Gana
Recent Activity
1 day ago
1 day ago
2 days ago
Gana
completed
Freedom Force
2 days ago
Gana
completed
Luigi's Mansion
2 days ago
Gana
completed
Super Mario 64 DS
2 days ago
Gana
completed
Kid Icarus: Uprising
2 days ago
Gana is
now playing
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
3 days ago
Gana
played
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
3 days ago
4 days ago
Gana is
now playing
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
5 days ago
5 days ago
Gana
completed
Portal 2
An extremely common subgenre of the puzzle genre is what I'm going to call the one-mechanic genre, where all the puzzles in the game build on one mechanic from start to finish, with the end goal almost always being the same, usually getting some object from Point A to Point B. 90% of those make the same mistake for me: the mechanic gets old. There are only so many ways you can push a box, draw a line, etc. without it getting dull. I'd say Portal 2 is the best example of this type of puzzle game, and it does it effortlessly. I don't think this game has a bad puzzle, or a boring stretch, at any point in its relatively long playtime. This is helped by the antics of Wheatly and GLaDOS but, obviously, the game design itself takes most of the credit. I think the main thing is that Portal 2 adds new and interesting mechanics regularly, and always combining them with old mechanics in interesting ways. This feels like an obvious statement, of course you want to add new types of puzzles as the game goes on, but it's so hard to do this well and Portal 2, again, does it in a way that feels effortless.
I wish Valve still made games regularly, because I think their work is genuinely masterful when they do.
I wish Valve still made games regularly, because I think their work is genuinely masterful when they do.
5 days ago
5 days ago