You know how Assassin’s Creed II and Mass Effect 2 added so much content they essentially rendered their prequels little more than basic design concepts? From a gameplay standpoint, Valve has somehow executed the same model with Portal 2. The five six mechanics I saw in a canned demo insured a fantastically different experience that, while keeping portals essential to the overall.
First up was the Excursion Tunnel. This device shot out of a wall and acted like a slow motion transport tube; hop in and ride it until it hits a wall, laser, or whatever else. Fire a portal at the end and portal the tube to a different part of the level, then throw items in the transport tube and open up a wide range of object transportation possibilities,
Next was the Aerial Faith Plate. What I initially assumed was a funny name for a spring pad eventually revealed itself as an insane mechanism for personal transportation. Bouncing cubes off the pads and following them on a path through a level, all the while guiding your path via portal shooting, looked fairly impressive, or mind blowing to the point where I almost couldn’t process everything that was happening. I could follow along fine but, much like the original portal, it took the light bulb in my head a few extra seconds to switch on.
Third was the hilariously titled Thermal Discouragement Beam. On the surface it appears to be nothing more than a giant laser that will instantly destroy anything it touches, but, remember, we’re playing Portal and it has a more defined purpose. Using a portable cube with a mirror inside, the beam could be transported through a portal and reflected toward the desired direction to melt, destroy, or kill whatever was in your path.
Fourth was the Pneumatic Diversity Vent, which basically functioned as a huge vacuum. Put an object in it, watch get taken away to the pervasion ether. Throw a portal on the opposite end of the vent, drop another one on a wall, and then watch everything in the room get sucked down its infinite abyss. In the demo this was used to rip panels off the wall, however the effect was temporary because said wall was soon restored by GLaDOS.
There were also two smaller mechanics on display in the later part of the demo. Repulsion Gel changes the floor state allowing anything that graces its surface to bounce through the air. That stuff gets pumped out of a tube, which means it can be transported via portal to whatever surface you may need to bounce crap off of. Multi-bounce jumps seemed to be the choice way to employ this mechanic, but one can imagine the variety of other uses for this buoyant liquid.
The final mechanic was Propulsion Gel. This was the rough equivalent of a giant slip ‘n slide, and in the demo it was employed to grease nearly everything in the level. This allowed the player to bypass a giant closing death trap that she wouldn’t have otherwise been able to cross with her normal running speed.
Each of these mechanics was impressive when demonstrated on their own, but their beauty will only be fully realized when employed in tandem. A brief tease of this was presented at the end of the demo reel, and it looked completely insane. In the same ways the original would bend your brain nine different ways, the expanded mechanics could damn near blow it up. Yet, the guide to our demo emphasized that Portal 2 will not require absolute precision, and will introduce the mechanics in a manner that, while remaining challenge, will ease players into the game.
Portal’s sublime humor was also omnipresent throughout the demo. GLaDOS’ bloodthirsty/calm dynamic was delightfully intact, as was the bleeps, boops, and soft cries of dying machines. The Aperture Science names of the new mechanics was also grin inducing, as was Wheatley, your new British accented eyeball companion for at least part of the game.
Portal 2 can’t come soon enough, but we’ll have to wait until 2011. Check back with us then for a full review!
