14 DAY TRIAL // Portal 2 is the big confirmed Valve-made video game release for the year and, thinking of the success of the first game in the series, the company is working hard to make sure that the sequel manages to attract a wider audience, including players that are not very familiar and skilled when it comes to physics based puzzle sequences.
Erik Wolpaw, who is one of the writers and designers working on Portal 2, told Joystiq that, “You have to sweeten it a little by having someone do some crazy ninja moves.”
He says that the company has tracked player behavior for the first Portal video game and learned that those who quit early did so because the game asked them to complete one or two puzzles that required very precise movement and control.
Wolpaw added, “If you struggle with the controller for twenty minutes to execute the solution that you already know, almost universally we found that it was frustrating people.”
The Valve designer says that the team working on Portal 2 has moved the emphasis to struggling with the puzzles on an intellectual level.
Players will need to have a good plan about how to solve a certain portion of the game and the control scheme will then make it easier than in the first Portal to achieve the result they desire.
Wolpaw also says that certain physics elements in the game have been modified in order to make it easier for players to enter portals and move around the environment.
Portal 2 will move the story into the future, with original protagonist Chell returning to again face GlaDOS in a now-destroyed Aperture Science facility.
Portal 2 will be launched on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the PC on April 18 in the United States and on April 22 in Europe.