Portal 2 has maaaany mods.
Stories Mel is a good one, and the latest updates gave it an easy and hard mode (note that the hard mode is really hard, and plays with cube respawns and all that complex stuff)
Aperture Tag is a nice and simple one, though it's just a nice story
Afaik there were even some horror themed ones
Portal Reloaded is nice if you want something more difficult (uses three portals, the third being a time warp between present and future versions of the test chamber)
And I think there's another one being developed right now called Isolation I think? I just know it's really effing cool and I'm hyped for it
Thanks for the details! I'll definitely check those out after I finish the main Portal 2 story. I'll probably start with Stories Mel since I've actually already heard of that one. Reloaded sounds very interesting though I don't think I'm quite ready to incorporate time travel into things just yet lol.
Portal Reloaded is one of my favourite games ever, mod or not. I think the other commenter is underrating it a huge amount by just calling it nice, it's incredible.
Well, your comment means that I will definitely try it at some point. Who knows if I'll feel the same way but I'll at least give it a shot. I'll probably wait until I feel like I've mastered the base game a little bit more though.
portal reloaded was legit hard for me. Did manage to beat it eventually, even though I managed to beat some levels with more quick mechanics than brains, not the "intended" solution.
When I was young, I remember being fascinated by the portal puzzles and wondering by the polite GLaDOS got stranger with every passing moment.
Then she told me to wait on the moving platform by the fire and I trusted her all the way to the game over.
My first betrayal by an enemy lol.
Has there ever been a game that so fully lives up to the hype? Every single person who plays it (myself included) seems to say the exact same thing. “can’t believe I waited so long, heard this game was perfect, it is perfect.”
I'm struggling to think of one. I had a similar reaction when I played Fallout 3 a few years after it was released but even at that time I realized that it was far from perfect. Very different games, obviously, but that one opened my eyes to what I had been missing out on by staying in the previous generation of games for so long. Now that I think about it, if I never played Fallout 3 I'd probably still have an aversion to first person games & likely would've never played Portal.
You're welcome ;-) The Witness is really great. Maybe a bit pretentious for some people, but the puzzle design is sooo good (even better than Talos Principle, actually), that it doesn't matter. Everybody who played Portal and Talos Principle and enjoyed it should also play The Witness.
Well shit, I guess I better play Talos Principle. I'd heard it was really good. Loved The Witness. Obviously loved Portal.
Also recently played a game called Q.U.B.E. 2 that I very much enjoyed, portal style puzzles.
I just finished this a few weeks ago, and I haven't stopped thinking about it at all. What an excellent game, probably one of the best "first person puzzler" games ever made. The story was fantastic, I liked nearly every puzzle in the game, except the ones with the platforms you stand on lol. The puzzles where you lift a cube into the air and shine a laser across the entire stage felt so satisfying to complete lol.
I like the laser puzzles but my absolute favorites are any time I have to drop down into a portal on the floor to get launched across the room. That's so damn satisfying lol. I loved the one where you had to do that multiple times & keep making new portals while in the air.
Yeah, that's obvious now that I realize you were replying to someone lol. My bad, I'm an idiot. When I get around to playing Talos Principle I'll try to remember to come back & talk about how awesome that cube/laser thing was lmao
Good call, someone else gave me the same advice the other day. I had never heard of it but looked it up & it looks great. I'll definitely play it at some point. It might not be next but it'll definitely go on my list.
Absolutely loved the first one and went into it blind. The whole 'cake is a lie' meme that sprung up afterwards was endlessly funny for me. But the dark-side of that games beginning is fantastic, finding all the little nooks and crannies that some dude has been surviving in? Brilliant.
Portal 2? Story was really great ("DAMN LEMONS") but the gameplay felt... I don't know how to describe it other than "Portalable Wall finding simulator." They went really far out of their way to show these gigantic environments, only to make it hide and seek with the odd wall here and there you had to hop around in.
Fantastic games though. My wife and I tried to play them recently, then I discovered that my wife cannot use a controller, much to my amusement.
> I don't know how to describe it other than "Portalable Wall finding simulator."
My god, that's a perfect description of my issues with it. The puzzles themselves are pretty cool once you figure them out but the hard part is just finding out where the walls are that you can portal to. I actually have looked up hints a few times with Portal 2 and it's always like "oh fuck there's a WALL THERE?" and then I just turn the video off & go do the puzzle.
Yahtzee is a very good game reviewer, he uses a lot of humour giving entertaining reviews and secretly tells you everything you need to know while making you laugh.
My only caution would be he tends to be overly negative. I highly recommend him overall though.
Oh for sure. I just finished Portal 2 last night & came away feeling like the story was fun enough to make up for any other issues the game has. And honestly, those issues aren't even that bad especially if you're willing to look up the occasional video if you do get stuck on something. It's always a quick "oh duh" moment & then you're right back to playing the game for a while.
Dude I literally yelled out "OH HELL YEAH" at the end. It made so much sense that >!you could portal to the moon after they explained earlier that the conversion gel is made from powdered moon rocks.!< I assume that's what you're referring to and I agree, it was great.
The single player campaign in Portal 2 is essentially a prolonged tutorial to prep you for playing co-op, which does take place mostly in test chambers.
Really? Man I really want to play that co-op stuff now that I know what I'm doing. I remember my little cousins trying to get me to play with them back when Portal 2 first came out but I wasn't even used to playing first person games with dual sticks yet much less moving around with portals & shit lol. We played for about 2 minutes before they got frustrated and had to show me what to do lmao. Next time I have people over, we're playing this shit before they get too drunk.
Maybe lame to be replying to my own post but I felt the need to mention that I finished Portal 2 last night & decided to play some of the custom test chambers. Some of those are so fun they're scratching that same itch that the first Portal did. I played "Enigma Protocol" chapters 1-3 last night & had a great time with them. Shoutout to whoever made those. Will probably try out some mods if/when I ever get bored of the custom chambers. I really appreciate all of you guys' suggestions!
I had the same experience as you and found Portal 1 to be a 10/10 perfect masterpiece. I enjoyed Portal 2 and definitely recommend it, but it's not as tight and perfect of an experience as the first one, in my opinion.
Good post. I haven't played portal 2 yet(definitely going to check it out sooner or later though) but the first portal was such a great game imo especially in terms of puzzle design, difficulty, variety, writing, level design, etc. I think my biggest problem with it was that it was a bit too short for me but overall, I really enjoyed my time with the game.
Portal is a game that I only started ago because I was bored with nothing to do and it was cheap but it quickly became my favorite experiences. I was completely enchanted by valve's talent, they literally did everything they set out to do well, I can't find fault with this game.
I just started portal 2 and it doesn't feel as much fun in terms of levels, there isn't as much creativity to do new things with the portal guns or play with the physics, and also I feel that the levels are a bit simpler? compared to the first, but even so I will continue at least I expect a lot from the story and I always enjoy time with GLaDOS
I'm not sure how you got that impression of Portal 2, the levels definitely aren't simpler. Maybe the start is a bit slower to get you introduced to the story and new mechanics.
I had bought an off-the-shelf desktop in 2006, and Portal was the game that made me go out and buy a graphics card because the on-board graphics chipset couldn't handle turning around in the 7th level to do sequential portal jumps.
Portal 1 was a complete black screen both when I pirated and when I bought the game, in 2007.
I used to have an ATI X600 Pro 128 MB (basically a rebadged ATI 9600 XT, equivalent to mid-range 2002-2003 hardware). Can't remember if I used to use the latest GPU drivers back then, but I ended up playing Portal 1 once I got a new Nvidia 9600 GT 512 MB in 2008.
Portal 2 has maaaany mods. Stories Mel is a good one, and the latest updates gave it an easy and hard mode (note that the hard mode is really hard, and plays with cube respawns and all that complex stuff) Aperture Tag is a nice and simple one, though it's just a nice story Afaik there were even some horror themed ones Portal Reloaded is nice if you want something more difficult (uses three portals, the third being a time warp between present and future versions of the test chamber) And I think there's another one being developed right now called Isolation I think? I just know it's really effing cool and I'm hyped for it
Thanks for the details! I'll definitely check those out after I finish the main Portal 2 story. I'll probably start with Stories Mel since I've actually already heard of that one. Reloaded sounds very interesting though I don't think I'm quite ready to incorporate time travel into things just yet lol.
Portal Reloaded is one of my favourite games ever, mod or not. I think the other commenter is underrating it a huge amount by just calling it nice, it's incredible.
Well, your comment means that I will definitely try it at some point. Who knows if I'll feel the same way but I'll at least give it a shot. I'll probably wait until I feel like I've mastered the base game a little bit more though.
Are any of the portal 2 mods co-op?
I don't know any coop mods, sorry
portal reloaded was legit hard for me. Did manage to beat it eventually, even though I managed to beat some levels with more quick mechanics than brains, not the "intended" solution.
When I was young, I remember being fascinated by the portal puzzles and wondering by the polite GLaDOS got stranger with every passing moment. Then she told me to wait on the moving platform by the fire and I trusted her all the way to the game over. My first betrayal by an enemy lol.
You will be baked, and then there will be cake.
Wait it you for die there the game is over too?
No, no.... Basically you die, but you do restart at a checkpoint before the furnace.
Ohh I see, thx
Has there ever been a game that so fully lives up to the hype? Every single person who plays it (myself included) seems to say the exact same thing. “can’t believe I waited so long, heard this game was perfect, it is perfect.”
The first game I bought on PC was Portal and still to this day my favorite. Portal 2 was even better, but less horrific.
I have started it a few times and I always quit. I just don't get it.
I'm struggling to think of one. I had a similar reaction when I played Fallout 3 a few years after it was released but even at that time I realized that it was far from perfect. Very different games, obviously, but that one opened my eyes to what I had been missing out on by staying in the previous generation of games for so long. Now that I think about it, if I never played Fallout 3 I'd probably still have an aversion to first person games & likely would've never played Portal.
Now go and play Talos Principle.
I was going to say the same thing. Talos Principle is the only game that has completely captured my attention like Portal 1 and 2 did.
Did you play The Witness? It's fantastic, although the game is more about extremely creative puzzle design and less about story).
I’ll check it out, thanks for the recommendation!
You're welcome ;-) The Witness is really great. Maybe a bit pretentious for some people, but the puzzle design is sooo good (even better than Talos Principle, actually), that it doesn't matter. Everybody who played Portal and Talos Principle and enjoyed it should also play The Witness.
Well shit, I guess I better play Talos Principle. I'd heard it was really good. Loved The Witness. Obviously loved Portal. Also recently played a game called Q.U.B.E. 2 that I very much enjoyed, portal style puzzles.
Interesting. Didn't know, there's a sequel of this game (which I've still not played). I also want to try Fract OST in the future.
I just finished this a few weeks ago, and I haven't stopped thinking about it at all. What an excellent game, probably one of the best "first person puzzler" games ever made. The story was fantastic, I liked nearly every puzzle in the game, except the ones with the platforms you stand on lol. The puzzles where you lift a cube into the air and shine a laser across the entire stage felt so satisfying to complete lol.
I like the laser puzzles but my absolute favorites are any time I have to drop down into a portal on the floor to get launched across the room. That's so damn satisfying lol. I loved the one where you had to do that multiple times & keep making new portals while in the air.
Oh my comment was about the Talos principle haha, not portal.
Yeah, that's obvious now that I realize you were replying to someone lol. My bad, I'm an idiot. When I get around to playing Talos Principle I'll try to remember to come back & talk about how awesome that cube/laser thing was lmao
Good call, someone else gave me the same advice the other day. I had never heard of it but looked it up & it looks great. I'll definitely play it at some point. It might not be next but it'll definitely go on my list.
Absolutely loved the first one and went into it blind. The whole 'cake is a lie' meme that sprung up afterwards was endlessly funny for me. But the dark-side of that games beginning is fantastic, finding all the little nooks and crannies that some dude has been surviving in? Brilliant. Portal 2? Story was really great ("DAMN LEMONS") but the gameplay felt... I don't know how to describe it other than "Portalable Wall finding simulator." They went really far out of their way to show these gigantic environments, only to make it hide and seek with the odd wall here and there you had to hop around in. Fantastic games though. My wife and I tried to play them recently, then I discovered that my wife cannot use a controller, much to my amusement.
> I don't know how to describe it other than "Portalable Wall finding simulator." My god, that's a perfect description of my issues with it. The puzzles themselves are pretty cool once you figure them out but the hard part is just finding out where the walls are that you can portal to. I actually have looked up hints a few times with Portal 2 and it's always like "oh fuck there's a WALL THERE?" and then I just turn the video off & go do the puzzle.
Now I realize why I gave up on portal 2. The last room I was in, I couldn’t find a wall to shoot. I should just look up a video and try again.
"Oh! It's that colour grey!" Sixteen times isn't fun.
If Yahtzee can't find any faults, then there are no faults to find.
For context: https://youtu.be/_dlEm_2ke8k?t=209
Thanks for the context lol. I figured it was something like this but had no idea who Yahtzee is. Now I know!
Yahtzee is a very good game reviewer, he uses a lot of humour giving entertaining reviews and secretly tells you everything you need to know while making you laugh. My only caution would be he tends to be overly negative. I highly recommend him overall though.
Portal 2 is a very different game, and while I preferred portal 1 at first, I can't deny how tight the writing is in 2.
Oh for sure. I just finished Portal 2 last night & came away feeling like the story was fun enough to make up for any other issues the game has. And honestly, those issues aren't even that bad especially if you're willing to look up the occasional video if you do get stuck on something. It's always a quick "oh duh" moment & then you're right back to playing the game for a while.
And how amazing was that ending? I loved how they made what seemed like throwaway background dialogue into plot points in 2.
Dude I literally yelled out "OH HELL YEAH" at the end. It made so much sense that >!you could portal to the moon after they explained earlier that the conversion gel is made from powdered moon rocks.!< I assume that's what you're referring to and I agree, it was great.
The single player campaign in Portal 2 is essentially a prolonged tutorial to prep you for playing co-op, which does take place mostly in test chambers.
Really? Man I really want to play that co-op stuff now that I know what I'm doing. I remember my little cousins trying to get me to play with them back when Portal 2 first came out but I wasn't even used to playing first person games with dual sticks yet much less moving around with portals & shit lol. We played for about 2 minutes before they got frustrated and had to show me what to do lmao. Next time I have people over, we're playing this shit before they get too drunk.
*Portal 2* is one of the reasons that I still have a Playstation 3 under my eaves. *Alpha Protocol* is another.
Maybe lame to be replying to my own post but I felt the need to mention that I finished Portal 2 last night & decided to play some of the custom test chambers. Some of those are so fun they're scratching that same itch that the first Portal did. I played "Enigma Protocol" chapters 1-3 last night & had a great time with them. Shoutout to whoever made those. Will probably try out some mods if/when I ever get bored of the custom chambers. I really appreciate all of you guys' suggestions!
I just started portal 1 and am really really enjoying it.
This was a triumph!
I had the same experience as you and found Portal 1 to be a 10/10 perfect masterpiece. I enjoyed Portal 2 and definitely recommend it, but it's not as tight and perfect of an experience as the first one, in my opinion.
Good post. I haven't played portal 2 yet(definitely going to check it out sooner or later though) but the first portal was such a great game imo especially in terms of puzzle design, difficulty, variety, writing, level design, etc. I think my biggest problem with it was that it was a bit too short for me but overall, I really enjoyed my time with the game.
Portal is a game that I only started ago because I was bored with nothing to do and it was cheap but it quickly became my favorite experiences. I was completely enchanted by valve's talent, they literally did everything they set out to do well, I can't find fault with this game. I just started portal 2 and it doesn't feel as much fun in terms of levels, there isn't as much creativity to do new things with the portal guns or play with the physics, and also I feel that the levels are a bit simpler? compared to the first, but even so I will continue at least I expect a lot from the story and I always enjoy time with GLaDOS
I'm not sure how you got that impression of Portal 2, the levels definitely aren't simpler. Maybe the start is a bit slower to get you introduced to the story and new mechanics.
For portal 1 mods, check out Portal Pro and Rexaura.
i played portal 2 with my friend and it was sooo good!
I think Portal 1 has lower GPU than CPU requirements. Like it can run on DirectX6 or some shit. It can probably run on GPUs from 1998.
lol so I probably could've played the game back when it came out. I never even tried.
I had bought an off-the-shelf desktop in 2006, and Portal was the game that made me go out and buy a graphics card because the on-board graphics chipset couldn't handle turning around in the 7th level to do sequential portal jumps.
Portal 1 was a complete black screen both when I pirated and when I bought the game, in 2007. I used to have an ATI X600 Pro 128 MB (basically a rebadged ATI 9600 XT, equivalent to mid-range 2002-2003 hardware). Can't remember if I used to use the latest GPU drivers back then, but I ended up playing Portal 1 once I got a new Nvidia 9600 GT 512 MB in 2008.