Considered by most to be Valve's two best works.
This thread is for comparing them by 2013's standards. NOT WHAT IMPACT THEY HAD AT THEIR TIME OF RELEASEI enjoyed Half-Life 2 but I just found Portal 2 to be a much better game.
P2 progressed quickly and smoothly, whereas HL2 (at twice the length) had lulls and pacing issues at times.
P2 introduced you to mechanics and built on them over time, whereas HL2 introduced you to new mechanics every hour and rarely touched on them again.
P2 felt like a complete story, whereas HL2 depended far too much on sequelization and withholding information to troll the fanbase.
HL2 is a shooter (among many; yes, it's better than most, but still a gen full of shooters took away some of the magic), but when it comes to a first-person physics based puzzle game with a story, there's not much you can compare to Portal 2.
P2 only had 3 characters, but fleshed all of them out. The ones in HL2 aren't so fleshed out. Alyx feels more like a prize engineered for lonely men than a fully fleshed character. And Doctor Breen, the deepest character of the game, could've been fleshed out more.
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