Portal 2, And Why It Will Be the Greatest Videogame Ever

I don't update this blog frequently. If something exciting happens in the world of gaming, I'll post a gaming-related post. If I feel like writing a comedy piece, I'll write a comedy piece. If my heart needs to be squeezed out like a sponge, I'll come here and write a poem, or a prose piece. This blog is pretty much my mind - flippant, varied and moderately interesting. But amidst the lost loves, attempts at humour and Left 4 Dead fanboyism, there is something else locked in the confines of my skull. Portal.



Portal is the greatest videogame Valve has ever made. Proof isn't required. Portal is a piece of media that pushed the limits of what a videogame could do. Before Portal, shooters were glorified shooting galleries, and physics were simply a way to increase the immersion by creating lifelike feedback of objects within the game world. Portal combined shooters, physics and puzzles, and created something new. To me, there are the following genres in videogames: Casual, Shooter, Platformer, Puzzle, and Portal. Some games had tried, but Portal was the first videogame to successfully manipulate time and space in a clever, inventive way that seemed totally real. Within this virtual test chamber, Portal would literally tear your head apart thinking about all the concepts. How many hours have gamers spent collectively watching through the original Portal trailer pre-Orange Box release? I think it would be millions of times... over, and over, and over. Portal is more than a game, it's a phenomenon, a package so refined in its elements that it became more than a sum of its parts. Portal is, without question, perfect.

Besides being the funniest, most inventive game to come out of Valve (who already have one of the best back-catalogues of any game studio, what with Half-Life, possibly the game of its decade, and Half-Life 2, possibly the greatest shooter of all time) with nothing more than an utterly complete 3-hour storyline, and the most memorable moment being the whole thing... Portal is also one of the largest influences on my own work. Both my cartooning, and my hobby of computers and computer gaming, has been directly associated with Portal at one point or another. Portal is what led me to buy my computer in the first place. Without Portal, chances are I'd still be playing PlayStation 2, without a website. Or such a varied network of international friends. ...or this blog.

So, Portal 2's been announced recently, rather cleverly too, using coded messages planted into the original game. And as far as I'm concerned, Portal 2 will be the best videogame ever. Think about it. You take possibly the greatest videogame of the decade, that's a game that defied all odds and became a global phenomenon and redefined its genre without the use of, say, a colourful mascot or a multi-million dollar advertising campaign; totally on its own merits. You then expand the development team 3-fold, give it a huge budget, give it 3 years of development time, give it artists and a National Lampoon writer... this isn't just a sequel, it's an evolution. And when a phenomenon evolves, you don't just stand there and watch it grow. You became apart of it. Portal 2 will be a game for hardcore and casual gamers alike. A sequel that is more than just "extra levels and game modes", more than a coat of paint. If Portal is the 1-bedroom apartment, Portal 2 is the mansion. And for myself, it's a mansion I can't wait to live in. Come September, the gaming world will be torn asunder by Valve and the new Greatest Videogame of All Time. And I, for one, can't wait.

/end: biased opinion piece