Review: The Final Hours of Portal 2

Well, this is something we don’t see enough of.

Games development processes are all-too-rarely made public. There’s the rare bright spot – the fantastic one hour documentary about the history of Volition (developers of Descent, Red Faction and Saints Row) being one. But mostly gamers – and even games journalists – are kept out of the loop, aside from the occasional development diary. Geoff Keighley’s Behind the Games series was one of the few attempts to really explore this side of games, and Valve – famous for doing things differently – have previously shown an unusual openness about their development process: be it Gabe Newell’s frankness in interviews with, well, almost anyone; the inclusion of interactive commentaries in many of their games; or their past co-operation with Geoff Keighley in his previous “The Final Hours of Half-Life 2” article. Which, sad to say, was his last feature in that series – until Portal 2.