Game Review - Portal 2 (cont)

Co-Op time!

Having had a bit longer with the game I have now played co-op through (3 times with 3 seperate people in fact) and got all 1000 gamerscore, first time i've managed that with a full retail game in a while.

Co-op...is a bit good and a bit bad.

The good is the puzzles. Adding a 2nd player, and another 2 portals to play with, the puzzle get big, and complex. By the last few they are a real puzzler for a good while.

The C-op controls are great as well. In addition to normal controls you can view your friends view in a PiP screen at the push of a button. You can also "ping" locations on the course using a button, to highlight what you're talking about or where you want portal. You can also set up a stopwatch function, so you time actions exactly. This last one is particularly useful, as sometimes there can be lag between speaking and the other person hearing it, but accoridng to Valve, the clock is consistant between players

The Bad? Its not as engaging. Yes i've played it through 3 times, but mostly by chatting away. After the first play through you've seen and heard it all, and unlike the single player, it doesn't hold re-playability. Glados' commentary and comments are no where near as engaging as in the single player in Portal 1 or 2, and often fall a little flat.

First time play through? 6-7 hours. Every successive play through, thanks to knowledge on the puzzles...3-4.

Portal 2 Co-Op - 7.5 out of 10

So overall Portal garners an 8.5 out of 10. It's funny...if they'd just released the single player it would have got a higher score...even though its shorter!

Also Valve today announced free DLC for the game, in the form of single and multi player challenge chambers. And apparantly it's going to be free, which is always a big tick in my book...seeing as i'm paying 1200 points for CoD maps in a few days...

40k stuff, I will hope to get an update tomorrow, and soon a review on the Gears 3 beta....