Over at the MTV Multiplayer blog, Totilo asks the question, “Does ‘Portal’ need a sequel?” As you’d imagine, there’s a lot of heated debate over the topic. I encountered a similar question shortly after Portal was released when I overheard a coworker raving about his unquenchable thirst for more levels and downloadable content. That more general question that came to my mind at the time was, “Does Portal need anything more than it already has?”
The best answer to this question was phrased very elegantly by Russ Pitts over at The Escapist’s editorial section. In the post, Pitts talks about the original Half-Life’s superiority over its sequel in how it left much of the story to the imagination by leaving a lot of the details out. He then briefly notes how he has once again discovered this quality in Portal, ending the article with this sublime quote:
Finishing Portal (and hearing that excellent song) you can almost hear the fanfic engines turning over and grinding into high gear, which is in itself a testament to the power of this engrossing story. But I hope I don’t ever learn more about the protagonist or Aperture. If the price of more time with Valve’s excellent creations is the death of what makes them so uniquely wonderful to begin with, I’ll take the memories and you can keep the sequels.
With all of this talk of sequels, downloadable Portal levels, a Flash variant, and hacking the Portal gun into Half-Life 2, it almost seems like people are missing the point. The portal mechanics were certainly unique – I won’t argue with that. Neither will I argue that those same mechanics shouldn’t be tried elsewhere and in other contexts. However, it is my firm belief that the core experience of the singular game Portal is whole and complete. By adding more “stuff”, Valve risks diluting the purity of that which made the work such a self-contained masterpiece in the first place. I can’t help but wholeheartedly agree with Totilo when he says, “…when I finished the game I felt an unusual thing: satisfaction. I didn’t immediately want more, in part because I was so comfortable with what I had just got.”
In short, if Valve absolutely insists on creating a Portal sequel, it cannot simply be comprised of more levels, harder puzzles, and the return of GlaDOS’ quirky dialogue. It must be altogether different from its predecessor – a new and altogether separate experience, because as far as I’m concerned, I’ve had my fill of cake.
I agree completely. Part of the beauty of Portal was that it guided you through the portal concept, held your hand all the way until you were fully prepared and then dropped you straight into the final level.
It wrapped itself up nicely and as far as I’m concerned, is nicely complete.
That being said, I wouldn’t mind a Portal gun turning up in a dedicated segment of HL2 Episode Whatever. As for further exploring the Aperture Science Testing Laboratory plotline, that needs something more than just a repeat of the Portal mechanics.
hear hear, it’s definitely got to be a separate experience. Sequels and chain IPs are unavoidable since it’s tried and true. But those said sequels that do excel deliver another experience or perspective that no one would have thought of before. Anything else that’s crap just gets kicked to the side. Playing through crap like that is like going to Hometown Buffet for a week or like when I played the NES sequel to my beloved game of Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers. You fight Fat Cat as the final boss in the first one then he’s back again?! wtf! Doesn’t he know crime doesn’t pay.
While I agree that any more storyline involving Chell, GLaDOS and Apeture science could take away from the game, I see nothing wrong with more DLC puzzles. Much in the way that going through previous levels and puzzles with certain restrictions (time, steps, or portals fired) new puzzles would not take away from the game experience as (in my mind) they would exist outside of the Portal storyline, satiating the players hunger for more puzzles.
That said, it is inevitable that the story of Chell and GLaDOS will continue, even if no Portal 2 is ever made. Portal’s storyline is a key part of the Half-Life storyline, so in essence a continuation of the plot was in the works quite possibly before anyone knew what Portal was. Not to mention Apeture Science’s magical science freighter out in the Arctic (I believe) is hinted at in HL2 episode 1 and 2, and has made itself into the central area in HL2 episode 3.
I think also gamers have a skittishness when it comes to sequels as there have been far too many. Aside from that I’m pretty sure the folks at Valve are well aware that they have to raise the bar for Portal 2. And I’m fairly certain they can do that, as they did with HL2 and the gravity gun. Who knows what other physics bending weaponry based gameplay they can come up with next?
I suppose optional DLC isn’t a bad thing. It’s just not something I’m personally interested in. It was the core experience that I grew to love – be it the humor, the writing, the characters – it was that extra context that breathed life into the game. The levels and the mechanics outside of that context felt a little pointless. I played through the unlockable hard mode versions of the levels after completing the game, and it had nowhere near the same magic that the core game had. I came to see Portal as more than just a puzzle game. Adding more levels to it seemed like creative capitulation.
This is why I’m worried about Portal 2. On one hand, like you said, Valve has done great work, and they’re sure to try raising the bar for the sequel. On the other hand, Portal has already set the bar pretty high, and part of me would rather leave the original alone rather than hope to see something better and be utterly disappointed.
I won’t say I’m too skittish about sequels. I play a lot of them and enjoy a lot of them. It’s just that Portal is one of the few examples that did everything so well its first time around that I can’t see anything that can be done to make it better. In my opinion, Valve’s creative efforts would be better spent on an entirely new game and a new concept rather than trying to augment an experience that needs no augmenting.
Unless they added competitive multiplayer. That would be SO sweet.