Articles - Portal 2 backlash: Critic reviews vs. user reviews

[Longsight]

The number of people offended by the fact that they paid $15 less than the normal AAA price for a game that's incredibly enjoyable and actually focuses on single-player as much as multi-player never fails to astound me. Why is it that when any other developer sets a release date and sticks to it nobody bats an eyelid, but when Valve does it everyone says "but you let us preload it a week in advance, so you're just holding back". The Potato campaign may not have been to everyone's liking, but it was far more interesting and enjoyable a launch than anything you'll ever get for CoD or the like, and if you weren't into it, you didn't have to pay attention to it.

It's also worth pointing out that the Potato Sack deal had been going for a full two weeks before the 'speed up the release' fiasco started, which then ran for all of four days. Anyone spending as little as a long weekend in a log cabin wouldn't have even noticed. Yet again, I give up all faith in the internet's ability to judge quality.

[Flash477]

On an interesting note, there is a Portal 2 advert on the bus shelter near my home, interesting they are buying main stream advertising as well.

I was in London last weekend, and I saw loads of portal 2 adverts - there were billboards and even advertising on the floor at Victoria train station...

[Nuvos]

Sure, Portal 2 is technically brilliant, and I guess that is what the reviewers are looking at - but I am annoyed that a lot of the time I can't play, I have to sit and listen to characters talk, or follow a robot around (which i don't consider playing, regardless of what the designers think) - so at the moment, the sum for me is that its annoying. Which is not good.

[TheVoice]

TBH it was a bit of a cheap trick, holding back Portal 2's release

It wasn't held back at all. If anything, it was released early!

[Tunnah]

the problem with the game was that it was marketed and promoted like it was an AAA game, people were expecting a blockbuster and got an indie film.

Games will always be judged on graphics, no matter what core gameplay was planned, it's looks are still gonna be measured up against what's currently on offer. To carry on the film analogy, it's like a new film being released in SD.

I don't know how the author has been playing the single player campaign for 8 hours, even if you chill out and listen to every second of the dialogue and not play while it's talking you can still run through it fairly quick. Yes some of the puzzles take some time but that leads to another problem - you're at the same point in a game and therefore don't count this time as a progression, it's much like where you hit a tough spot in a shooter and keep dying..you wouldn't count the time figuring out how to get past as an extension to the gameplay experience.

They should have at least made some noticable improvements to the source engine, I know having the best graphics doesn't go with the games ethos but it comes off like it's a very well made mod or addon pack when the visuals feel out-dated.

The co-op mode was a good edition but it's hard to count it as an experience add-on when it feels more like a short-lived multiplayer addition.

And the game has practically zero replay ability, only a handful of people will replay it for poops and giggles because after the first time you go through it, after that it's simply going through the emotions, or finding an open level and having a blast with portal physics.

It's definitely a 6/10 kinda game

[drunkenmaster]

Sorry why shouldn't it be judged partially on how it was marketed.

The "we'll only give you full access to this game you paid for, if you work hard, pay more money, put in time" latest method of extracting extra cash out of people is something people don't like.

A game should be judged on that, people should remember, the guys who made portal 2, and those who marketed it should see the backlash and in the future decide to never let a pencil pusher do it again. So yes for the sake of everyone and every future game, this SHOULD be judged on how it was marketed and how its "DLC" was made available, otherwise dev's won't learn.

As for the game, it is easy, frankly the only difficulty in the game is mostly trying to make another portal while flying through the air and thats not exactly puzzle solving at its best.

Its not at all bad, the tests are too simple, as someone said the dialogue wants to be witty and original but if, well, you're over 20 then its really just old jokes over and over again. Some is well done, the voices are pretty good but ultimately its a well polished cheap puzzle game, except it wasn't cheap to buy.

Why should it look like Crysis, well the main problem with that is, why shouldn't it. Premium priced game, people expect a premium game. Incredibly basic graphics, dated, on an old engine, theres a reason cheap, relatively simple games usually don't carry AAA pricing, because they aren't worth it.

POrtal 2 will be a steal in 3 months when its £10, people wouldn't care about spending a few quid to get a cheap game early, nor DLC, but when you tack on DLC and gimmicks to get the game you paid for when its got the premium price tag already, its a joke.

[GheeTsar]

Homefront recently got massively criticised for being short, yet for some reason this didn't translate to Portal 2 where it was forgiven. I wonder what makes reviewers forgive one game for length, but not another at the same price point.

[kalniel]

Homefront recently got massively criticised for being short, yet for some reason this didn't translate to Portal 2 where it was forgiven. I wonder what makes reviewers forgive one game for length, but not another at the same price point.

The intensity of the enjoyment Otherwise shooters would always get lower scores than epic RPGs.

[directhex]

There's one other factor annoying impossible-to-please whiners: you can unlock all the skins, gestures, etc, for the multiplayer robots either through play - or paying more money. £28 gets you all the cosmetics.

[Rob_B]

I don't see how you can complain about the potato malarky

"oh noes they made me buy some more games"

No they didn't, it was a cynical ploy and it worked, very well for them, anyone with an ounce of sense saw that and, unless you wanted the bundle of games, would have not bought into it.

You can't compare game length vs price to say why one is good/bad, as kalniel says, RPGs would therefore be the greatest games ever if you did that.
Homefront appeared to be a short, average game, Portal 2 seems to be a short, above average game.

Glad I didn't like Portal though so I've avoided all this nonsense!

[directhex]

Here's the thing: Portal 2 is not as good a deal as Portal 1. The first game sells for £7 now, came free with just about everything ever on Steam, and was originally part of a £30 bundle including TF2.

Portal 1 was mind-boggling value. Cheaper than Super Meat Boy, cheaper than the Fallout New Vegas DLC, same price as Peggle.

Compared to that? No, Portal 2 compares poorly. 4x the price of the first game, is it 4x the content? Nah, about 2 or 2.5x the content for single player, and many won't play the multi player.

So here's the question, is 2.5x the content of the first game for £30 bad value? Or merely not-outstanding? I'd have to say the latter. Plenty of AAA games can be completed in 6 hours, including the original Half-Life. It's the quality of those hours that matters, and Portal 2 is of an exceptionally high standard compared to other recent short games like Homefront.

Looking at my Steam records, Portal 2 is about the same length as FEAR 2, in terms of completion time. Or Metro 2033. Or The Ball.

[iiee]

I loved this game it was easily the best game i have played in ages. I bashed through it in just under 7 hours but i got through fear 2 in less than 4. To be honest i felt the single player was fine in length and i haven't had a chance to play multilayer yet. To the people who have a problem with the length i would just point out that if the co-op multiplayer is the same length then that makes this game about 15 hours long and from the sounds of it slightly longer for some people. 15-20 hours of content would make this game about the same length as say farcry 2 and longer than crysis, half-life 2 and most other non-rpg story based games. Now add to that the fact that valve is normally very good at adding extra multi player content to there games often for free then i would say that portal will be well worth the £27 i spent on it.

As for the arg thing people are getting way too annoyed about that it was a bit of fun something small to give to the fans and you got a whole load of extra content for the potato sack games (though how much will stay i don't know). If you bought them just because you love portal and are raging because you have already completed it then you need to calm down sit back then (i recommend the relax cube in AaaAaaAaah! A reckless disregard for gravity) then go play the indie games you bought Amnesia, super meat boy, killing floor and defense grid are the stand outs for me but they are all quite good and well worth a play. If you still feel you were ripped off then well im sorry i guess but im with the critics on this one.

[cordas]

Personally, the ARG was ridiculous. I wanted to get my hands on Portal 2 as soon as possible too, but there's no way I was going to fork out for a set of games I didn't want just to get it a couple of days early when I'd already been waiting for years. Those people who did pay out for the set of indie games got some great games, there's no doubt about it, but I can see how they feel they may have been coerced into buying them. But, ultimately it was those individuals who handed over the cash, they were never forced. As far as I see it, there's absolutely nothing that's really worth complaining about, yet alone trying to bring down the score of a game that deserves to be one of the highest rated games of 2011 thus far.

So you didn't feel the need to buy the potato sack... maybe because you were getting a review copy? The reality is that many fans of the game did buy the sack and it turned out not to be be full of potatoes but something that was brown potato shaped but rather more smelly and squidgy.

ARG isn't a ridiculous idea... its actually a good marketing strategy its just a shame that they decided to kill the golden goose rather than encourage it to lay more eggs. If a company wants people to pay more for the privilege of getting a product early they really need to make sure that the product they are selling actually gets into those people who pay for it early... they also need to make sure the game they are supplying lives up to the expectations they are fostering in their customers....

Turning round and blaming the people who paid the cash for paying cash to get the game early is just daft.

[TooNice]

Nonetheless, there's no way the game should be judged for how it was marketed.

I'd extend that to not just games, yet people do that a lot even in this forum.

When it comes to user "user reviews", it is worth remembering that not all of them are "reviews".

Not only that, but our perception can easily be affected by our mood, so every aspects of a game that is clearly subjective can be downgraded just because you are in a pretty bad mood. A pro reviewer may be expected to remain impartial as much as humanly possible, but casual "reviewers" may just decide to "let it rip". Even more so if the reason behind their mood is in some way related to the product.

Another way to create disappointment is by creating expectations and not delivering them. You may not outright lie but it's irrelevant if people feel "cheated" I missed the whole ordeal, but presumably they never said how much earlier the game would be released, so people set their own expectations (which they deemed reasonable). Beat those expectations, and I think people will shower you with (undue) praise, fall short, and you'll take an (undue) beating. Or at least they'll try to. I think the idea is that if you paid twice than what you think it's worth, then you should discourage one would-be potential buyer to balance out and more as 'punishment'.

Also look at the IMDb score break down of the Top 10 rated movies, and notice how there are usually more votes for 1 than 2-5 combined. I do not doubt most people who rated 1s actually think those films are worse than most movies they've seen. Yet many do it to "balance" out the 10s they don't believe is deserved. It shouldn't be done, but that's the nature of "user reviews" (especially if you can rate without even reviewing).

That said, 22-27% disparity is huge. I would expect the number to narrow over time (as people who weren't affected by the drama buy and rate the game). UNLESS the game really isn't all that and critics in this instance *have* been too generous by public standard.

[Roobubba]

I really enjoyed the game. Took something like 5 hours to complete the single player, and another 2-3 to get all the SP achievements, played a bit of multiplayer and really, really enjoyed that. Despite the relative shortness of the first-play-through single player campaign mode, I'm with the critics on this one: it was easily worth the money I paid for it, and the fact it came out when it did was perfect for me, as I'd just come off a 24h shift so had a day and a bit off work to (rest) play it.

I look forward to playing more of the co-op with mates!

(PS I didn't spend money on the potato sack and only happened upon the whole ARG thing because some friends told me about it... what can I say, I never read the updates heh)

Roo

[dapneym]

I very much enjoyed playing Portal 2. I beat it last night with around 6.5 hours of gameplay, and at the end I felt that I got what I paid for. I've not played the co-op yet, but I intend to at some point soon. I'm hoping it's as fun as it seems. As for the ARG, I thought it was a fun idea. I played, but mainly because I had previously bought a few of the titles, so I got the potatoes in those games. I didn't specifically buy any of the games for the ARG though. I think they should have released it a bit sooner than the 18th though. Maybe at least given it to us last Friday or Saturday so we could have had the weekend to play.