When I first entered the room, I was greeted by a switch and a laser grid. I ran up to the switch to see that it was a square switch, meaning I needed to go look for the cube to place in it.
A quick survey of the room showed that there was an area I could portal up to. There was a dropper up there, so it was fair to assume that this would be the cube dispenser.
Which it was. Running through led to a button switch and a pressy switch (as I like to call them). Since there was a laser grid, I had no choice but to press the pressy one.
This flipped a wall panel. I looked around to see if there was anywhere else to go... but there was no clear "this way." I then realized that the switch was also a square switch, so i created a portal on the newly flipped wall and ran back to grab my other cube. I placed it on the new switch and removed the second laser gate.
There was another pressy switch behind the gate, so I went ahead and pressed it.
I noticed that it flipped over a panel on the ceiling. Now it was a race against time, since I had to run back to the first pressy switch and open the wall in front of it. This would allow me to complete the portal to the new area up top.
Yay, I'm probably done now - oh. Some stairs. Alright, let's see where this goes.
So I ran into a cube and yet another infamous pressy switch. Hoping that the switch would turn on the polar beam, I went and placed it in. Pressing the switch instead, opened up a flip panel.
There was another set of these and I climbed up. Across from me, I saw there was a switch, so I fell back down and brought the ball up with me.
Once I portaled over and placed the ball in, the polar beam turned on. I rode it up to the next ledge.
And yet, we were not through yet.
I walked through to find a light bridge and some lovely death goo all over the floor. Falling here would mean restarting - and no one wants to do that. I opened up a bridge using the available walls and I dropped down.
I followed the bridge to the end and turned to see another area.
I shot the orange portal and jumped so the light bridge would stay underneath me. I walked across and found a way to bypass most of the area: I just jumped and shot the orange portal allowing me to slowly ascend.
I turned the corridor to find I wasn't done the level yet. I used the blue gel to jump up and...
Find mo' level. I walked around to do a complete survey of the new area before assessing what my next step should be.
Well, looks like I gotta diffract some lazors. I placed the cube down in front of the laser and then went and opened a portal.
I ran to the other side and used the first cube to diffract the laser into the orange portal, shoot out the blue one, hit the second cube and shoot into the laser relay. It worked perfectly, and my reward was some stairs.
Climbing the stairs led me to the worst thing I have ever experienced. This cube was blocked by a switch... that respawned the cube. Sphere. Whatever. It was the worst.
This. THIS. THIS.
Ahem. After finally getting around it, I dropped the cube down to get another wall flip.
I portaled up to see that there was more to do on the top. There was a switch that made a wall flip and a light bridge appear - so I did the obvious.
After running across, I was greeted by this last thing - which is always fun to do.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
All in all, the design was very nice. Some areas felt a tad spacious and could have used a little bit of tightening, but I enjoyed how certain elements compounded on each other - like in the first area, for example. The single point progression was really awesome and each piece fit together very nicely. The light bridge area could have used a little extra oomph (the one with the goo) since it felt like I was merely wandering instead of exploring.
AND THAT GOD DAMN SPHERE BUTTON. A great troll, but it was still so... painful. The worst was how the ball could trigger the switch, so even if I got over successfully, it could suicide. That's actually what it was - sphere suicide.
I really enjoyed the diffraction puzzle, but that could be simply due to me really enjoying puzzle games and puzzles with lasers. It felt neat to line it all up and have it happen in one shot - and after talking with Bobby, he said I did it differently than intended, but it was still pretty cool.
That's what I give this level. Cool/5, would play.
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