Critical Play: Portal 2

Portal 2 is a first person puzzle game where you are trying to get to the exit in each level. The first person mechanic makes you feel fully immersed in the puzzles, while the portal mechanics force you to be creative and think in ways that you may not be used to thinking.

With a lot of puzzle games, it feels like you are outside the world controlling many different aspects. While this allows you to do a lot of different things, it creates a sort of detachment from the environment, whereas in Portal 2 you feel fully immersed and involved with the environment. The portal mechanics are the core mechanic of the puzzles, where you are able to shoot 2 portals that connect to each other. It is a unique mechanic that allows you to complete the puzzles, but it requires you to think in ways that you haven’t thought before. Because it is such a unique mechanic, there is no equivalent of using portals in the real world, and so it can be hard at first to shift your mindset and think in the context of the game rather than what could be considered standard problem solving techniques. It’s not just about problem solving though, as there are some parts where you have to be quick and dexterous. For example, there are some parts where the two portals doesn’t seem like it’s enough to get you where you want to go, so you have to place a portal on an upward facing surface, jump down a tall ledge, and right when you’re about to hit the ground shoot the other portal so that you will launch yourself into the air. In this way, the fast reactions of typical first person shooter games combine with the problem solving of puzzle games to create a unique solution.

I think that the game also gets very frustrating at times because of the way that you have to think in new ways, and the game does a really good job of still making it challenging and satisfying while also providing some assistance. The best example of this that I can think of is the white surfaces. In the game, you can only shoot portals onto certain white surfaces, which reduces the amount of possibilities that you have to think of. When I was playing the game, I was thinking only about these white surfaces, and all other surfaces or walls became irrelevant to me, unless I had to walk on them. This helps because you know that you can only use the white surfaces and don’t have to worry about the others, but it doesn’t give too much away and make the game feel too easy. The developers were able to create guidance and direction just with these surfaces which I found super cool and interesting. More guided levels have less white surfaces so that you know to only use specific areas, while others have lots of white surfaces, which forces you to have to decide for yourself what areas to use and not use.