{"id":128583,"date":"2022-10-03T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-138596"},"modified":"2022-10-03T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T21:00:00","slug":"feature-backlog-club-portal-2-made-me-feel-clever-despite-my-minor-case-of-serious-brain-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/10\/03\/feature-backlog-club-portal-2-made-me-feel-clever-despite-my-minor-case-of-serious-brain-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Backlog Club: Portal 2 Made Me Feel Clever, Despite My Minor Case Of Serious Brain Damage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Backlog<\/a><\/figure>\n

Rule number one of Backlog Club: Work through your pile of unplayed video games one at a time, and discuss them with other people. Rule number two of Backlog Club: Don’t talk about Backlog Club.<\/em><\/p>\n

Just kidding! Tell everyone. Please.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is part of our new experimental series, Backlog Club<\/a>, where we (Nintendo Life!) pick a game that’s likely to be on our list of “games we should get around to playing”, and then we (NL + you!) spend the next month playing that game. We’re finally catching up with Portal 2<\/strong>…<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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Before I played Portal<\/a>, I felt like I knew most of the plot just from cultural osmosis. There’s an evil robot lady, there’s a gun that shoots holes, there’s a cube that you love, and there’s cake, until there isn’t. I knew the writing was sharp and witty, and I knew there was a song at the end. I played Portal, and I was right about all the things. Thanks, memes.<\/p>\n

Before I played Portal 2<\/strong>, I felt like I knew some<\/em> of the plot from cultural osmosis, and some of it from extrapolating from the first game. There’s still an evil robot lady, but now there’s also a spherical Stephen Merchant. There’s still a portal gun, but also some new mechanics, maybe involving various types of goo. There are still cubes, and turrets, and rooms full of puzzles, although I wasn’t 100% sure about the existence of cake this time (fool me once, and all that).<\/p>\n

\"Backlog<\/a>
I made a new friend and he’s really stupid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I finished Portal 2 this past weekend \u2014 sorry for the month-long delay, by the way! I was on an extended holiday \u2014 and I think I ended up liking it even more<\/em> than Portal the first. Even though the original game laid the incredible, seminal, genre-defining tracks, Portal 2 builds on them in a way that only<\/em> Portal could, and that, for me, is what elevates it above the original.<\/p>\n

Imagine, if you will, being tasked with creating a follow-up to one of the most universally beloved games of all time. A game that has become somewhat of a cultural monolith. A game that has spawned countless others, inspiring both mechanical puzzle twists and a generation of writers who want to create a villain even half<\/em> as compelling as GLaDOS. I think I would just quit my job and go into hiding. It’s like trying to make Citizen Kane 2<\/strong>. You’d have to be mad<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Luckily, some people are<\/em> mad, and they are braver than I am, because that’s how Portal 2 came into existence.<\/p>\n