Why Portal is Better than Portal 2

[@BlueCat201X]

I have to say, I didn’t expect to see someone touch on this subject. I played Portal 1 first, and I enjoyed it immensely, took my time with it, did some achievements and challenges. I really didn’t want to let it go too soon, because I heard that the sequel was better in every way, and I already liked the original. I thought I woud stop appreciating it after playing the second one. And when I played Portal 2, I was of course having a great time too, but to my surprise it wasn’t the same, and bizarrely, I still preferred the original. The vagueness and creepiness of the first game gave it this unique charm where you could fill the gaps with your own experience. It made the story feel more personal - less like I was playing a role, and more like as if I, the player, was the one trapped in Aperture. In the sequel, although I still loved GLaDOS’s sassy remarks, it didn’t feel like *my* GLaDOS. In Portal, GLaDOS talked to me, in Portal 2, GLaDOS talked to Chell. The atmosphere of the first game is also what, in my opinion, made the Companion Cube work so well there. Many players got attached to an inanimate object just because of how lonely and isolated they were in the chambers, with the cube not only being the first being that didn’t want to kill them in this harsh environment, but a helpful asset throughout an entire chamber as well. I denied being attached to a glorified metal box, until in a challenge chamber it was replaced by an incredibly annoying and uncooperative ball that made me curse it to hell, and want my cube back. In the secong game, the Companion Cubes are not only numerous, as GLaDOS states herself, but they don’t ignite the same feelings because we have a much more sentient and animate ally on our side in the form of Wheatley. We are not alone anymore, so we don’t need to pack bond with an inanimate object. In summary, from my perspective, Portal 2 was the same journey that everyone experienced and loved the same way, but Portal 1 was an individual journey that was unique for everyone, and because of that, it had an individual and unique impact on each person. Plus "Still Alive" is easier to sing than "Want you gone" if you're not a trained vocal artist, fight me

[@buoyancydabl]

k ill fight you :)

[@arthurpietrogarcia1057]

Want you Gone is better.

[@gonkdroid4112]

This comment was a triumph

[@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413]

idk portal 1 had 0 impact on me and never creeped me out

[@chexterkat]

When you take adderall before writing your comments ……

[@MauricioJara]

I’ve always preferred Portal 1’s tone and atmosphere. I like how grounded and real it feels as well. OST is definitely moodier, and it has a very desolate feel. Portal 2 is great don’t get me wrong, but I wish Portal 2 continued the tone that Portal 1 set.

[@sulphurous2656]

It is rather ironic that whilst setting wise Portal 2 is darker and edgier than the first game, the focus on comedic and safe and linear gameplay almost totally undermines this. It's not even the lack of blood for the sake of the E10+ rating. The only real place where the more mature nature and immersion of the first game comes back to me is in select fan created content or stories that actually care about being something more than a comedy like before.

[@MauricioJara]

@@sulphurous2656 Yeah. The 2nd game could’ve been real depressing considering the immense size of Aperture in that game. But that tone is ignored with the amount of comedy in it. Comedy is fine, not everything has to be edgy. But there shouldn’t be too much of it.

[@sulphurous2656]

@@MauricioJara I agree, there has to be a way to balance out the tone of Portal 2 without making swing from one overwhelmingly dominant tone to another. Otherwise things will become tone deaf or moods will seem overly forced.

[@thegoofiestofguys]

I understand but how much worse would Wheatley turning evil be with no music

[@carlosbustos8096]

I played both games, but I prefer portal 2. Probably because the spanish portal 1 voice of GLaDOS is siri

[@CriticalKunic]

I've put 40 hours into Portal 2 since it launched, and 20 into Portal 1 since I bought the Orange Box. I can confidently recall pretty much all of Portal, but any of Portal 2 outside of the opening and ending. Just something about Portal 1 is more memorable. But clearly both are masterpieces. Edit: Oh, and lemons

[@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413]

opposite for me

[@rudrasingh6354]

Doesn't help that portal 1 can be done in an hour if you are good at it. But for what it was, that is a perfect runtime.

[@ARBUZIK.dudkin]

Well it’s easier to remember something that is a quarter of the time

[@jupitersnoot4915]

I have the inverse problem. I can hardly remember any of the middle of portal 1, but portal 2 is burned into my memory. I MUCH prefer glados in portal 2 over portal. In the first game she speaks with a completely flat tone with no real personality in it. Most of her jokes don't land for me because of that. To me, hearing Portal 1 glados speak has no real impact because she doesn't actually feel like anything special. It feels like listening to a toneless text to speech generator read off lines. I much prefer her in portal 2 where they actually gave her inflection, tone, sarcasm, and personality. She was just boring to me in 1.

[@OLLGY69]

The thing is, way more stuff happens in portal 2 than in portal. If i were to give a summary of both games, I'd would be something like this Portal: You wake up in a chamber, you do puzzles with GLaDOS talking in the background, you get emotionally attached to a cube, you find out the cake is a lie, GLaDOS tries to kill you, you escape her, you fight her, you kill her, you get dragged back into aperture science Portal 2: You wake up after a long ass time, you meet Wheatley, you do puzzles, you wake up GLaDOS, you do new puzzles, you make her arsenal of weapons not work, you put Wheatley into power, GLaDOS is potatofied, you fall, you explore the original aperture science, you do new puzzles, you climb back up, you do new puzzles (but wheatley calls you fat this time), then there's the part where he kills you, then you shoot him to the moon, you get released. You can see that portal 2 has MUCH more lore and gameplay in it, which is why i think you don't remember as much of it as you do of portal 2 (or maybe you're just biased, idk tho)

[@zenithquasar9623]

Portal 1 had accomplished something I never thought I could experience again, the feeling of isolation amongst some industrial complex/liminal spaces that I had gotten from Half-Life 1 that I loved so much. Valve had managed to capture that again. And if you subtract Cave Johnson from the old Aperture, you sort of get that feeling as well. But CJ undercuts that atmosphere.

[@sleeper6548]

but CJ is also the best part of old aperture

[@FisOffline]

If I were to draw a parallel, portal one is more akin to HL2 and portal two is closer to TF2

[@TheGemsbok]

Well said!

[@mrmr_zoomie]

That, sums it up surprisingly well.

[@mrfoxfam562]

no portal 2 is more closer to black mesa

[@tonic196]

@@mrfoxfam562 i do not see it tbh

[@theoldguard6143]

That is especially true when it comes to visual aesthetics, Portal feels run down while not LOOKING run down, Portal 2 feels very clean and well kept when it shouldn't.

[@Fludd-Stop]

I absolutely LOVE this video because it completely nails and emphasizes the criminally overlooked parts of the first game. The dark tone, incredible learning curve, and flexibility of the solutions from Portal 1 are so underappreciated. I often tell my friends that I prefer Portal 1 over 2, but I often look silly because it's a bit hard to truly articulate why that's the case. This video really summarizes just what makes Portal 1 so special! I do think the humor of 2, despite it being more blunt and comedic, is still incredibly appealing and it in itself is what most people associate with Portal nowadays. 1 definitely just nails it in every aspect, however, and I really do agree with pretty much all of the points made here!

[@hutt_boi7281]

I've played both for the first time recently, and I feel like portal 2 expands on so much and is so utterly satisfying that... I just can't conceive myself that the original is superior

[@FoxLosst]

Thank you! There are people here who must not be able to fathom what a good video game is if they think Portal is the better game

[@Wahaller]

@@FoxLosst Well actually quality in a video game is entirely subjective, and while I agree that Portal 2 is the superior game because of how much it expands on the previous game's mechanics, the simpler gameplay and darker tone of the original are of course qualities that others may prefer over that, just not you or I. We should encourage healthy debate like this since it brings Portal fans closer together and keeps discussion alive, not try to shut it down.

[@futurerex3421]

the idea of aperture just collapsing and seeing the facility just crumble down is so COOL to me

[@Curt1813]

Wholeheartedly agreed

[@Creativeusername617]

Did you even watch the video? This guy dismantles Portal 2 as a game.

[@Matkatamiba]

I generally agree. The first one is more cohesive and the way the difficulty of the puzzles is the groundwork that most puzzle games are based off of, at least partially. I definitely got stuck a couple times in the overworld looking for tiny portal spots in what felt like an art showcase. The difficulty of the puzzles in the second one was more often discovering the different areas they wanted you to work with than puzzling out the solution with all the pieces in front of you.

[@TheGemsbok]

I think that's a fair observation. There's definitely a somewhat different puzzle style in play in the sequel, in addition to a different puzzle difficulty structure. Thanks for the comment.

[@Jandau85]

I've always been fascinated by instances when the author(s)/creator(s) of a piece of art or media makes something amazing, but they themselves do not understand WHY it is so amazing, and subsequently are unable to follow up on it properly.

[@TheGemsbok]

Agreed! In my opinion, the best example of that kind of thing is Anthony Burgess. He's the author of the novel A Clockwork Orange, and after it became successful he despised the book for the rest of his life---based primarily on his assumption that everyone interpreted the work the same way as him. I actually wrote an article on that topic, which ended up being a relatively big hit back when The Gemsbok was only a blog website: thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/tuesday-tome-clockwork-orange-anthony-burgess/

[@arthurpietrogarcia1057]

Well It was pretty clear that Portal 1 was always going to be a comedy , and Also Portal 2 is Also pretty scary, PotatOS Lament is scarier than any Kelly Bailey Portal 1 song.

[@obsu]

George Lucas is a good example of this.

[@freezerounds]

Or maybe they understood and still wanted to go out of their way to try something different, in which case they did so successfully, in my opinion. I'm glad to have both games as they are; I love them *because* of the aspects that make them so different from one another. I'd rather have more to love than more of the same.

[@BaddeJimme]

Valve knew exactly what they were doing when they made Portal 2. What they were doing was sanitizing it for mass market appeal.

[@MandrakeHorse]

Excellent analysis of how Portal and its sequel are completely different in terms of tone and atmosphere. I've always felt that Portal is fundamentally a puzzle game with some dark humour layered on top, whereas Portal 2 is a comedy foremost with some puzzles to break up the pacing. This tonal inconsistency might not necessarily be the result of Valve misunderstanding why Portal was so successful, but rather the result of an ambitious desire to make the sequel more than simply a level-pack expansion. Pivoting the entire franchise into an absurdist farce starring Stephen Merchant and J. K. Simmons is certainly one way of achieving this, although it does mean I often struggle to remember that the wacky deathtrap of pre-GLaDOS Aperture Science in Portal 2 is the exact same clinical, more down-to-earth Aperture Science that's depicted in Portal 1. One minor point worth considering is how The Part Where He Kills You fits into the broader picture of Portal 2's third and final act, which essentially acts as a deconstruction (if not self-parody) of Portal's earlier narrative. Much like the first game, you're working through a series of test chambers run by a rogue AI that you'll eventually confront during the climax. However, by placing the potential of Aperture Science into the hands of a deeply insecure and incompetent buffoon, Wheatley's power-mad behaviour can directly contrasted against GLaDOS'; His scatter-brained nature and lack of control results in the near-destruction of the facility; His attempts at witty put-downs are merely childish and pathetic insults (and only marginally more petty than GLaDOS' earlier remarks about Chell); So when it comes to the obligatory Part Where He Kills You, Wheatley's complete lack of tact and subtly leads to the entire scene being heavily signposted, ridiculously overblown, and incredibly trivial to escape from. The lack of credible threat is therefore deliberate - not only does The Part Where He Kills You completely fail as a twist in a narrative, but so too does Wheatley ultimately fail in his attempts to become GLaDOS' replacement.

[@TheGemsbok]

Great analysis! Thank you for your comment. I do agree that Wheatley's physical and mental breakdown across the final chapters of the game serves as both an explanation for, and a parody of, GLaDOS' behavior in the first game. But I'm not convinced that even the idea of an incompetent AI paralleling GLaDOS' activities absolutely had to make for a significantly wackier tone or a noticeably easier game. I've seen this notion in a few places over the years (including in at least one other comment on this video), that changing the tone of the game is the only way that something new could be brought to the experience. But I'm not convinced that a similar tone to the first game would've made the sequel 'simply a level-pack expansion.' As I said in response to that other comment, "Perhaps it's an obvious point, but the original Resident Evil is not the only Resident Evil game with a mix of corny action one-liners and horror content; the original Ratchet & Clank is not the only Ratchet & Clank game with irreverent and humorous parodies of capitalism; and so on. Tone can be maintained between entries in a series while expanding on gameplay and themes, even when that tone rides a line between multiple moods." Even new characters can (and usually should) be added in a sequel without losing the atmosphere of the original; along those lines, even speaking specifically of Valve, Half-Life 2 is not just a level-pack expansion for Half-Life. Ultimately, Portal belongs in the Half-Life universe; Portal 2 belongs in the TF2 universe.

[@theholygamer969]

​@@TheGemsbokOh, my gosh, Portal 2 is just a parody of its predecessor. Now I REALLY hate it.

[@RememberCitadel]

Something to note about Portal 2: The story seen in retail was thrown together in about a year and a half. Valve scrapped their original story for Portal 2, the Multicore Era story would of had Chell teaming up with multiple disgruntled personality cores to overthrow GLaDOS, then escape. However, due to Wheatley's popularity among playtesters (and a other myriad of reasons we likely aren't aware of) they scrapped the Multicore storyline for the retail one. And even the retail one was watered down due to a strict, unmovable deadline resulting from a console deal. What we ended up missing out on due to Portal 2 having to come out in 2011 was: * GLaDOS having a longer and more believable character development * EVERYTHING regarding Caroline, and her transfer into GLaDOS (we were meant to see that) * Cave Johnson's consciousness, uploaded to a AI stored in a cube, regretful over everything he's done and asking you to kill him * TONS. OF. CHAMBERS. Like, ALL conversion gel tests, more advanced chambers, etc. * And, most importantly, downtime between major character moments and j o k e s. A lot of Portal 2's scenes were cobbled together from Multicore lines, and the new ones written in that one and a half year dev time. In short, we missed out on a much more tonally cohesive game that balanced out it's humor with it's darker elements.

[@RememberCitadel]

Heck, there's left over logic in some of the Act 2 chambers that imply that the G-Man was meant to have a role in the story at one point, possibly during Multicore. Dunno if it actually got farther than that, but it exists if you look through a decompile of one of the maps.

[@XCloak_PersonX]

Okay I didn’t hear about the multi core thing before but now I’m wondering could the core we see in aparture tag possibly be a scrapped core from the original portal 2?

[@RememberCitadel]

@@XCloak_PersonX No. Nigel is an original character by the mod developers.

[@XCloak_PersonX]

@@RememberCitadel oh sorry I just recently found out about portal and didn’t know it was a mod lol

[@theholygamer969]

There... there WAS meant to be more? And they threw it out? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

[@epicalworlds2775]

Portal one always gave me such an edge of my seat feeling, like something is wrong. The loneliness makes it even more scary, the confusion adds to it “why am i here?”, “who is this voice?” The atmosphere feels disturbing like something went wrong but you don’t know what n why, the ratman dens add to this sure they were in portal 2 but it didn’t have the same impact anymore as in portal 1 rat-man was the only other character who ever semi talked to us. Although portal 2 is still amazing and one of my favourite games, Portal 1 glados felt more menacing with her passive aggressive voice. The Ost of portal 1 is incredibly unnerving to me it just adds to the loneliness with somber and slow music.

[@Ad-fu6tj]

Yeah, OST in Portal is amazing. Procedural Jiggle Bone is kinda scary but Self Esteem Fund is beautiful

[@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413]

youre overreacting

[@epicalworlds2775]

@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 no I’m not i just love the atmosphere of portal 1 that much

[@franklinshure960]

Just wanted to say thank you for always having perfect subtitles on your videos right when they go up. You're one of only like two channels I seen do that, and I can't hear too well anymore so it is very appreciated.

[@TheGemsbok]

Of course! I started doing custom captions for all of my videos in late 2019, and since then my stats have shown that around 10% of viewers now use them. So that's a strong incentive to keep doing it.

[@cheesepop7175]

ok boomer

[@stepan6457]

In my opinion portal 2 two is awesome but original portal had that specific mood of being a lonely test subject. There was something little bit scary about the atmosphere

[@sylvercritter]

as someone who played Portal 2 first, I wholeheartedly agree. The tone is something I miss when playing 2. Cave Johnson is brilliantly written, don't get me wrong, but his humor keeps the darker parts of the game light.

[@Mayrink.]

I particularly liked a series of Portal 2 maps called "No Elements" which returned to the simplicity and difficulty of the first game and even surpassed it. It has no buttons, cubes, funnels, lightbridges, gels, lifts, or fizzlers. It manages to fit quite a few puzzles and quite a bit of cleverness with basically nothing but portable surfaces and non portable surfaces. Highly recommend it. Also, "Still Alive" > "Want You Gone" any fucking day.

[@Ash-wv4mz]

Do you remember the author of those maps?

[@Navelofman]

One of my favorite parts from the first game was the platforms you needed shoot the portal gun mid-air and remember alternate your portals to climb higher. In the second game, once you're airborne everything is automatic, no input from the player was needed, and I remember feeling a little disappointed by that.

[@TheGemsbok]

Absolutely true, and very succintly put. Something I noticed very late into this project (too late to include it in the video, unfortunately), is that the 'fling' maneuver is considered the most important portal mechanic taught to the player in Portal, yet is essentially absent from the second game. (The 'fling' is what the devs call it when you place a first portal on a high wall, go through any nearby surface, then place a portal below yourself in mid-air to fly out of the first portal with greatly enhanced horizontal momentum.) The developer commentary of the first game talks about the mechanic a lot, and how it's sort of the final challenge to getting players "thinking with portals." Hence why it's the last thing you do to fetch the last core in the boss fight.

[@moth5799]

How's it automatic? If you want to fling you still need to alternate portals the game doesn't place them for you.

[@jodgee2374]

The Portal 2 "Lab Rat" tie-in comic perfectly matches the tone of the first game. It's weird to me that the main game didn't keep that up.

[@rotsteinkatze3267]

In portal 1 the path you take seems like you found it yourself in many cases (even tho ratman has left hints), in Portal 2 you go straight to the exit/do not go here signs.

[@abcdefzhij]

YES so true

[@JurassicClark96]

Left 4 Dead has the same issue in my opinion. The first game had a way creepier mood, partly due to all the levels taking place at night. You can tell even by the intros alone that L4D2, while now obviously the superior choice as it simply rolled all of the first game into the second, feels more action oriented than survival/ horror.

[@REPOner]

And thats not a bad thing.

[@Allstin]

DOOM 2016 Vs DOOM Eternal here as well Dark, gloomy spooky vs brighter action with spooky elements

[@Jdudec367]

@@Allstin Mario Galaxy 1 vs 2 it reminds me of

[@PaulPower4]

I'll be honest, I did enjoy Portal 2's story more, but I think that's mostly because I just really enjoy comedy and while parts of it do fall flat - the GLaDOS fat jokes early on are pretty dire and weirdly petty - Wheatley's endlessly distracted adlibbing remains a tour-de-force (I still feel like Stephen Merchant was robbed of that one voice acting award: sure, Mark Hamill's Joker is amazing, but we already *knew* that), as do things like the defective turrets. I feel like you do down The Part Where He Kills You a little bit because yes, it is very obviously played for laughs, but it plays for those laughs so well (particularly the comedic timing and repetition of the titular phrase). Saying that, you've given me a lot of food for thought on the things Portal 2 could have done better (seriously, those fat jokes 😬) as well as making me want to replay Portal 1 which - big admission here - I never got round to finishing (I got stuck on that one level with the moving platforms in a tight corridor...). Like all good criticism, even if I don't agree with it, this has made me examine my own feelings and preferences and introduced me to other points of view. Thank you, and I just want to say that from what I've seen of it so far (this and the Dark Souls and VVVVVV vids) this is a really neat channel!

[@viveka2994]

The glados fat jokes were supposed to be petty since glados is petty herself lol

[@yol_n]

I did like the fat and adoption jokes. Simply because they didnt really work. It shows how angry they are at the player and I just imagine chell having a PokerFace for me that makes it very funny. The part where he kills you has to be the funniest part. Dude keeps throwing tatrums while you just move forward. It's incredible 😂

[@TRRDroid]

In earlier Portal 2 trailers the puzzles actually seemed more difficult

[@Niyucuatro]

yeah, i think the game suffered from not having the sharpest testers. It's possible the devs streamlined puzzles the testers were getting stuck at a bit too much.

[@yol_n]

@@Niyucuatro portal stories Mel solved this. Difficulty levels!

[@Sergonizer]

​@@yol_n lmaooo the fact that I got stuck at Wheatley chambers for longer than any chamber in the Mel while people find it harder is so funny. Like genuinely the only "hard" chamber in Mel seemed to be the one where you have to bring the cube over the goo (I hope it was Mel, I've done some mods after it) by destroying it so it respawns. That chamber was the only one that I got stuck at for around 30 minutes, asked my gf to help, she didn't find a solution either, so we just went for the KZbin walkthrough. Probably the level design flaw, instead of the actual chamber solving issue.

[@yol_n]

@@Sergonizer are you playing in story mode or challenge mode? Challenge mode was the normal campaign before they changed in a patch to "challenge mode" and the new campaign being story mode which is akin to portal 2 puzzles.

[@johnnyguitar8067]

​@Niyucuatro it was made for children. My friends and I found it fairly difficult when we were 12.

[@cbennoes]

What the hell dude, this is insanely well made. i assumed this had at least 50k views. Well done! Subscribed

[@TheGemsbok]

Ah, if only the channel grew to a large degree every time someone told me it should already be huge . . . then I guess it would hit an equilibrium point and people would stop saying it. Ha. Anyway, I should have a new game video ready in early July. Thanks for subscribing!

[@davidb2885]

I am so glad, that I played the first game before the second! Otherwise the incredible atmosphere of the first would have been spoiled as well as the cake being a lie.

[@monarchofthesea9395]

Couldn't agree more. One thing I'd add to this is, that Portal 2's aperture science feels much more organic, given that the panels and everything move around all the time. For me the fact that in Portal 1, it feels more manmade, more like an actual abandoned building makes it far creepier. The impossible architecture of 2 just doesn't feel as intimidating given the tone, with maybe the exception of some parts of old aperture. While in 1 you've got this crumbling facility that's just a bit off, with you only starting to realise that slowly.

[@vens1337]

It is interesting to see someone prefer P1 because of the the story and thematic elements, whereas for myself, I prefer P1 because of the slight differences in physics and movement mechanics. There is a similarity in how things change for both of us between the games. For the story part of it, you may feel that it loses the seriousness by focusing on comedy, while for the physics, I believe it loses its seriousness by redefining the player's movement and abilities. To explain my concern: I seriously love the (even if unintentional) Accelerated Backwards Hop and the portal pellet delay. These two mechanics make for such interesting movement opportunities that I find myself feeling stuck when playing P2 (playing community maps on the regular). While the ability to mess around in that way could break lots of chambers and "ruin" parts of the game from a puzzle perspective, for me they are more fun than the rest of the game itself. Thankfully P2 has a decent amount of movement to mess around with, even if things like bhop speed are handicapped. The ability to speed up by walking along a wall/railing at the right angle always makes me feel satisfied thankfully. Just as you find the comedic elements to hold back the game from achieving the right atmosphere/story/theme, I find myself feeling literally held back from moving myself when playing. But anyway, looking at things from a story perspective I definitely agree that the thematic shift is dramatic between the games, thank you for pointing it out. Nice vid.

[@eccentriastes6273]

There's a general jankiness in Portal 1 that I prefer. Like when you send a cube through a portal in 1, it doesn't always land perfectly where it should, there's an element of randomness, but in 2 it does because the devs made sure it does. Walking around feels more like gliding; you don't "trip" on small objects or bumps in the floor as much. In my mind this is related to player freedom issues like not enough portalable surfaces, but it's hard to explain how. Like, in 2 there are railings that you can't jump over. Why not? It's like everything has to be just so, it has to go smoothly and perfectly just the way Valve intended.

[@vens1337]

The rails! For real man, I remember that feeling of the rails being visibly climbable but then block for no reason. It was frustrating realizing the virtual world around me was limited; it lost the respect for the surroundings i felt in P1. @@eccentriastes6273

[@abcdefzhij]

@@eccentriastes6273 I hate stuff like railings that you can't jump over. It totally just reduces immersion and makes the game feel like a carefully guided ride ratgher than a real thing that you're experiencing.

[@RiveraFilms]

I've always wanted to make commentary videos like this. After watching your Philosophy of Dark Souls and now this, I'm reminded of how articulate and interesting other people have relayed their views, and not gonna lie, it makes me a little less motivated to create content when people like you exist lol

[@PeterParker-vi2nl]

Same🥲

[@opticteadrop]

Great video. Even though I disagree, and think that Portal 2 is better, I can still see why some people might like the 1st one. Still, both are excellent games, and great video is a great video.

[@Lugbzurg]

One thing I can't help but wonder about that might have been a contributing factor was the desire to move away from Half-Life. Portal was made using some Half-Life 2 assets, such as the button noises, chapter intros, and the orange energy balls. I can't help but think it's possible that part of the tonal shift in Portal 2 may be from a thought process of "If it becomes more of its own thing and establishes its own identity separate from Half-Life, it's an automatic improvement!" I did notice essentially every last thing derived from the Half-Life series had been thoroughly stamped out.

[@SageOfStupidity]

Well articulated on all counts. I enjoyed Portal 2 immensely when I first played it, but in hindsight, I think I have to agree with you

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you for the kind comment! Part of the nature of Valve's aggressive approach to playtesting is that their games end up purpose-built to make the strongest possible first impressions. It's a valid strategy, for sure, but it can definitely lead to situations where cracks show up in retrospect or on a second playthrough.

[@Crazy_Diamond_75]

I've been having this exact same feeling about the two games recently, I think because I introduced my then-girlfriend-now-wife to games a couple years ago. One of the first I had her play was Portal 1, which I have considered an essential experience for 16 years now. I never thought of Portal 2 the same way.

[@crazy_kingdakayt8425]

I can't believe that i've been playing portal for 15 years, it is such a brilliant game that deserves more than what the internet says about it

[@shawnmarcum8078]

Imagine if portal 1 had portal 2's tone. What I'm saying is, imagine if both portals had reverse tones.

[@CoTeCiOtm]

There's actually a mod for Portal 2 that ports the levels from Portal 1. It's not finished yet but you can get up to the first part of the escape section. It's neat!

[@eikosi-ena]

This was a really insightful and interesting reflection on the series. I came into it expecting the same nostalgic-lens garbage most people have when criticizing a sequel, but your points were well made and supported. I’m gonna go replay Portal with this video in mind.

[@camithebrick]

I've seen a few mods that aim to recreate portal in portal 2's engine and art style I want to see a mod that recreates portal 2 in portal's engine and art style

[@TheGemsbok]

Absolutely. Although I can understand how it would be a much more challenging and potentially unpopular project, it would be very interesting to see that (especially if it included an editing down of the script, and applying a filter more in line with the first game on the dialogue of GLaDOS and Wheatley).

[@nike2136]

Both are made in the same engine the engine is the source engine

[@CoTeCiOtm]

@@nike2136 True, but both engines have modifications made to them to get certain things to work, on top of visual flair, it's not as easy as just putting the Portal 2 stuff in Portal 1 and it will work because both are the same engine.

I have to agree with you. I played Portal and Portal 2 many times, but only with Portal i have feeling like a want play it just one more time.

[@illcomeupwithacreativename4096]

no fucking way is that freddy fazbear

[@illcomeupwithacreativename4096]

can you sing your famous line for me please fredrick

[@FlareBinar]

One of the extremely subtle things about Portal's Atmosphere that I just don't feel Portal 2 captures... The way it sometimes feels like the facility is *breathing* around you, like you are deep in the belly of a terrible technological monster.

[@jackbluehq6653]

Portal 2 accomplished that feeling to It shows how all walls are moveable and controlled by Glados, you see the walls broken and just starting to come back to life revealing it's true power, it feels really alive and dangerous especially when you see them failing and malfunctioning And portal 2 showed us just how massive Aperture really is, it felt like you were being revealed all the secrets of the facility you didn't get to see is portal 1.

[@theholygamer969]

@@jackbluehq6653 That's way too obvious, though. Portal 1 did it in a quiet, static manner, to great effect.

[@jackbluehq6653]

@theholygamer969 hmmn no not really Portal 1 and 2 have completely different tone and themes and different ways to convey it It's unfair for both games to try and argue which is better cause both did amazingly at portraying aperature And remember both games are set in very very different time frames It wouldn't make sence for portal 2 to have the same clean eerie mysterious atmosphere It's stupid to try and argue if both games are better, cause both games are masterpieces that nailed there atmospheres perfectly

[@Thisisthegreatestatofalltime]

Valve has a habit of playtesting their games to a fault. I still prefer the sequel overall but I definitely agree with most of the criticisms particularly the difficulty.

[@sverrikarason3307]

i think i spent more time looking for portalable surfaces than actualy solving the puzzles in portal 2

[@Tycitron]

It's not said very much, i also prefer the way Aperture itself looks, it looks like it was always run by humans and feels realistic and lived in, Portal 2 looks cool, but the facility looks like its always been run by robots, and is suddenly 500x larger.

[@XCloak_PersonX]

To be fair, it was atleast 1000 years since humans were actually working there

[@theholygamer969]

​@@XCloak_PersonXAnd the facility was broken down in that time due to GLaDOS being destroyed, yet everything looks different. It makes no sense for it to look the way it does. They just changed the art style because they could. They retconned everything, and it sucks.

[@lgjhmovies]

this is a trend in almost all valve sequels, half life alyx actually kinda annoyed me because of its goofyness :/

[@hallacas1684]

Yeah, I adore Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 (in fact, they're one of my favorite games) but I always come back to its predecessors more often. In Half-Life it's for the gameplay and in Portal it's for the tone.

[@Dimasterim]

I feel like the goofiness in HLA is reigned in compared to Portal 2. The biggest culprit in that game is Russell, but thankfully he starts talking less and less as the ending approaches and the game wants you to take the stakes seriously. Even at its goofiest HLA avoids something Portal 2 does which is introduce nonsensical stuff just for the sake of a joke, the jokes in HLA at least fit the game, characters and lore.

[@spacegirlproduction9506]

At least we have portal stories mel! The challenge there is hard since puzzle are complex

[@mihailokovincic9399]

How does this have so few views? Very well articulated (and produced)!

[@Rotaermel]

Portal 1 had a subtle humor which added to the overall morbid undertone and sometimes was like a comedic relief. Portal 2 ist just comedy from start to finish. It doesn't feel creepy or claustrophobic at any point in the game. I'm not sure but I think at the time they made Portal 2, many people involved in HL2 and the Orange Box were already gone.

[@dahdumbguy]

I went into this expecting to get angry and yet instead I almost completely agree with all your points. Great job!

[@cavifax]

Very well explained, i love both games as their own very different experiences each, but i understand the comparison, as it is a direct sequel and there can be some expectations set. Great video.

[@GX33Official]

I feel like Portal 1 just has that classic source game feeling

[@MitchellCFlint]

in my opinion, yes the single player campaign is better, the second is a better game in total purely because of the workshop and editer.

[@gunsmithcat7542]

I don't get why game devs keep acting like "more is better". More things to do, more game mechanics, bigger game world, etc. etc. When the smaller predecessors keep being the better games!?

[@TheOGComfyBoy]

before watching this, i really loved portal 2, and even after i still love it, its still in my top 3 favorite video games. but now that im watching this, i really realize how true everything your saying is. great video, everything your saying is spot on

[@journeration1]

From the name of their gdc talk, it seems like maybe the game writers agree with you somewhat lol.

[@TheGemsbok]

Ha, that's not quite how I interpret that title, but maybe . . .

[@abcdefzhij]

Can you link the gdc talk? I’m interested

[@journeration1]

@@abcdefzhij on mobile atm but it's the one called "Portal 2: Creating a Sequel to a Game That Doesn't Need One" that Daniel quotes from in this video

[@abcdefzhij]

Thanks@@journeration1

[@yeltifeltino8070]

"puzzles that solve themselves" THANK YOU. Surely my number one top complaint about portal 2. Valve sandblasted it with play testing so hard that almost the whole game feels more like a puzzle themed walking simulator than a puzzle game

[@PeterParker-vi2nl]

Try portal reloaded! It’s the best portal 2 mod with a third time travel portal and really hard puzzles

[@ethanlivemere1162]

I don't really understand this complaint. The game assists you with many things (portal placement aim assist, trajectory adjustment etc.) but those are things that are just quality of life and don't necessarily make the thought process of the puzzles easier. But the puzzles themselves get really challenging, especially in old Aperture (talking about the actual test chambers, not the inbetween parts) and Wheatley's later (stolen) chambers. The main difference is you don't have to deal with the jank of Source physics object cubes or slow, hard to predict energy balls. The puzzles in portal 1 may be challenging on a first playthrough when you're still getting used to the base mechanics of portals, but if you were to play Poartal 1 for the first time after playing the first half of Portal 2, they'd probably already be extremely easy to solve.

[@swn32]

@@ethanlivemere1162 People who prefer Portal 1 like shitty execution based puzzles, while people who prefer portal 2 like logically complex puzzles which are easy to execute when you find the solution.

[@afterceasetoexist]

really dont get this point. the first 14 chambers in portal 1 are rudimentary to the point where theyre basically just elaborate walks to the exit. if "puzzles solve themselves" is a complaint being levied towards portal 2 then surely you must feel the same way about portal 1

[@joaomellin]

honestly i clicked the video thinking there was no way you could pull this off but this is video is so well crafted that it's hard to disagree with. great work. subbed!

[@TheGemsbok]

Haha, well I'm glad you gave it a chance despite your initial reaction. And thank you for the sub! Next game video will be available in early July.

[@FoxLosst]

It's not well crafted and to be honest I actually think that anyone who has agreed should replay both games paying attention to every tiny detail to see how Portal caused GLaDOS to be what she is and how Portal 2 improves on everything.

[@abcdefzhij]

@@FoxLosstlol

[@robert357900]

Well, basically the major downside (downgrade?) in Portal 2 are characters. I don't mind comedic C. Johnson, because he's a new character. I don't mind Wheatley, because it's just another whacky/crazy core. Heck, I wouldn't even mind changes in GLaDOS. However, they are all funny from the start to the end and it's a little bit too tiresome sometimes - for example these GLaDOS puns when we bring her alive again. I'm surprised you didn't mention how story and narrative is paced differently in P1 and P2. In first Portal there are usually few lines when we enter/exit a chamber done by GLaDOS until there is escape sequence. Other than that we are finding "clues" in silence (Rattman hideous). In Portal 2 almost everything is shown by talking.

[@maniacobra8103]

You explained very well the differences between the two games, but you didn't really explained why one *should* be better than the other... Yeah the tones are really different but we can't really say one is objectively better than the other, it's just two different directions, both with great executions. The idea that the "serious" tone is better than the other one is kinda subjective. I personally also tend to prefer the atmosphere of Portal 1, but while the atmosphere of Portal 2 is very different it still does an excellent job to make it consistent and to use every qualities this kind of atmosphere has to bring, and I don't think this really breaks the immersion, it's just not the same tone. So overall, it feels more like it's only personal preferences. Which is fine but asserting that Portal *is* better than Portal 2 because of that is a bit awkward, it just sounds like you present this as an objective fact, maybe it wasn't your intention but for me it felt more like you talked about that as a fact rather than an opinion. Anyway, one thing I disagree on is about the difficulty of Portal 2. On most Portal 2 first playthough I saw, players didn't find the solution to everything so easily, I think the difficulty is well balanced. The fun in Portal 2 is more about discovering and learning new mechanics rather than challenging the player. I would also argue that Portal 1 wasn't intended to be a challenge either, we can see Portal 1 is a kind of giant tutorial to make the player learn how to think with Portals ; and because Portal 2 consider that the player already knows how to think with portals, the new way to bring them more stuff to learn is new testing components. Still a nice video with good comparisons though

[@TheGemsbok]

Of course it's subjective. All substantial art criticism and reviewing is subjective. There is no meaningful difference between saying that I consider one work of art to be better than another and expressing that I prefer one over the other. If you want to see a review of a game that is purely objective instead, Sterling once produced one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmKlmn-ohKyZpq8 Even if you don't have the 5 minutes to spare for that video, I'd recommend taking a moment to skim through some of the comments underneath it.

[@MyDadStoleMyArm]

11:22 another thing portal 1 turrets shoot through portals where portal 2 turrets lock on through portals but don't open fire

[@gJonii]

I remember as a teenager I felt so strongly about Portal 2 unseriousness, I sent mail to Gaben about it, saying something to the effect of "you people need to take your own games seriously, even if there is comedy, I don't want the game laughing with me". Not sure how much Gaben had to do with this game.

[@napalmpig3772]

What a fantastic breakdown of something that is only just barely consciously perceptible when casually playing games. I had previously seen Matthewmatosis' video, and this was equally insightful. I too loved Portal 2 but always felt that the first game was special somehow, but not simply because it was more original. You nailed it.

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you for that very kind comment. It's a nice shot of confidence to read on this day in particular, because (coincidentally) I'll be publishing my next game analysis video tomorrow.

[@InternetMonster1]

I couldn't agree more. Especially with how much Portal 2 feels like it is, "on rails." I felt like the puzzles were almost a distraction to get to the next bit of story, compared to Portal 1 where the puzzles were the adventure. In one game I am doing puzzle which progress the game, in the other I am doing puzzles to progress the game. That being said, Portal 2 suffers from being the sequel to a game whose unknowability was its greatest asset.

[@-Owmen]

Now we just need to wait for 3000nds for portal 3

[@flixsyc256]

Great video. I think they wanted to expand the audience of the game so they attempted to make it more appealing to children. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in Australia the first game is rated M (15+) and the second is PG (parental guidance recommended). I think they tried to compromise for the original fans by still having dark themes, like the dens at the start of the game, but then put a silly comedy coat of paint over the top so kids would be allowed to play. It bugs me because I played the first game as a kid and loved it, but I imagine they wanted to make a co-op game that was family friendly that strict parents would be ok with, that also explains why there is no longer blood from the turrets and the tests are easier. While I prefer the creepy atmosphere of the first game, I still love the over the top humour of the second, so I feel they did succeed in the end.

[@siphillis]

This channel's gonna blow up. Great stuff.

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you! From your keyboard to the KZbin algorithm's heart, I hope . . .

[@ZacFrazier]

Any Portal 2 mods you'd recommend with a more substantial challenge?

[@TheGemsbok]

If you haven't already tried it, Portal Stories: Mel is available on Steam for free as a standalone fan-made expansion, styled as a prequel to Portal 2. The writing is still a bit goofy for my taste, the quality of the voice acting is all over the place, and there are some indulgently long sections spacing out tests at two points; but the gameplay inside the test chambers is basically what I would've wanted in Portal 2. Not ridiculously difficult like some of the Steam Workshop chambers---but puzzles that occasionally challenge you.

[@ZacFrazier]

I haven’t tried it, I’ll definitely give it a play at some point

[@erdnussbier4260]

Mel, Aperture Tag, Portal Reloaded, Rexaura many more if you scour moddb

[@friedrichhayek4862]

@@TheGemsbok Portal Stories of Mel, is easy in the history mode. Certainly no hard in the right way in the other mode, I expect hard puzzles no skill requeriments.

[@zekebrunt]

Played one of the Portal games, probably P2 on my dad's steam account years ago, definitely need to get it on mine and play it again

[@TheGemsbok]

They're both short and they both hold up well, so I foresee you enjoying yourself.

[@Legend-rs8uu]

Theres old animations of an early portal 2 where it kept the same look and feel, wish they went with that

[@abcdefzhij]

Can you link that by any chance? I’d love to see it. The developer commentary for portal 2 indicates how much stuff they scrapped because of playtester feedback and instead steered the game in a much “safer” and imo worse direction, really a shame to see.

[@Uragan00829]

I love Portal 2, but I much prefer Glados from Portal 1 than in Portal 2.

[@kuma477]

6:40 I think the reason why Glados is less monotone in 2 is because the explosion from the ending of portal 1 as well as her rebooting herself actually woke up Caroline in her, so shes got more humanity

[@cathrinjohnson4219]

a bit late for the party but her voice becomes less computerized when you destroy morality core

[@kabanfriends5764]

I like Portal 1 better simply because of the simple designs with silent atmosphere

[@Ad-fu6tj]

This video is great, needs more views. One question: How would you rate Portal and Portal 2 from 1 to 10?

[@joarsoderstrom8287]

When I was a kid, I was scared of the turrets

[@shawnmarcum8078]

To be fair Portal 2 is really the only Valve game oriented towards children and families . Because everything else they released before then was violent as hell.

[@mr.beamless1609]

One thing that always annoyed me about the 2nd game is how many tiny visual design things were changed for the flimsiest reasons. Elevators between levels are completely different, 'storage cubes' now light up on buttons as though touching buttons is what they're for, energy balls are replaced by lasers, Chell's face is totally different to be prettier, Glados is animated like a Pixar character instead of just swaying, etc etc. I mean, yeah, okay, each thing like that makes the game 1% smoother to play. But all of those things also screw up the continuity between the games so it's a bad trade.

[@TheGemsbok]

Very well said. That point about the difference in GLaDOS' animations is something I considered discussing in the video at one point while working on it, because I think it's another solid example of how restraint could've led to a better outcome with less work. There's a part in the Q&A of a different GDC talk than the one I quoted here, which was delivered about a year after the release of the original Portal, where someone asks Erik Wolpaw how Valve can replicate the limitations faced by the team of the first game (given that a lot of the preceding talk was about how some of Portal's best attributes resulted from embracing limitations---and that Portal 2 was then practically guaranteed to get a much less restrictive budget, schedule, and team size), and Wolpaw is completely at a loss; he waffles through some jokes for a minute or so before finally declaring, "I don't know." Ultimately, that's one question to which I'm not sure they ever found an answer.

[@CoTeCiOtm]

I feel it was important for them to make something that actually looked and felt different from the first game, since retaining the same art style of Portal 1 would've felt like a map pack more than a proper sequel. There was a gameplay explanation over them replacing the energy balls with lasers, as lasers made puzzle solving flow much better.

[@AstroTom]

I do like Portal 2 but i've always loved Portal 1 more for its tone, atmosphere and because it's so nostalgic to me. Portal is my second favourite game of all time.

[@krub1124]

Portal 1's tone was so eerie to a point where i was anxious of getting jumpscared, i wish it couldve been longer. Portal 2 is great but the whole part when you were underground was just exhausting i was so happy when i finally got to see Wheatley again, while Portal 1 was just an amazing experience throughout, there was no downs at all (but tbf Portal 1 is a lot shorter)

[@stagelights_]

when i first played portal 1 at age 7 i was terrified that the orange portal gun was going to hurt me

[@waterbolt059]

Portal 2 is a pg 13 movie version of portal 1 and I will stand by that

[@Pokaroquai]

Ehhh It's the other way around since the first Portal have bloods if you got shot while the 2nd one doesn't.

[@Tempest193]

Very insightful. Although I agree with just about everything in the video, I still enjoyed portal 2s campaign quite a bit.

[@TheGemsbok]

As did I!

[@cassiuscartland]

I think portal 2 definitely has the better story, and I prefer the music in it, but I will always love the first one because of: 1: The general aesthetic in it 2: the fact it was only 2GB and could run on anything as long as it had electricity

[@OsterDog]

This seems like a problem with video game franchises in general, where the first game places a heavier emphasis on atmosphere over more "cool" elements in the game (Halo 1, Mass Effect 1, Left 4 Dead 1, Doom 2016, etc.), and it sucks cause generally the atmosphere of those first games entice me, while the later games in the franchise don't have that same effect. In Portal's case, it seems more like a lot of the general mysteries in the game are solved. Why are there no humans? Is GLaDOS sentient? Where does this take place? Is this related to Half Life? Why are they testing? In the first game, a great majority of these questions are answered. As a result, I feel like it would be out of character for Portal 2 to keep that mysterious and creepy atmosphere, because you automatically know more about the universe and story by the end of the first game. Like a monster in the 1st act of a horror movie, it's scary until you know its motivations and how it works. I do think Portal 2 requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, especially with lines like the mantis men or the TF2-esque Cave Johnson lines, and this feels like a discredit to the universe since this also takes place in the (much more serious) Half Life universe.

[@EggEnjoyer]

The truth is that you can’t do the same atmosphere twice. Maybe in survival horror you can, because the atmosphere is driven by gameplay. But left 4 dead is a great example. That game has stellar atmosphere. Yet after playing it for a while, the effect rubs off. And if a creepy left 4 dead 3 dropped right now, it honestly wouldn’t phase like the first game did. It’s just not novel anymore and it gets old. You get familiarized with the game world. And you be honest the cool factor is usually better anyway. Mass effect 2 is better than the first game. Halo 2 is better than the first game. Doom eternal is better than Doom 2016. The cool and fun factor is just better. Devs don’t just abandon creepy themes to cash out. It’s because fear is based in ignorance ultimately. And players aren’t ignorant about your game world after the first game

[@santialterman3066]

I wholheartedly believed that portal 2 was perfect. It feels awesome to learn a new perpsective presented in the way that you did. Congratulations for the excellent viewpoints.

[@velocity1852]

Nothing will ever top the atmosphere of the Portal 1s test chambers and the aesthetics of its backrooms.

[@eccentriastes6273]

I totally agree. I also feel that Portal 2 did Chell dirty. Chell in Portal was really unusual as a video game protagonist. She truly looks like an everyman, not a mascot or some kind of elite agent, but the kind of person you wouldn't look twice at in public. In Portal 2 she's almost a Lara Croft lookalike, looking significantly younger, more fit, and more attractive than her former self. Look, I don't have anything against hot, sexy ladies in video games, I swear, but it feels like what made Chell distinctive was sacrificed to make her design more, uh, marketable. Also, her backstory was changed. In the original, Chell is implied to have been a part-time employee of Aperture Science (she has a personnel file and is "not even a full-time employee") and was considered "a bitter, unlikable loner." GLaDOS portrays her as a total loser who's wasted her life up to this point. That fits perfectly with her appearance as a beaten down everywoman and makes me root for Chell all the more. Sure, maybe she's not perfect and her life wasn't great, but if she escapes, she'll not only have her freedom, but a new lease on life, a chance to start fresh, and she'll prove that GLaDOS is wrong, that she can do something right. Now it's a fight for personal redemption! As far as I recall, the only part of her Portal 1 backstory that's mentioned at all in Portal 2 is the detail of Chell being adopted, which has a ton of jokes wrung out of it but nothing truly emotional. Also, one of the science projects from bring your daughter to work day has Chell's name on it, implying that she had actually been in hibernation in the facility since she was a child. What a retcon! That means she didn't waste her life, it was stolen from her. That's a completely different story. It makes GLaDOS's taunts in the climax of Portal 1 sound like nonsense.

[@theholygamer969]

I'd be willing to bet MONEY that Portal 2 is the way it is because of the age rating. There seems to be this ass-backwards mindset in the industry that the lower the maturity rating is, the wider the audience will be. So they dumb it down to lowest-common-denominator crap. Or they just turned it into a glorified theme park ride to show off fancy robot animations with almost no proper substance. I'm so pissed that the ambient music was thrown out the door too. The instruments and arrangements from the first game felt like they could have been used in a Half-Life game. That was the point. It was meant to connect to the same world. Portal 2 is a live action cartoon with an obnoxious sidekick that spouts Anthony Burch dialogue that drags on for way too long. You wouldn't even know Portal 2's Aperture was part of the Half-Life universe. It sucks. And why would you take away Chell's earned freedom from the last game? Chell landed in a parking lot in the first one. She could have followed the road to civilization to at least try and rejoin the rest of society. But now she has brain damage, is awakened YEARS into the future, and is stuck in the middle of a wheat field? Now she's worse off than in the original. What horseshit. And that's not even mentioning the retcons and inconsistencies. GLaDOS didn't have full control over the test chambers and facility in the first game. She was a flawed, glitchy AI that couldn't even clean the wall panels of the test chambers. They were grimy. She couldn't construct entire sections of the facility on a whim. I could go on.

[@Creativeusername617]

Portal is an adult game. Very hopeless atmosphere, self restraint with the jokes, more immersive. Portal 2 is a childs game. Flashy colors, comedy, drama and a surprisingly hopeful atmosphere.

[@Squirberus]

Man portal frightened me as a highschooler. Portal 2 in college came at a great time for me to laugh but in reflection portal was the superior game. You put all the reasons very well. I also have like, orders of magnitude more in portal 2. Plus those co-op levels people make can be brutal. Felt actually smarter after solving them but also had to take a nap.

[@rightbehindyou9398]

Another day, another hipster making a video titled "Why X is better than X 2". He doesn't care what you think, he doesn't even consider the fact that most if not all of his points are purely subjective preference, he will title the video as if it is a fact and most certainly will present all the points in the video as fact. A lot of the points will also most likely be scratching the bottom of the barrel, oh and let's not forget the obligatory "muh X has darker tone than X 2 so it's better". Let's also intentionally forget to mention all of the new additions and strengths of X 2 and only mention where (he thinks) X 2 is lacking over X. The talented Valve veterans who worked on Portal 2, their knowledge and wisdom on game development and game design doesn't matter, this guy most certainly knows better. It's not like those talented valve guys spend hundreds of hours on playtesting portal 1 then even more on portal 2, to know the strengths of portal 1 and bring out the best of them/double down on them in portal 2. He says the gels and the new items are wacky and cartoony, then says it himself that the main attraction - the portal gun, was one of them in the first place, so what did you expect? It's the main attraction and what everyone loved about portal 1 the most, so of course they double down on the wacky sci-fi item set in the sequel, because it's FUN. Most people don't even care for the scawwier atmosphere and darker tone nonsense, they want to play the most fun game, these are absolutely superficial bottom of the barrel arguments, maybe they would be valid points if the darker atmosphere was a staple of portal the same way as it was for something like Half Life, but it's not, and the devs perfectly realize that. That being said, even then, Portal 2 still has enough creepy moments of it's own, which this guy intentionally neglects to mention. Otherwise, Portal 2 perfects the unique and unforgettable "Portal" aesthetic and really drives it home. I see no reason to break this video down any further as most of what he says is some superficial, biased, bottom of the barrel nonsense, or just plain misinformation/misrepresentation of Portal 2 in order to prove his contrarian point. I really hope people stop watching these contrarian, almost propaganda-like videos, and learn to form their own opinions about their own games that they play. And for the record, I'm not even that big of a portal 1/2 fan myself, so I have no personal interest in proving that either game is better than the other.

[@Marine_2010]

Facts

[@sulphurous2656]

I think the topic of how restrictive the gameplay became Portal 2 didn't receive enough thought among those making most community projects for the game. Everyone just kind of fell in line with what Valve did (because Valve can do almost no wrong and are the gold standard) and as a result the fan made experiences also have far less replay value than those for the first game. This again comes down to how (as noted) there is practically no mechanical difficulty, or difficulty of almost any kind involved in Portal 2 (save for the last 3 puzzle chambers). You have to go out of your wait to try and die in this game and most of its mods. It indeed is not an understatement to say Portal 2 feels like a giant theme park you're riding through safe and sound. Ironically enough, the game has been boiled down almost exclusively to its test chambers linear logic puzzles. And the whole campaign on top of that is essentially just one big tutorial for all of the new testing elements they introduced (all of which tend to more outlandish than their predecessors as cool as some can be), which now serve as the core gameplay features. The Portals are ironically no longer the main gameplay features as they were before. Their use is not explored in any other way in the second game. For example, movement puzzles or environmental parkour not unlike those in Mirror's Edge but with the use of Portals would have in my opinion been a logical evolution of Portal's gameplay. And that's not even discussing the possibility of introducing combat mechanics and more advanced player interactions in conjunction with more advanced movement mechanics and portals. It is a damn shame how dogmatically restricted in its possibilities Portal as a game series became afterwards in the second game looking at most community mods and maps and the base game in many areas because it has just about everything else going for it.

[@drowningin]

My regret is I never played any of the 2player stuff in portal. I wanted to but it was at a time in life where all my friends and I went out to start our adult lives so I could never get it going

[@MightyReeN]

I got into the series with portal 2 and I STILL believe the OG portal is far better, though it does feel like it gets overshadowed by the tone set with the sequel. Like the time of "The cake is a lie" Feel so much different from "A COMBUSTIBLE LEMON THAT WILL BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN"

[@Jdudec367]

Both are funny but the "I am a potato" quote is iconic too

[@tuyuqas]

Insightful and interesting analysis.

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you for saying so! I truly appreciate it.

[@limozy]

amazing video, I never knew why I liked portal 1 much much better than the second but now I do. thanks

[@limozy]

@@FoxLosst it is my opinion, I just thought he had a nice video laying out the details of why some people might like the first game better than the second. Also I have replayed them and the first one is more fun for me. The tone and atmosphere is so much better

[@shade221]

@@FoxLosst i formed my opinion a decade ago when portal 2 came out, and it's not significantly different from OPs. a video like this is hardly "brainwashing", and thats a very strange accusation to levy.

[@timidlittlescrewup]

Ur vida are great. Totally support it

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you! I appreciate the comment.

[@timidlittlescrewup]

@@TheGemsbok luv many of ur vids. I don't subscribe to most people. Any big youtuber i watch i just end up typing their channel or their vids just pop up. I don't sub to them even if i like em. But i sub to you cuz i support them. Keep it up 👍🙏

[@TheGemsbok]

Well, that means a lot to me. Thanks again. And rest assured: I'm already hard at work on my next game video (currently aiming to have it finished by early July).

[@linearprogramming837]

i still think portal 2 is an amazing game and im looking forward to portal 3 if it ever happens 😂 but the first one is such an all time classic, and its just as good as the first time i watched it, so nostalgic for me and the tone, graphics, vibe, gameplay, nostalgia, etc is why the first portal is my favorite game, dont get me wrong, like i already said portal 2 is amazing but they just nailed portal 1 and thats why its my favorite, they did everything perfectly, and the vagueness of everything + the fact that you had to theorize whats going on there yourself instead of it being handed to you on a silver platter is what makes the game incredible, and the escape sequence to the ending is unforgettable, id give it a 10/10 which is why portal is my favorite video game In My Opinion

[@man4830]

The thing that put me off portal 2 is the sci-fi and wacky feel of the inviroment and instead of lonely deselect feel in portal 1 which takes the fact that there are no humans alive

[@frabjouspolygon2695]

Personally Portal 2 is my favorite game, though it is rather overrated. Never once did it actually make me laugh. If it went for a more serious tone like portal 1 with more restrained humor then it could have been a lot more impactful atmosphere-wise. Portal 1 definitely has it beat in those areas, just not the behind-the-scenes style or the workshop support, thats what won me over to the second game.

[@TheGemsbok]

Yes, it would be reasonable for someone to say that I am being somewhat unfair by restricting this video to the main campaigns of the games. After all, the co-op campaign and workshop/mod support of Portal 2 are huge benefits in its favor, and Portal 1's similarly-ignored-here bonus features are negligible by comparison. I still stand by the logic of the decision in the video, that the singleplayer campaigns provide the 'quintessential Portal experience.' But I could easily understand how someone taking a more holistic view of each entry's features would feel differently.

[@rainydeestar]

It never made you laugh- what

[@brotosaurus]

the reason why portal 2 is so different in tone is cuz originally it wasnt even supposed to be a sequel to portal lol

[@sillaysponge]

I am so, so glad someone agrees with me on this. I always say I prefer portal 1 but I could never put it into words well enough. thank you ^^ [edit : as someone who is generally bad at video games : despite having to google puzzles in both games at some point (;;), portal 1 felt more natural to me. it starts off easy, and gets increasingly difficult while introducing new mechanics alongside getting the player well-versed in basics. in 2, it's more like 'easy tutorial levels, chambers get more complex, new gimmick is introduced, more easy tutorial levels to accommodate for new gimmick etc etc...'. it almost gets there, but then realises it's a sequel and needs to add new stuff, so scrambles to throw more on. with portal 1, items are introduced slowly, allow the player to do things they normally are unable to, and change up how the player approaches puzzles. in 2, it feels more like 'hey here's some wacky shit I just dug up, go use it' even though puzzles would flow exactly the same, if not better, without said wacky shit. COUGH those stupid panels that completely automate building up momentum for no reason, sometimes even being used at the same time COUGH]

[@MateusRG]

"The Cake is a Lie! The Cake is a Lie! The Cake is a Lie! The Cake is a Lie! The Cake is a Lie!"

[@cheesepop7175]

yes i like the portal 1 companion cube more than portal 2

[@davidzubek5035]

There’s a good reason Portal 1 is part of the moma collection and 2 isn’t. The first one is an artistic masterpiece, and the second one is just another movie like game for everyone to enjoy. Its fun. But it’s just that.