Portal 2

⭐ 9.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

I had 2 main thoughts while playing this game. First: holy smokes I'm smart. Second: wow, this is a lot of levels. Indeed, I agree with Becky that this felt like too many. This felt less like a story with some puzzles in it, but rather a massive book of Sudokus that is meant to last you for years. In the first, the puzzles get steadily more difficult and more complex until you get to the finals levels where you have to put it all together. This one is all over the place, meandering, often having a stretch of easy ones and then some killers.

But that's actually all mostly okay with me. If you want to make a ten hour puzzle game, they need to ebb and flow. And while I thought they were stretching the game out, I actually think it worked really great with the story. The puzzles and their difficulty seemed to match the story pretty well. Not only that, but there are no bad puzzles. They are all super creative in their own way, and all of them make you feel super smart (except for a few that made me feel super dumb). This game is supposed to take you 8 hours, but I swear I took 8 hours on a few puzzles each.

I also weirdly played this game exclusively on airplane rides to and from Mexico over the last few months... That's a weird detail, but I think playing this on an airplane is the perfect place to do it because you're never tempted to google hints, and you're kinda just forced to keep at it until you figure it out. When it clicks after 30 minutes of agonizing is when the game shines. There was also a few occasions where I could absolutely not figure it out, put it away in frustration, came back a few hours later and got it instantly. The power of fresh eyes!!

Anyways, aside from all this, this game is indeed hilarious, maybe the funniest game I've played, and has an awesome, twisted, darkly funny universe. The puzzles are genius and I can't imagine the brain power it takes to design them. It really just feels like the perfect game for the thinking man (like me, for instance) and it has deservedly recieved the appropriate accolades (it's widely considered one of the 10 best games ever made).

Finishing this game felt like beating a souls game. Definitely one of those games you brag about beating. It's essentially the perfect game, though it definitely drags a bit and is a little less tight than the first. But there are 3 speaking characters and they are all top tier, which is a rare quality. Totally recommend for all.