Turn the Valve, Release the Humor

A few days ago, I gave in and purchased Portal 2. I was quite hesitant, as I wasn't sure if the $60 price tag was worth the value. The original Portal still remains one of my favorite games of all time, probably somewhere within the top ten. While the game never changes, I still find a ton of replay value. Unfortunately, the hype for the sequel died down as the release date grew closer. As more magazines and reviewers played the game, the less attention the game garnered. The one problem of the original was the short length the game had. The first playthrough took about 3 to 4 hours, with future playthroughs taking an hour long, if that. So while the reviewers would say that the single-player game for Portal 2 is twice as long as the original, an 8 hour game for $60 turned many onlookers away. One of the reasons Portal gained so much attention was that for $20 (for the Orange Box), one also received Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Well worth the $20.

Now, this post isn't about the length of Portal 2, or if I enjoyed it or not. I'll be up front and succinct. I played through the game at a snails pace to try to find all of the hidden areas and any subliminal messages, and finished at around 15-18 hours. If I were to rush and just try to beat the game as fast as possible, I probably could have beaten it in about 6-8 hours the first time around. So honestly, they weren't kidding with saying it's about twice the length of the original. Unfortunately, while I wish the first game was longer, I felt as though Portal 2 actually dragged on too much! I'm not saying I wanted the game to end, but the variety of the game was rather...random. The game didn't flow as well as the original, and I felt as though the developers ran out of time. All of the ideas implemented in the game worked very well, but it could have been presented much more smoothly. But hey, this opinion could very well change my second time through. So that basically answers the second question of whether I enjoyed it or not. Definitely yes, though probably not as much as the original. Was it worth $60? I'll be able to answer that after I play co-op mode, which I'm quite excited to try out - but only with a friend.

No, this post is about Valve. While the gameplay mechanics didn't always flow together seamlessly, the writing in Portal 2 was fantastic. Part of the reason why the game took so long is because I would stand around just listening to the voices of the few characters to see what they would have to say. Portal 2 introduced me to my new favorite character in a video game - Wheatley.

I'll get back to him later though. I want to point out that I honestly could not decide whether I wanted to focus this post on the humor of Valve, or the voice acting in Portal 2, so I'm going to do one better and combine them. Trust me when I say that they go hand in hand. After chuckling to myself numerous times throughout Portal 2, I started to think back to past Valve games that I played. It occurred to me that this has been a trend for their staff, to put in light humor in even the darkest of games they develop.

While they have developed a variety of games, I have only played a few. My first foray into the games of Valve was Half-Life, which I actually played only 6 years ago. While there wasn't much humor in the game, there were a few instances where a scientist would tell you to do a certain thing, and would scold you for doing the opposite, or pushing a button without being told. Obviously this would leave a smile on a few faces of gamers, chuckling inside about the situations Gordan Freeman would put scientists in.

In Half-Life 2, the improved graphics and voice acting lead to advancements in body movements and situational humor. Gordan Freeman could pick up any light object, and toss it at unsuspecting NPCs. Most would cry out "Ow!" or "Stop that!" and since this was introduced within the first few seconds of the game, provoked players to continue fiddling with the NPCs throughout the rest of the game. Only seconds later a combine (policeman) knocks over a pop can and tells Freeman to pick it up. Throwing it at the guard leads to a beating, quite a humorous reaction. As the player moves throughout the game world, they can often sneak up to combine guards speaking to one another about random and trivial life situations. Listening to these conversations reveals the humorous side of the Valve staff. Not to mention a scientist rambling on about unsuccessfully sending a cat through a teleportation device. What's better is that the player can fiddle with and eventually break a smaller teleportation device, angering the scientist. Brings back memories of the original Half-Life.

Episodes 1 and 2 of the Half-Life series continue this same trend of humor, angering scientists, listening to NPCs, etc. In one situation, the player falls into a pitch black room, and quickly hears a zombie behind them. As they turn and put their flashlight on the target, they realize it is just the NPC traveling alongside Freeman, trying to scare the player in the dark. Well played Valve.

I suppose I should mention Team Fortress 2, since I do own it, and have at least played it for a few minutes. All I can say is that it's like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon on steroids with better graphics. If a player had the option to use a giant hammer and could smash an enemy flat, it honestly wouldn't look out of place to me. For such a serious and fast paced game, they tried to make it as humorous as possible.

And then we get to the Left 4 Dead series. These games feel like they were built on humor, and they probably were. Take the most cliche horror flicks with tons of zombies, and throw in the humor of four strangers just trying to stay alive. Subtitles are almost a requirement to fully realize the humor of each individual character. What's more is that in Left 4 Dead 2, references can be found to other horror games, such as the original Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, and others.

But enough about the past games. I feel like I was dragging on back there, but I'm trying to point out that Valve has been putting humor in most of their games, whether it be blatently obvious or subliminal messages. It wasn't until Portal 2 that I really started to think about this stuff. I realized that Valve develops incredible games, yes, but tends to add humor to each and every one of them, to keep the player interested. Are you going to find subliminal humor in Halo or Call of Duty? Probably not. Valve creates some of the few FPS games out there that feature this kind of gameplay including this humor.

The humor extends beyond the actual gameplay as well. I'll get into it in a bit, but let's just say I came across a character in Portal 2 with a very recognizable voice. Today before finishing the game, I did some research and found that it is indeed the person who I thought it was, and right then I knew this post had to be written. I only came across this a few hours ago, but Valve likes to (either on purpose or randomly) add humor through the voice casting of game characters as well.

Let me start off by saying that Portal 2 has 4 character voices. Each of these voices meant something to me when I found out what else they have done in the past, and I must say, Valve picked some interesting choices for their character voices.

Let's start with Chell. Chell is the main character in Portal 2, and as far as I still know, has no voice. I have never heard her speak a word. Even after falling off a ledge, not a thing. So it was a little surprising to see that not only does she have a voice actress (Alesia Glidewell), but she also did the voice for Krystal in Star Fox Adventures and Zero Suit Samus in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Sure people do various voice work for video games, but doing a couple Nintendo games and then a Valve game seemed surprising to me. But let me continue.

GLaDOS was the main character and probably only voice (besides the turrets) in the original Portal. The same voice actress (Ellen McLain) reprises her role as the insane machine, but did you know she also did some other voice work for Valve? Not only did she sing the song at the end of Portal, but also had a voice in the Half-Life 2 series and Team Fortress 2. Not very surprising. But how about the fact that she voices the witch in Left 4 Dead 2?! Talk about a bizarre role. I had assumed they found some random voice actress to speak (or rather cry) the few lines for the witches in L4D2. The fact that they used the same people seemed rather humorous to me. But it gets even better.

My new favorite character in any video game is Wheatley, who's quite interesting in Portal 2. I cannot say much about him, because I don't want to give away any spoilers. Giving a description of Wheatley could even spoil some of the plot and/or story of Portal 2, so I'll just say that he's not very bright. But with that comes the funniest and most random character I've every met in a game. He probably has twice the amount of lines of GLaDOS in Portal 2, which means the writers spent quite a deal of time on what he says. What may come as a shock is that he is voiced by Stephen Merchant, writer and producer of The Office, both the American and European versions of the show, and the Ricky Gervais Show. How Valve found him I have no idea (having no ties to the video game industry), but obviously they found someone who understands the exact same type of humor they were looking for for Portal 2. The most interesting thing is that while he plays the voice of Wheatley, he didn't write any of the lines for the character, even though he's a great comedic writer himself. And here we have the best for last.

J. K. Simmons. I don't think I've ever seen him in a movie and disliked his character. It's almost always the same sarcastic man he plays, who has an attitude and wants to get work done. Once I heard the voice of Cave Johnson, I was like "No way..." But it is true, somehow Valve acquired J. K. Simmons to play a role in Portal 2, even having no past experience voice acting for video games. Every time he came on the announcement speakers, I would stop moving and just listen and read the subtitles. While not as funny as Wheatley, he fits the character perfectly, especially for the era he's placed in. Sure I could have blown through the game, but I've never come across a game like this, where I enjoy listening to every single little line in the game, even when it involves standing around waiting for the characters to say something different.

Oh, and while this isn't a direct spoiler in any way shape or form, I'm glad that I tried reading the smallest pictures on the walls in the game, as I found out that the Aperture Laboratories are located in the mines of Northern Michigan. I just thought that was kinda neat.