Portal 2

When my friend gave me a copy of Portal 2, did he realize then, that it was like taking away one of my weekends and replacing it with hours upon hours of Portal gaming? Did he realize, when he was receiving the game from the dealer, that I would wake up on Saturday morning, begin playing the game and then awaken from my Portal hibernation late Sunday night? This is indeed what happened, although I'm not convinced of any maliciousness, but instead: the complete opposite.

See, we really enjoy games like these. After you come off a bender of Skyrim, you need a more casual game to become reacquanted with what gaming actually is. I could lose numerous weekends to Skyrim, or any other giant open world game, and come away with practically nothing. With Portal 2, I would spend quite a few hours becoming immersed in the game world, and at the end of the weekend, I had a finished game. I experienced much of what the game had to offer, at least, on the surface. The story is beat, the final boss taken care of and I got to watch the credits go by. There may not be a lot of achievement points handed out, but the biggest achievement was had, and that was the thorough and complete enjoyment of the game. And the icing on the cake [perhaps a pun for those in the know] is that I get to go onto another game.

My friend and I have spoken for quite a while on the subject of how - as gamers - we have evolved our interests. And it all deals with getting older, of course, and having more responsibilities that supercede gaming. Unfortunately, I don't experience many of them, but the pressure is certainly there, and I know the reality of the situation. No longer do we have two hundred spare hours to invest in a game. No, we have to divide that time up, and quite simply, the fewer hours you do have to game are more valuable. That's where titles like Portal come in. These games are short, very short. To me, this means around five to seven hours. Although I dedicated much of my weekend to it, I probably only put in six hours overall, and that's perfect. It's akin to a television series going on for a few seasons past it's prime. Whereas the US version of The Office is going to end on a sour note, the UK version called it quits on the peak, and for that we remember it as being a seriously good show. Portal 2 never had a chance to become "bad" so to speak; it never had a low point and because of that, we'll always remember it as being seriously good.

Perhaps the only negative I can spin onto the title are some of the puzzles, but I have no one to blame but myself. In most cases it's just a matter of not being able to find a surface that I can throw a portal onto, or that I'm blind and have missed a button that has been inset in a wall just a touch. They are minor, and when you finish those tough puzzles, the sense of accomplishment and pride is high. The game thrives on this: each "level" is another test, and when you solve this test you go on. The sequel rewards you with humour, as you're being insulted and forced onto the next test in line. The constant puzzle solving and short duration of those puzzles is a big motivator as you move through the story. There are times when you just sit there and have no clue how to advance, and you begin to experiment. There are other times when you walk into a puzzle and everything just clicks: you go through the motions and feel like a genius.

Everything comes together perfectly, and Valve pulls it off in what seems like effortlessness, but when you being to look closely, you see how polished things really are. The controls are tight, the puzzles are mind-bending, and the story adequate. You don't want the game to end because you're having so much fun with it, but deep down you know it has to. In these cases I can definitely see myself playing through it again.