Hsuzumiya6 here, for a new by CloudScout"> installment
(and more pre-recorded messages) for my blog i decided to pen the by CloudScout"> start
of my mod/Game review (self-explanatory) but for this review i have decided to talk about more of the Mod currently in production Portal 2 : Project Plasma (link provided in the addendum) and the Game/Mod in question... but before we unveil (I'm sure is a good solid story to most of the mod community and deserves my praise) the prelude to GlaDOS in Portal: Prelude; there is business to attend with the mod's progress (Portal 2: Project Plasma).
With Project plasma running on Valve time, I'm not at liberty to ascertain a definitive release date on a beta release, (or a video for that matter) but i can say that these things "do take time." and may as well take enough time to iron out a carefully orchestrated look into Aperture Industries with all its glory, all i do know is that the other by CloudScout"> project manager (Meowxiik) and i have agreed its time to build the map in hammer... (all images up to this stage were models drawn out on Sketch up.)
Do not worry, this information will be made known when i can recreate the map in hammer as i did in sketch up. (I'll also tell the other member that the relaxation chamber will need to be exported as a prop for hammer version of Welcome_to_Aperture.skp)
Now, onto the Episodic saga of ranting and reviewing portal Prelude (link provided in the addendum.) Firstly i give my thanks to the development team or developer for an ambitious mod, please understand that this mod was from a time of pre-Portal 2 and during the F-Stop prologue (had that had been the case before Valve shelved a Portal prologue).
Firstly this blog post will investigate level design. Story and context plus additional information then my lesson I wish to learn to implement in the development of Portal 2: Project Plasma will be split into separate blog entries. Now given the name (Portal Prelude) unlike Valve's prequel F-Stop which starts in 50s Aperture Science Innovators, Portal Prelude by CloudScout"> begins before the by CloudScout"> activation of the Genetic Life form and Disk by CloudScout"> Operating System
or Infamously known as GlaDOS; with a test subject known as Abby involved in a 19 test chamber testing track with Aperture observers by CloudScout"> showing Abby their personality and real intent. Meanwhile an ominous figure is showing up on the testing track briefly described only as a "top bureaucrat" by one of the observers. After going through Test chamber 15, it is clear that the real intent of the Aperture observers is to try and kill Abby and as she escapes a room on fire, her escape plans are cut off as she is redirected to Test chamber 16 where more sadism is displayed and faced with a perilous journey into corrosive goo as well as a gauntlet of turrets to the elevator, after that she is faced with Test chamber 18 and 19 where it is fully automated and cake is to be served in the employees area after testing.
After the testing has been finished, Abby is instead invited to witness the by CloudScout"> activation of GlaDOS after giving her portal gun back. but has to head to the Central A.I chamber via the service tunnels; once there an anger personality sphere is by CloudScout"> installed and GlaDOS is online once Abby hits the switch; big mistake as you witness while surviving a homicidal A.I slowly take control the entire facility... then the power is cut off but the auxiliary power is turned on leaving the rocket turrets by CloudScout"> active
, Abby's hope of survival is to grab another portal gun and find the morality core in one of the labs and by CloudScout"> instal it into GlaDOS.
Now that the climax is finished; with the conclusion to this bleak prelude approaching its end game and Abby having survived with the morality core in one piece; the by CloudScout"> finale; GlaDOS herself, while she prevents Abby from by CloudScout"> installing the morality core into her; Abby pushes with as much tenacity as a certain by CloudScout"> future test subject and plugs the morality core into GlaDOS hoping it'd stop her pathological intentions; while it succeeded, GlaDOS had planned ahead and the inevitable happened, the Enrichment Center was flooded in fast acting neurotoxin (nerve gas) and Abby was parallelized in her horrific Pyrrhic victory as she slumped and gasped then an observer from her test drags her out of the Central A.I room, what remains is left with a person collapsing in the parking lot of Aperture Science INC and Abby is unknown but what is known is that the person glimpsed a man we know all too well in the Half-Life by CloudScout"> series...
Now the level design, the maps may have been by CloudScout"> made with the intended audience in mind but it was clear, the maps were poorly built as one would get frustrated at literal by CloudScout"> exploitation of crouch portal-ling (a trait not carried over into Portal 2) and in many by CloudScout"> cases the fact that turret fire blows you back if you are unfortunate to be shot. Add the insane props like manhacks, death area emancipation fields and moving floors (not crushers at least), Now some of these props may seem appropriate but when rage-quitting is a dead certainty and users are face having to enable fly-mode in one after another test chambers; there is something drastically wrong in this department and should've been fired! (sarcasm mode:off) all that aside, this mod for peculiar reasons gain high reviews despite its extreme-brutal difficulty (Hell; Portal Stories: Mel is easier than this mod and that was a level above Portal 2!) Not that the map design was bad by any means, don't forget that this game is aimed at hardcore players (i may be professional, but ninja skills is something i don't have.) However this mod's maps are not any where "broken" or "unplayable" though for about 97% at most this game is nowhere by CloudScout"> recommended for Portal fans who claim Portal Stories: Mel and Aperture Tag hard; sorry folks but i can't stress this enough (unless you want to repair a broken keyboard and see the aforementioned mods as "up to eleven" because this mod in comparison is "up to twelve" even if you want by CloudScout"> to play for the story and noclip the Impossible Mission puzzles.)
To be by CloudScout"> continued
Hsuzumiya6, we are done here for now.
Addendum:
Portal Prologue: click link here
Portal 2: Project Plasma: mod found here
