Portal 2 came out a few weeks ago, after the gloriously frustrating, exciting, confusing and ridiculous ARG involving potatoes, Paul and I did what any self-respecting gamer would do. Yes, we set our pc’s up in a dark room, loaded up with snacks and LAN’d it up. We played through the entirety of the co-op mode and have gathered our thoughts. Here’s a clue: we liked it.
Matt
So, Portal 2. Lets talk co-op.
Paul
Let’s!
Matt
It’s really quite good. And funny.
Paul
Not to mention unique; I never thought using portals could be more fun, until it was turned into a 2-player experience. Awesome!
Matt
Yeah there’s nothing else like it. Are there even any other co-op puzzle games?
Paul
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, perhaps… But there was a distinct lack of portals in that.
Matt
Yeah, but that focused on combat too… There’s not a single enemy in any of the Portal games, not in the traditional sense of the word, at least.
Paul
Traditional enemies, no. Dozens of charming little turrets that want to see you riddled with bullets, yes.
Matt
The puzzles themselves are your true enemy, but tackling them with a friend turned out to be even more fun than by yourself.
Paul
How many times did you inadvertantly crush me with something?
Matt
Ha, once or twice…
Paul
In all fairness, I’m pretty sure I removed a light bridge from under your feet a number of times, allowing you to fall to your death.
Matt
It has to be done. It’s interesting how the co-op puzzles had to be much harder than the singleplayer game, to counterbalance the fact you have double the amount of portals at your disposal. Some of them were ingenious…
Paul
We certainly had to spend a good while on more than half the puzzles shouting and screaming what we thought was the way to do it, especially when we were being shot at by turrets. What surprised me though is after having finished the co-op game and going back to a random puzzle, we were completely stumped again.
Matt
I can vouch for this. Playing it through with a mate when neither of you have played it is undoubtedly the best way to experience Portal 2’s co-op mode. However, since I played it with Ivan after we both finished it, I was surprised at how little of the solutions I could remember. But then maybe my brain is just broken.
Paul
It definitely is. Why else would you still have so many unfinished and unopened games in your house? Anyway, what did you think of the gestures? Giving your partner a high-five or pointing and laughing at GLaDOS as she looks at you through a security camera was pretty entertaining.
Matt
A throwaway gimmick that helps evolve the characters personality and even aid the plot? Only Valve could pull that off in this way. And high-fiving after solving a puzzle is just as satisfying as it should be.
Paul
I liked that the co-op took place in a sort of ‘hub world’, where you often returned to after a chapter in order to go to the next one, or to simply replay previous chapters and specific puzzles. Think the castle Super Mario 64, only smaller.
Matt
Yeah that works well, and fits the nature of the co-op in general. You’re these 2 disposable robots in a seperate section of Aperture, and totally dependant on GLaDOS. She’s on top form yet again, by the way. Some of her funniest lines are to be found in the co-op mode.
Paul
Witnessing her attempts to control and even simply comprehend the robots’ emotions during the puzzles was brilliant, and there were a few hilarious surprises along the way that had us laughing for ages.
Matt
And it does have a story! Though we shouldn’t discuss that.
Paul
Absolutely not, because figuring out what was going on was one of the coolest things about it. Suffice to say that you’re not only there to be tested.
Matt
It’s a wonderful complement to the singleplayer. I hope most people who got the game will get to experience it.
Paul
What about replayability, then. I plan to go through it with a couple more people to get the most out of it, but having gone through a second time yourself, would you say the fun could really last much longer than that?
Matt
I don’t think the replayability is as high as the singleplayer, in all honesty. Unless you plan to do some speed runs with a friend, or try to get every one of those pesky achievements, I imagine the puzzle solving will not have the same feeling of satisfaction after a few plays. But the humour is still amusing, and GLaDOS even knows if one of you have beaten it already, which is a nice touch…
Paul
It did take me a while to notice our stats were being tracked. Steps taken, portals fired, even how many hugs our robots shared. At first I thought it was all just entertaining dialogue, but we were actually in competition with each other. Quite how either of us was supposed to win though, I’m still not sure.
Matt
I’m pretty sure its just GLaDOS messing with our minds.
Paul
But the question is, do robots really have minds? Also can they make toast?
Matt
We did survive Judgment Day… so I like to think they don’t yet. And my toaster is definitely not sentient.
Paul
Thank goodness. Well, the main thing I’ve taken away from Portal 2 is that I really bloody want a portal gun; the work commute would be so much better. The co-op, however, has taught me that co-op puzzle-solving is an absolute blast and is certainly tons more fun than going solo.
Matt
Not to take anything away from the utterly fantastic singleplayer (review of that will be done soon) but Valve showed once again how working together is more fun than trying to kill each other.
Paul
Co-op is the future, if it isn’t already the present!
Matt
Definitely.
Dome Keeper is an excellent little spin on the tower defense game, in which you play the role of a jetpacking miner defending his base from swarms of aliens, whilst searching for a hidden relic buried somewhere beneath him. And now, with this huge free update, you can play it with friends.
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
I do love me some quality pixel art, and it doesn’t get much better than this. Cast n Chill is a cozy side-scrolling fishing game by small indie dev team Wombat Brawler, with absolutely gorgeous visuals. It’s simple to play, and you you can dip in and out of it at your leisure, making it a fine addition to our collection of coffee break games.
Format: PS3
Release date: 2010
Heavy Rain is more like an interactive movie than a game, and it is mostly excellent. It’s a game about choices and living with the consequences. I played it through twice myself, just to see how different decisions affect the story and its ultimate conclusion, but to say that my first try was emotional would be the understatement of the century. This game almost broke me. I’ll tell you how soon, but first I want to recount the story of one of my friend’s choices… Like I said, watching Heavy Rain is just like watching a movie, but watching your friend play Heavy Rain gives you an amusing bit of insight into their psychology. The results can be hilarious.
Last summer, I collaborated with my mate Mark Vale to create our very first mobile game app. It’s all about pushing buttons as fast as you can. So, a great little time-waster when you’re on the loo, or waiting for your bread to toast. Mark came up with the concept, did all the programming in Unity, and I provided the art and music. There’s only one rule – hit the green light as fast and as many times as you can.
Years: 1996 – 2003
To this day, the N64 holds my fondest gaming memories on a console. The PC may have stolen my heart eventually, but I’ll never forget the fun of my childhood, playing multiplayer games on my N64 with a bunch of mates after school, and during sleepovers.
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