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Portal is the game many people have raved about, some calling it game of the year all on it's lonesome, though I think part of this is because of its inherent freshness of the idea of navigating these pristine test chambers with portal creating abilities. Sticking a portal on a possible surface links the area, so putting on the wall and the other on a distant ceiling let's you travel the intervening space in an instant, resulting in various puzzles requiring block moving, inertia juggling, and quick timing. Though even in the game's brief three hour length, these concepts start to grow a little stale and you'll find yourself repeating the same puzzles a little too often. I can't speak much of the story without spoiling it, but it's definitely the highlight of the game, and what kept me going near the end. It was worth it for the end credits song alone.
Team Fortress 2 has been ten years in the making, and all that time has resulted in the most polished game I have ever experienced. The nine classes are superbly balanced, each having their uses on the field and none left to collect dust in the face of one that rules them all. There are only six maps, but most are modular to make them feel as if they're three times as many, and they're all so well crafted that even after a hundred games they never feel played out, and never boil down to just one perfect strategy. The cell-shaded visuals are amazingly eye-catching and fluid, with the weapon-specific taunts bursting with personality. Drop in and out multiplayer makes it easy to find a game, and it's overall structure promotes team play over all else. Unlike Halo 3, where one hotshot player can dominate with little help from his team, going alone in TF2 is close to suicide. Even a half-decent team will take you down. Another aspect is the classes are so diverse there's something for everyone. If you're not that great at shooting, you can be a Medic to heal others, a Spy to sabotage, an Engineer to support, etc. Making it quick and easy to change classes also makes the games a struggle to the end, with victory never far away for either side.
There's a lot of content here for $60. It varies from amazing to simply good, but it'd be worth the money at twice the price if you haven't already experienced any of it before. With just the new stuff, you're still getting a good deal, with more diversity at a higher quality than any other console release to hit this holiday season. |
