Gamer's Lament: Portal 2 Being Way Too Easy

I suppose this is more of a rant than the beginnings of a discussion, but please feel free to express your opinion. Let me also start by saying I don't feel smart because I cleared through a game many considered "challenging." Really the whole thing, from top gaming critics to the slim majority of gamers saying that Portal 2 is the best game of the year with some decent challenge, is all one really big joke/paradigm for me. Honestly, not only did I effortlessly defeat one "challenge" after the next, I kind of felt like the game was insulting my intelligence. It's just frustrating, from my perspective, to see Valve really drop the ball on this one, and yet the universe is glowering at Portal 2's feet. Don't get me wrong, everything else in the game was top-notch and at Valve's usual level of expertise. But, somehow, the heart of the game - the puzzles - were an outright bore. An honest, solidly true rating, in my opinion, would've been a 7.5 (at best) for Portal 2.

I got stuck a couple times, but yes, the majority of the game is pretty simple to figure out. I didn't find it boring though. I see Portal 2 as a full-length Portal 1 and it satisfied on pretty much every front for me. It had a pretty engaging story. Gameplay was unique to the Portal series, even though we've seen this gameplay before, I wasn't really bored just because I had played Portal 1. They tried a couple new things and held my attention through my fairly short playthrough.

It's not about the game being hard enough, it's about the experience, and I feel this game delivered. People complained because of their dollar to gameplay hours ratio. Come on. The game was fun. I'm sorry it sucked for you, but most of us enjoyed ourselves.

Portal 2's difficulty was comparable to it's predecessor. Since first person action puzzle solving is a very limited genre, you don't have too many other games to compare it to. When compared to Portal 1, Portal 2 is far and away the better game. Since Portal received a 9, it's sequel, being the better game overall, should also receive at least that much.

I also take issue with your claim that the puzzles are the heart of the game and too simple. To me, it was about equally puzzle and action, and as for being too simple... Games should first be judged on if they are fun, and then compared to their competition. Difficult puzzles don't mean fun to most people, else they would skip playing modern games and just play chess against equally skilled competitors. This wasn't a game designed to stump geniuses or only embrace the smartest. It's pretty simple really; go in one portal and come out the other. Simple enough to understand, that anyone can do it if they try.

I found it to be a perfect actually.

Portal nearly made me vomit after the first 3 levels.....lol.....FelipeInside

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]Portal nearly made me vomit after the first 3 levels.....lol.....Elann2008

Portal was way too easy, 2 is decent, as always, if you want to have fun play the game, they obviously wouldn't make a game that makes you think stupid, for a challenge you have to wait for decent custom maps, those will make you feel r******d.