone is better than the other one is kinda subjective. I personally also tend to prefer the atmosphere of Portal 1, but while the atmosphere of Portal 2 is very different it still does an excellent job to make it consistent and to use every qualities this kind of atmosphere has to bring, and I don't think this really breaks the immersion, it's just not the same tone.
So overall, it feels more like it's only personal preferences. Which is fine but asserting that Portal *is* better than Portal 2 because of that is a bit awkward, it just sounds like you present this as an objective fact, maybe it wasn't your intention but for me it felt more like you talked about that as a fact rather than an opinion.
Anyway, one thing I disagree on is about the difficulty of Portal 2. On most Portal 2 first playthough I saw, players didn't find the solution to everything so easily, I think the difficulty is well balanced. The fun in Portal 2 is more about discovering and learning new mechanics rather than challenging the player. I would also argue that Portal 1 wasn't intended to be a challenge either, we can see Portal 1 is a kind of giant tutorial to make the player learn how to think with Portals ; and because Portal 2 consider that the player already knows how to think with portals, the new way to bring them more stuff to learn is new testing components.
Still a nice video with good comparisons though
Of course it's subjective. All substantial art criticism and reviewing is subjective. There is no meaningful difference between saying that I consider one work of art to be better than another and expressing that I prefer one over the other.
If you want to see a review of a game that is purely objective instead, Sterling once produced one: th-cam.com/video/H1BiLrOGfpM/w-d-xo.html Even if you don't have the 5 minutes to spare for that video, I'd recommend taking a moment to skim through some of the comments underneath it.
Man portal frightened me as a highschooler. Portal 2 in college came at a great time for me to laugh but in reflection portal was the superior game. You put all the reasons very well. I also have like, orders of magnitude more in portal 2. Plus those co-op levels people make can be brutal. Felt actually smarter after solving them but also had to take a nap.
I am so, so glad someone agrees with me on this. I always say I prefer portal 1 but I could never put it into words well enough. thank you ^^
[edit : as someone who is generally bad at video games : despite having to google puzzles in both games at some point (;;), portal 1 felt more natural to me. it starts off easy, and gets increasingly difficult while introducing new mechanics alongside getting the player well-versed in basics. in 2, it's more like 'easy tutorial levels, chambers get more complex, new gimmick is introduced, more easy tutorial levels to accommodate for new gimmick etc etc...'. it almost gets there, but then realises it's a sequel and needs to add new stuff, so scrambles to throw more on.
with portal 1, items are introduced slowly, allow the player to do things they normally are unable to, and change up how the player approaches puzzles. in 2, it feels more like 'hey here's some wacky shit I just dug up, go use it' even though puzzles would flow exactly the same, if not better, without said wacky shit. COUGH those stupid panels that completely automate building up momentum for no reason, sometimes even being used at the same time COUGH]
This channel's gonna blow up. Great stuff.
Thank you! From your keyboard to the TH-cam algorithm's heart, I hope . . .
Portal 1's tone was so eerie to a point where i was anxious of getting jumpscared, i wish it couldve been longer. Portal 2 is great but the whole part when you were underground was just exhausting i was so happy when i finally got to see Wheatley again, while Portal 1 was just an amazing experience throughout, there was no downs at all (but tbf Portal 1 is a lot shorter)
Well, basically the major downside (downgrade?) in Portal 2 are characters. I don't mind comedic C. Johnson, because he's a new character. I don't mind Wheatley, because it's just another whacky/crazy core. Heck, I wouldn't even mind changes in GLaDOS. However, they are all funny from the start to the end and it's a little bit too tiresome sometimes - for example these GLaDOS puns when we bring her alive again.
I'm surprised you didn't mention how story and narrative is paced differently in P1 and P2. In first Portal there are usually few lines when we enter/exit a chamber done by GLaDOS until there is escape sequence. Other than that we are finding "clues" in silence (Rattman hideous). In Portal 2 almost everything is shown by talking.
Now we just need to wait for 3000nds for portal 3
This seems like a problem with video game franchises in general, where the first game places a heavier emphasis on atmosphere over more "cool" elements in the game (Halo 1, Mass Effect 1, Left 4 Dead 1, Doom 2016, etc.), and it sucks cause generally the atmosphere of those first games entice me, while the later games in the franchise don't have that same effect.
In Portal's case, it seems more like a lot of the general mysteries in the game are solved. Why are there no humans? Is GLaDOS sentient? Where does this take place? Is this related to Half Life? Why are they testing? In the first game, a great majority of these questions are answered. As a result, I feel like it would be out of character for Portal 2 to keep that mysterious and creepy atmosphere, because you automatically know more about the universe and story by the end of the first game. Like a monster in the 1st act of a horror movie, it's scary until you know its motivations and how it works.
I do think Portal 2 requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, especially with lines like the mantis men or the TF2-esque Cave Johnson lines, and this feels like a discredit to the universe since this also takes place in the (much more serious) Half Life universe.
The truth is that you can’t do the same atmosphere twice. Maybe in survival horror you can, because the atmosphere is driven by gameplay.
But left 4 dead is a great example. That game has stellar atmosphere. Yet after playing it for a while, the effect rubs off. And if a creepy left 4 dead 3 dropped right now, it honestly wouldn’t phase like the first game did. It’s just not novel anymore and it gets old. You get familiarized with the game world.
And you be honest the cool factor is usually better anyway. Mass effect 2 is better than the first game. Halo 2 is better than the first game. Doom eternal is better than Doom 2016.
The cool and fun factor is just better.
Devs don’t just abandon creepy themes to cash out. It’s because fear is based in ignorance ultimately. And players aren’t ignorant about your game world after the first game
One of the extremely subtle things about Portal's Atmosphere that I just don't feel Portal 2 captures...
The way it sometimes feels like the facility is *breathing* around you, like you are deep in the belly of a terrible technological monster.
Portal 2 accomplished that feeling to
It shows how all walls are moveable and controlled by Glados, you see the walls broken and just starting to come back to life revealing it's true power, it feels really alive and dangerous especially when you see them failing and malfunctioning
And portal 2 showed us just how massive Aperture really is, it felt like you were being revealed all the secrets of the facility you didn't get to see is portal 1.
@@jackbluehq6653 That's way too obvious, though. Portal 1 did it in a quiet, static manner, to great effect.
@theholygamer969 hmmn no not really
Portal 1 and 2 have completely different tone and themes and different ways to convey it
It's unfair for both games to try and argue which is better cause both did amazingly at portraying aperature
And remember both games are set in very very different time frames
It wouldn't make sence for portal 2 to have the same clean eerie mysterious atmosphere
It's stupid to try and argue if both games are better, cause both games are masterpieces that nailed there atmospheres perfectly
Personally Portal 2 is my favorite game, though it is rather overrated. Never once did it actually make me laugh. If it went for a more serious tone like portal 1 with more restrained humor then it could have been a lot more impactful atmosphere-wise. Portal 1 definitely has it beat in those areas, just not the behind-the-scenes style or the workshop support, thats what won me over to the second game.
Yes, it would be reasonable for someone to say that I am being somewhat unfair by restricting this video to the main campaigns of the games. After all, the co-op campaign and workshop/mod support of Portal 2 are huge benefits in its favor, and Portal 1's similarly-ignored-here bonus features are negligible by comparison.
I still stand by the logic of the decision in the video, that the singleplayer campaigns provide the 'quintessential Portal experience.' But I could easily understand how someone taking a more holistic view of each entry's features would feel differently.
It never made you laugh- what
I love Portal 2, but I much prefer Glados from Portal 1 than in Portal 2.
Any Portal 2 mods you'd recommend with a more substantial challenge?
If you haven't already tried it, Portal Stories: Mel is available on Steam for free as a standalone fan-made expansion, styled as a prequel to Portal 2. The writing is still a bit goofy for my taste, the quality of the voice acting is all over the place, and there are some indulgently long sections spacing out tests at two points; but the gameplay inside the test chambers is basically what I would've wanted in Portal 2. Not ridiculously difficult like some of the Steam Workshop chambers---but puzzles that occasionally challenge you.
I haven’t tried it, I’ll definitely give it a play at some point
Mel, Aperture Tag, Portal Reloaded, Rexaura
many more if you scour moddb
@@TheGemsbok Portal Stories of Mel, is easy in the history mode. Certainly no hard in the right way in the other mode, I expect hard puzzles no skill requeriments.
Imagine if portal 1 had portal 2's tone. What I'm saying is, imagine if both portals had reverse tones.
There's actually a mod for Portal 2 that ports the levels from Portal 1. It's not finished yet but you can get up to the first part of the escape section. It's neat!
Very insightful. Although I agree with just about everything in the video, I still enjoyed portal 2s campaign quite a bit.
As did I!
I like Portal 1 better simply because of the simple designs with silent atmosphere
When I was a kid, I was scared of the turrets
the issue brought up at 17:50 succinctly describes what I think is the largest mistake of Portal 2's level design. It's so obsessed with keeping the player on track, even during the puzzles themselves, that the portal surfaces were limited. Portal 2's levels have a certain "language" that silently guides the player to the solution, often times reached when first interacting with an element. Part of this is compounded by the necessity to limit these surfaces with how many new elements are introduced. The lack of confidence in integrating new mechanics leads to more linear puzzle design, which demands simplicity or risks being both impossibly easy for some players or unclear and difficult for others.
This "language" works to their advantage in the escape and old aperture sections, although I think the effect it has is best described by the Neurotoxin Generator "puzzle" solution.
Both games are built around a consistently communicated set of rules for portal placement, one of such being that portals cannot be moved with panels. This becomes intuitively clear over the course of the games, but they choose to break this rule here specifically for the sake of spectacle. You must place portals on a moving panel to cut the tubes. This solution would be terribly unclear in the context of portal 1, given the abundance of surfaces and how this rule is demonstrated during the momentum "tutorial". Yet, for portal 2 most people get the solution without second thought. The lack of depth means consistency and clarity are no longer necessary for a solution, and this heavily hinders the level design. Difficult puzzles built around portal 2's mechanics are often deemed impossible simply because the boundaries are never pushed throughout the singleplayer campaign and, while silent rules exist and are well understood, they are never capitalized upon to make engaging puzzles. Every room is filled with clutter, and nothing gets the time to expand.
I think Mike Daas' videos on "hidden" portal mechanics (closed portals, cube respawns, etc.) are incredibly interesting for these reasons. There's a lot of potential that goes unexplored in portal 2, and while almost every unseen rule is intuitively understood it becomes difficult to utilize because portal 2 avoids mechanical depth like the plague.
this is a trend in almost all valve sequels, half life alyx actually kinda annoyed me because of its goofyness :/
Yeah, I adore Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 (in fact, they're one of my favorite games) but I always come back to its predecessors more often. In Half-Life it's for the gameplay and in Portal it's for the tone.
I 100% agree with absolutely everything you said, though my subjective opinion still likes Portal 2 more than 1 with consideration of the changes they made. The only difference you noted in the second game that I also didn't like was the lack of overall difficulty within the puzzles. Edit: Altered Statements Slightly
From a design perspective, I've grown to like the brighter and cleaner look of Portal 2 as it gives the game its own identity, and the sound cues from the puzzle elements are greatly appreciated (something I found myself missing when I recently replayed Portal: Still Alive). However, it felt like something was missing, something crucially different, but I couldn't put my finger on it for years.
The Portal Gun and the portals themselves.
*Portal Gun*
~In the first game, the Portal Gun sounds bold and hefty, making each shot feel heavy and pronounced. In the second game, it sounds softer and more mechanical, almost feeling like a light toy.
~Originally if fired, the light would match whatever was fired last, as well as leaving a trail of a prominent colored streak behind the shot; if it hit a surface where a portal couldn't be supported, one of many beautiful and detailed spark or particle effects would happen. Now the light only matches the last opened portal, the trailing streak is lighter and thinner, and there are fewer and less prominent failed portal effects.
*Portals*
~When opening in Portal, the blue ones would have a soft and gentle opening sound, while the orange one sounded like it was ripping a hole in reality itself. I'm sure they have their own sounds in Portal 2, but they aren't anywhere near as noticeable or memorable.
~Walking through the first game's portals had unique and iconic sounds, and when traveling at terminal velocity it sounded like you were whizzing by them. The second game's portals sound like a strange gel and aren't anywhere near as satisfying to listen to.
~The original portals' flames looked like they were fused with the walls and licking the air around the opening. The new flames don't have that same look or feel.
~If portals were placed across from each other, the tunnel effect was deep and would update smoothly as you walked through. Now the tunnel effect is shallower and has a noticeable reconstruction every time you walk through.
~Ultimately, because Portal has a more grounded/realistic look (which still looks amazing 15 years later), you could envision having portals in the real world. Portal 2's lighter look removes that sensation.
Great analysis!
@@TheGemsbok Thanks! Yours was too and finally gave me a suitable place to post these thoughts!
Portal for me is like how I feel about Left 4 Dead. I think the first one had a better tone and story, but the sequels make some improvements in the gameplay. Admittedly, Portal 2’s single player campaign is a little too easy at times but I like how the game is a little longer. I think Portal deserves a Black Mesa style remake that combines the best elements of the first and second game to make a more definitive version of the original Portal
I've always found weird that people say Portal 2 can be too easy when most of Portal 1 is extremely rudimentary in terms of gameplay complexity. There isn't much in Portal 1 that can get you stuck save for a couple of areas, usually you look around and you know exactly what to do. I feel a lot of people just played Portal 1 when they were younger and were more mentally developed by the time they got to play Portal 2 so they had an easier time figuring stuff out.
i think i spent more time looking for portalable surfaces than actualy solving the puzzles in portal 2
I wholheartedly believed that portal 2 was perfect. It feels awesome to learn a new perpsective presented in the way that you did. Congratulations for the excellent viewpoints.
yes i like the portal 1 companion cube more than portal 2
"puzzles that solve themselves" THANK YOU. Surely my number one top complaint about portal 2. Valve sandblasted it with play testing so hard that almost the whole game feels more like a puzzle themed walking simulator than a puzzle game
Try portal reloaded! It’s the best portal 2 mod with a third time travel portal and really hard puzzles
I don't really understand this complaint. The game assists you with many things (portal placement aim assist, trajectory adjustment etc.) but those are things that are just quality of life and don't necessarily make the thought process of the puzzles easier. But the puzzles themselves get really challenging, especially in old Aperture (talking about the actual test chambers, not the inbetween parts) and Wheatley's later (stolen) chambers. The main difference is you don't have to deal with the jank of Source physics object cubes or slow, hard to predict energy balls. The puzzles in portal 1 may be challenging on a first playthrough when you're still getting used to the base mechanics of portals, but if you were to play Poartal 1 for the first time after playing the first half of Portal 2, they'd probably already be extremely easy to solve.
@@ethanlivemere1162 People who prefer Portal 1 like shitty execution based puzzles, while people who prefer portal 2 like logically complex puzzles which are easy to execute when you find the solution.
really dont get this point. the first 14 chambers in portal 1 are rudimentary to the point where theyre basically just elaborate walks to the exit. if "puzzles solve themselves" is a complaint being levied towards portal 2 then surely you must feel the same way about portal 1
Let's be honest, if portal 1 got a puzzlemaker too, It would of definetly be better
Portal 2's engine is still better even if you don't like the campaign
(Also you can make maps for Portal 1 they're just slightly harder to put into your game)
@@Kukalooka yeah but not that much people know how to use hammer
@@goldenbendy Well yeah but most of the non hammer maps aren't even that good to begin with
@@Kukalookagood point, still, i think it would get more popularity if It got a puzzlemaker
@@goldenbendy I mean maybe, Portal and Portal 2 have slightly different Portal Mechanics so Portal could still be relevant today for certain types of puzzles
I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I also think that the change in tone wasn't as bad as you put forward. I found the jokes in portal 2 genuinely elevate the experience, especially when mainly going through simple chambers. I would have been happier to see harder puzzles, but I am also pretty happy that because of the difficulty spikes being sanded down I managed to get my mother to play the game, which I wouldn't have been able to with portal 1 because it just requires more experience with the medium. I also think that as a horror-adjacent comedy series continues, it has to choose between doubling down on horror or accepting that its contents aren't going to scare players any more. Playing portal 1 again is not scary, even though I was genuinely scared upon my first time playing it as a young-ish teen, so if portal 2 had been more of the same, it wouldn't have just limited comedy without providing anything new.
Replaying any game usually won't result in the same impact as the first playthrough, but that is exactly as true of the comedy in Portal 2 as it is of the tension in Portal. Moreover, that doesn't mean that sequels to games set in tense or horrifying realities have always failed to be tense or horrifying. Perhaps it's an obvious point, but the original Resident Evil is not the only Resident Evil game with a mix of corny action one-liners and horror content; the original Ratchet & Clank is not the only Ratchet & Clank game with irreverent and humorous parodies of capitalism; and so on. Tone can be maintained between entries in a series while expanding on gameplay and themes, even when that tone rides a line between multiple moods.
I played the second game before the first and I enjoy the first a lot more while also having more hours on the second game.
i was quite young when i played portal 2 on xbox, and it was one of my first games outside of whatever i could get on the DS or sometimes the wii. i never got far in it cause my brother would always kick me off the xbox, so for the longest time to me the parts that stuck with me are the first few chapters. it was this empty, abandoned, melancholy facility. like the kind of place you would find in the woods with your friends. it really surprised me to come back years later and see the most of the game was lighthearted and clean.
100% agreed, Portal 1's tone is something incredibly special and one of a kind. Portal 2 is an amazing game as well, but the tone is a bit off and doesn't feel as cohesive and interesting as Portal 1's. But I will say Portal 2's variety in my opinion is it's biggest strength the map of Portal 1 was sterile and emotionless which was perfect for the tone of the game, but Portal 2 has some amazing set-pieces and is much more visually interesting if it looked the same as Portal 1 I couldn't see myself not finding it dull. Also the part where you shoot a portal onto the moon and the way it's built up is honestly my faovurite moment in all of gaming, nothing can beat that experience for me.
This video was created before the Talos Principle 2, I see certain parallels between the first and second game. TP2 is easier and introduces new gadgets with limited use and combination in puzzles and it introduces companions and lots of dialogue. That doesn't mean TP2 is a not a brilliant game. The story and environments are great. I guess both sequels tried to appeal to a broader player base and did succeed but that removed the grittiness and loneliness of the original and most important a sequel can never reproduce the emotions of being thrown into a new unknown game universe.
Portal 2 is a pg 13 movie version of portal 1 and I will stand by that
Ehhh It's the other way around since the first Portal have bloods if you got shot while the 2nd one doesn't.
This video is very well made and I really appreciate hearing the point of view. But, I do disagree completely. It's actually fascinating to hear a deep dive on this argument becasue I think both games are comedies and Portal 2 is just about the closest thing we have to perfect video game.
I love it’s simplicity and story-
I find the gameplay more fun and how it follows a track instead of dipping back into testing and back out again, like portal 2, despite portal 2’s continuous puzzles throughout the game.
But i prefer portal 2 in terms of the plot and characters. It’s visuals are stunning. It’s characters are lovable. It’s funny.
But there’s a lack of fear and mystery like the first game.
In the first game, you’re rather clueless and can be scared by some of the dialogue, but the second one has a set plot, and the twists are more sad and aggravating than surprising
Most people probably don’t expect the whole GLaDOS fight.
But in portal 2.
Based on Wheatley’s already erratic and easily irritated but surprisingly light tone, you might expect that if you mix that with the quiet insanity that is GLaDOS’s personality, you might predict a nervous and angry breakdown. Especially since GLaDOS still makes fun of him.
It it any wonder he turns on us?
The story feels more... predictable.
Sure i was’t expecting the whole.. sending them to the moon thing. But the anxiety and emotional points were kind of predicted. If you just study the characters.
In portal 1, it’s not as predictable.
The jokes hint towards something much darker. The dark tone isn’t telling, but may imply something bad.
Wheatley’s comedic personality and his stupidity allowing him to be telling doesn’t hide the future.
He tells us he wants to kill us.
He tells us his whole plan.
He tells us A LOT
With no hints or jokes like GLaDOS has in her threatening dialogue
I love portal 2 because of the characters.
The music, the scenes.
But i can’t deny it’s lacking story.
It’s still my favorite of the two!
Portal always felt dull to me. Not that i didn’t love that atmosphere. But portal 2 has always been more my style. It’s funny, rather quick-paced, it has huge maps.
When i was younger it felt harder.
But it feels more PG geared than the first despite them both being PG.
There’s more jokes, more dialogue, pretty landscapes, there’s *assistance*
The first game still stumps me sometimes, especially in the whole escape sequence.
But the difference between them is what makes them both good.
An eerie, discomforting puzzle game and it’s pretty humorous twin.
I adore old apertures large spaces.
But the small tests of portal 1 were just as good.
I also prefer the old GLaDOS.
There was more variety to the jokes, they were more uncomfortable rather than childish. (Though i’m pretty sure P2 GLaDOS is like that because of the cores she lost.)
A sequel never beats the original, but should never be the same.
Creating and unbeatable original, like Valve did? Is an actually huge thing.
I applaud them for it.
Portal 1 will never be beat, but portal 2 will never be bad.
I always thought of Portal 1 and 2 to be different games that don't built ontop of each other. I think that makes much more sense. They share some mechanism, but so do all ego-shooters. That doesn't mean all are the same, but that single titles can be seen as single entities.
I've tried to consider that point-of-view while working on this video, but ultimately I couldn't maintain it. They share the same primary characters, the same primary setting, the same primary mechanics, etc. That makes it too hard for me to see them as truly independent on the basis of their small (though numerous) differences.
One thing that always annoyed me about the 2nd game is how many tiny visual design things were changed for the flimsiest reasons. Elevators between levels are completely different, 'storage cubes' now light up on buttons as though touching buttons is what they're for, energy balls are replaced by lasers, Chell's face is totally different to be prettier, Glados is animated like a Pixar character instead of just swaying, etc etc. I mean, yeah, okay, each thing like that makes the game 1% smoother to play. But all of those things also screw up the continuity between the games so it's a bad trade.
Very well said. That point about the difference in GLaDOS' animations is something I considered discussing in the video at one point while working on it, because I think it's another solid example of how restraint could've led to a better outcome with less work.
There's a part in the Q&A of a different GDC talk than the one I quoted here, which was delivered about a year after the release of the original Portal, where someone asks Erik Wolpaw how Valve can replicate the limitations faced by the team of the first game (given that a lot of the preceding talk was about how some of Portal's best attributes resulted from embracing limitations---and that Portal 2 was then practically guaranteed to get a much less restrictive budget, schedule, and team size), and Wolpaw is completely at a loss; he waffles through some jokes for a minute or so before finally declaring, "I don't know." Ultimately, that's one question to which I'm not sure they ever found an answer.
I feel it was important for them to make something that actually looked and felt different from the first game, since retaining the same art style of Portal 1 would've felt like a map pack more than a proper sequel. There was a gameplay explanation over them replacing the energy balls with lasers, as lasers made puzzle solving flow much better.
"The Cake is a Lie!
The Cake is a Lie!
The Cake is a Lie!
The Cake is a Lie!
The Cake is a Lie!"
I don't get why game devs keep acting like "more is better".
More things to do, more game mechanics, bigger game world, etc. etc.
When the smaller predecessors keep being the better games!?
Portal 1 is better because it has the better puzzle design. Sometimes in Portal 2, just finding the portable surfaces is the "puzzle".
6:40 I think the reason why Glados is less monotone in 2 is because the explosion from the ending of portal 1 as well as her rebooting herself actually woke up Caroline in her, so shes got more humanity
a bit late for the party but her voice becomes less computerized when you destroy morality core
To be fair Portal 2 is really the only Valve game oriented towards children and families . Because everything else they released before then was violent as hell.
Terminator vs Terminator 2
I've seen others compare it to the difference between Alien and Aliens, but I think your comparison is more accurate.
I feel like Portal 1 just has that classic source game feeling
From the name of their gdc talk, it seems like maybe the game writers agree with you somewhat lol.
Ha, that's not quite how I interpret that title, but maybe . . .
Can you link the gdc talk? I’m interested
@@abcdefzhij on mobile atm but it's the one called "Portal 2: Creating a Sequel to a Game That Doesn't Need One" that Daniel quotes from in this video
Thanks@@journeration1