It's been almost four years since Portal arrived on the PC, blowing gamers away with its smart gameplay and even smarter storytelling. The game even spawned an influx of memes that last to this day. “The cake is a lie.” Ending sentences with “…you monster.” Or doing things “for science.” The list goes on. Portal was—and still remains—nothing short of a gaming phenomenon.
Was Portal’s release really that long ago? It doesn’t seem like it, but time does tend to fly when you’re having fun.
The days leading up to the release of Portal 2—which is within our reach, at long last—have been only slightly less exciting than the prospect of playing the game itself. Valve, wily as ever, has built on the growing anticipation of gamers everywhere with widespread advertisements in worlds both physical and digital, and compounded the hype with an alternate reality game, or "ARG,” which has thus far managed to supersede the likes of both Lost’s ARG and Halo’s “I Love Bees” campaign in both complexity and interactivity for its participants. In other words, Valve has taken the game to the next level with its insertions of cryptic codes not only in YouTube trailers and gaming websites, but in advertisements found on dump trucks, buses and even other video games.
Collaborating with indie game developers, Valve created a “Potato Pack” which contains some of the most popular indie games and put it on sale for a very reasonable price. If that wasn’t reason enough to purchase the pack, Valve included special Portal-related updates for each of the games included within the pack as enticements for fans of the game, along with more cryptic hints for participants.
The ARG has finally come to a head, with Valve incentivizing players to invest their time in the “Potato Pack” titles to unlock Portal 2 before its official release date. The fervor that fans have shown in anticipation of the game’s release was nothing short of phenomenal, which is favorable indeed for the launch of Portal 2.
It is a wonder whether any other publisher could have cultivated the same amount of zeal for the release of their games. To be sure, Portal 2 had the benefit of being a highly anticipated title ever since gamers discovered what Valve was working on, but the enthusiasm for the game can’t be solely credited to its reputation alone. Valve has earned the love of gamers by the way it treats gamers, and for harnessing the cognitive surplus of gamers who—above all else—enjoy playing games. Instead of treating its titles as mere “products”, Valve has managed to treat even the acquisition of its games as a game unto itself. Valve understands gamers, and gamers have more respect for Valve because of it.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Portal 2 will live up to its predecessor and to the expectations of its millions of players—but hopes are high. Critical reviews have already started to come in, and the verdict has been nothing but positive. But ultimately, it will be the gamers themselves who decide if the game is a success.
It stands to reason that if Valve had any lack of faith in the game, it wouldn’t have put as much effort into creating the hype for its release knowing that doing so would only create disappointment. Valve took a colossal risk with Portal 2’s hype machine, but it was a gambit upon which the company was willing to stake its entire reputation.
The situation is “do or die”—either Portal 2 succeeds as a game, or the experience leading up to the release would cause no small amount of disappointment.
I have my fingers crossed, and I’m sure Valve does too, but given their reputation for creating great experiences, I think it may be safe to say that Portal 2 will see some measure of success. Regardless of how it measures up to the first game, Portal 2 is sure to be a memorable experience, and the hype machine will have left a permanent mark—for good, or ill—on the history of video games.
