Drunkards In Combat

Ok so the title of the article may be a little bit of a giveaway as to the way this review is going to go. However you may be surprised.

Ok first, things first, while I appreciate the way the world is going in regards to DRM, and I love Steam as a platform for Digital distribution, I hate that if I purchase a retail copy of a game from a store that it then forces me to install and patch through Steam, fair enough if I had purchased the game digitally, however if I buy a retail copy I expect to be able to install it wherever I like. It’s a trend I have seen with Dawn of War, Total War and others taking this road, but I don’t like.

Ok onto the game. First the good. The graphics were well done. Playing this game on a good system at high resolution was like a massage for the eyes, beautiful colours, nicely rendered environments and realistic clothing made this game a joy to behold. The story was also engaging and tightly scripted bringing you into the life of Vito Scaletta and forcing you to emotionally invest in the character. This was a blessing and a curse (more on that later)

Portal’s breezy puzzling and inventive, physics-based gameplay formed the core of the game’s fun, but it was the off-kilter mania of AI advisor/adversary GLaDOS that really stuck with people. The sequel introduces a new monocular companion in the form of Wheatley, who joins forces with protagonist Chell as they embark on another orange- and blue-bordered peregrination through the Aperture Science labs.

The video above, rendered in stunning HD quality, acts as a formal introduction to British comic actor Stephen Merchant, who appears as the voice of Wheatley.  Keep your eyes peeled also for a look at some of Portal 2′s upgraded graphical bells and whistles, along with heretofore unrevealed footage of the bowels of Aperture.