It felt really good to be doing new things with portals. The dialogue was very good. Quite a few parts got me chuckling. And they got me during the "tutorial" when it said "Press Space to speak". I was wondering how my character would speak, knowing that Valve wouldn't do away with Chell's Heroic Mime-ness. Would Wheatley just respond like I'd said something? And then I pressed space and jumped. I laughed at that.


I only have a few complaints. The loading screens, like you mentioned, but I really shouldn't complain, because my computer surely benefited from it.

When going "behind the scenes", at first with Wheatley and throughout the rest of the game, it really felt like I was following a track. There were portal surfaces only when I needed them, and then they were exactly where I needed them. In the first game, after going rogue, there was a feeling that I was finding my way through the facility, using the portal gun to do what was never intended. Here, it just felt like I was doing what was expected, and it had all been set up for me.

I wish they had done more with Potato-Glados. She could have had a lot of little lines as you worked through the tests. Comments when she gets gel on her, snide remarks when you die, and all kinds of non-sequiturs. Instead she sat there and talked to Wheatley and gave redundant warnings that you were in trouble.

I was disappointed in the final boss fight. I know that fighting with a portal gun will always feel like a gimmick. You can't attack, you can only redirect attacks. But once again, I get use myself as bait so something will launch slow moving explosives at me, and then use portals to throw it at the evil computer. Why couldn't I have redirected lasers or thrown repulsion gel-coated cubes, or done everything in combination?

But really, those complaints are minor, just a few things that could have made the game more awesome. I loved it. It felt awesome when I found out I could use the white gel to paint my own portal surfaces. I did NOT expect the second stalemate override button to be booby-trapped. I shot the moon as a joke. I replaced the turret template with the defective turret as a joke, I didn't know I was "supposed" to. I thought GlaDOS had me killed when the elevator opened to show four turrets point right at me.

Awesome game. I loved it. Cave Johnson was awesome, the new devices were very cool, and I need to convince a friend to get the game for co-op mode. Near the beginning, GlaDOS says she has 60 years to run tests with you. If only...