September 2013 Entries - Falcon's Blog

Portal 2

Greetings, Portal 2 is a 2011 video game and a sequel to the original Portal that was released in 2007. The single player campaign delves deeper into the lore of the Portal series by introducing new characters or expanding on individuals that are already established, creating new interactive elements that are required to complete tests such as repulsion or propulsion gel and creating a history for Aperture Science. The voice cast plays their roles excellently with Ellen McLain reprising her performance as the villainous AI GLaDOS, Stephen Merchant voices the moronic robot known as Wheatley and J.K Simmons takes on the role of Aperture's charismatic founder, Cave Johnson.

The plot is set an unspecified period of time after the events of the first Portal. GLaDOS has been killed and Chell had managed to leave briefly but was dragged back into the building at the end of the original game. It starts with Chell being awakened from her stasis room by Wheatley, who had discovered that she was still alive and supposedly the last remaining human in the facility. Once Wheatley introduces himself, he attempts to aid Chell in trying to escape once again from the test chambers. Chell is equipped with the portal gun to help her get around obstacles, but the only way to exit is going through the lair of the deactivated GLaDOS much to Wheatley's fear.

Portal 2

They accidentally reactivate her when they are in her territory. Once awake, a vengeful GLaDOS states to Chell that she had to relive through her final moments of being killed due to her black box and puts the silent protagonist back to completing test with the intent of murder. Wheatley continues to plan a way out as Chell buys time by solving the puzzles for the murderous AI. It is eventually decided that they could neutralize GLaDOS and allow Wheatley to take over the facility via the stalemate button.

It is a great game with a good use of puzzles, a nice atmospheric soundtrack and humour that is both witty as well as dark. The storyline itself is very entertaining and has an unexpected but interesting twist that drives a lot of the humour later on as the game progresses, often at the expense of Wheatley. I haven't yet played the co-op campaign but the single player is a great experience that keeps giving laughs,well hidden Easter eggs and secrets such Ratman's dens as well as interesting challenges from start to finish. It also had a brilliant ending that wrapped everything up nicely but unfortunately mean that there probably never will be a sequel,at least one that follows Chell.

Plot=10/10

Characters=10/10

Graphics=10/10

Overall=10/10

Quote of the day

Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an "unsatisfactory" mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck!

GLaDOS

Portal

Written by Falcon, Sunday 22 September 2013

Back to the Future: The Game

Greetings, Back to the Future: The Game was created by TellTale and is considered to be an official part of the original storyline, taking place after the events of the third film. Like other TellTale games such as Sam and Max, Back to the Future is a point a click episodic adventure with all storylines flowing into each other. Some of the original cast such as Christopher Lloyd and Michael J Fox return but Marty McFly is voiced by A.J. Locascio who gives a good performance in imitating a younger Fox. New characters are introduced with likes of Edna Strickland, an anti-delinquent activist, Marty’s grandfather Arthur, singer Trixie Trotter and Biff’s father, the gangster, Kid Tannen.

The story is predominantly set in Hill Valley during 1931 but does change periods and visits alternative timelines. In 1986, Doc Brown has been missing for several months and the bank begins to sell off his items.  A concerned Marty is startled to find a time travelling DeLorean has made it back to the present time without any sign of Doc. McFly discovers that this vehicle is a duplicate of the original that was destroyed in 1885 and that Emmet had travelled to 1931. Brown has been incorrectly imprisoned in suspicion of burning down a speakeasy belonging to Kid during the prohibition era.  Marty has to free Doc from prison before Emmet can be gunned down by Kid’s gangsters.

A lot of the story revolves around Brown’s past, with Marty attempting to get a young teenage Emmet to leave his family tradition of an occupation in law in exchange for science. Therefore setting in motion the events that would lead to the creation of the DeLorean time machine. The score suits the game nicely by incorporating pieces of the iconic themes from the movies while adding a fresh twist to some of them.  It was composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson, who walked worked with TellTale before on other projects such as Sam and Max as well as the Walking dead.

While most of the puzzles are relatively straightforward that didn’t stop me from enjoying the experience which was similar to that of the trilogy in terms of humour and in keeping with the well developed characters, as well as the general essence of it. I also liked the cartoonish design that TellTale uses for its games, believing that it captured the appearance of Doc and Marty nicely. If you liked the films you might appreciate this and due to the high probability of a sequel, I look forward to what will happen next in the much loved series.

Plot=9/10

Characters=10/10

Graphics=8/10

Overall=9/10

Quote of the day

Vengeance? Ha! I was never one to hold grudges, Jeffrey. My father held grudges. I'll always hate him for that.

Pierce Hawthorne

Community

Written by Falcon, Thursday 12 September 2013
1