So in case you haven’t noticed, we haven’t been posting Community Roundups very often lately. Why you may ask? Well, because all of us on the staff have been pretty busy lately. With that, we’re proud to announce that Djinndrache–who seems to play and review every map made by mankind–will be writing Roundups through the forseeable future. So without further ado…
Djinndrache’s Community Roundup: October 20th-November 17th
Singleplayer
Seven Gates, Devil’s Chamber and Beamchain by jonatan
Following Quadro, Beamtrap and Enigma, jonatan continues making very difficult maps "for hardcore portal players", as he describes them. His maps require the player to think outside the box and use the given elements in ways you may never have used them before. The meanest element of his maps are probably the emancipation grids as they are wherever you don’t want them to be. If you plan to play his maps make sure you got lots of time for that!
Chander Test 5 and Chander Test 6 by Chander
Speaking of difficult maps, Chander also has a series to continue. His maps are not as evil as jonatan’s maps, but they also require the player to think different and invest some time in order to solve them. If you want to solve these maps you should be agile, you will need this at some points.
Reversion by Mattyd
This clean-themed map focuses on revertable funnels and cubes in two seperate puzzle chambers. Are you tired of only thinking with portals? Then combine that with thinking with funnels and you should be able to solve these puzzles.
Climbing Companion by KillerBeeGees
Let’s come to a map which is different. Instead of running through several puzzle chambers you only have one chamber where you need to reach the top in order to continue. There are several elements and triggers to help you make your way up this chamber. Each step is different from the prior steps and clambering up this chamber may be just as exciting as rock climbing to you. But reaching the top is not the end of this map, watch out for signs what to do next!
Blue Portal Flings by Kyo
Kyo is new to the community and has just released his first map. As you may guess from the map’s title you have a portal gun which can shoot only blue portals here. This map is pretty short and well-designed, and taking account of that this is his first map, the quality is above-average and worth giving it a go.
ML’s Combination by MasterLagger
MasterLagger is an old member of our community and with this map he created another great map. Using several elements such as lasers, funnels, gels and hardlight-surfaces this map takes the player through a clean-styled part of the Aperature Laboratories’ building.
The Faithling by FutureShock9
It’s time to revolutionize aerial faith plates, isn’t it? This must have been the thought of FutureShock9 when he started to make this map. The aerial faith plates will fling you around in ways you probably haven’t been flung before! You’ll have to visit several places and solve several, all different puzzles in order to successfully finish this map.
Thaw by Marise
Marise has also been around in our community for quite some while and released several maps. In his map The Cold Shoulder he introduced new ways to deal with water and temperature. So it is possible to freeze water to ice or to heat ice up to become water again.
After the good feedback he got for that map, he created this new map which makes use of those features again! There are several rooms that use the temperature features in different ways. Did you like these elements in the first map? Or do you just wanna try out new mechanics for the game? Then you have to give this map a run!
Cooperative
Three Companions by doubledispatch
This map features some nice cooperative puzzles through a handful of chambers. The elements and ideas of this map could not be much more versatile, you have to mess around with pretty much all the elements of Portal 2 if you want to successfully reach the exit. Trust your coop mate and you could have a great time on this map!
There and Back Again – A Portal Tale by Rewoig
Rewoig is new to the community and created a coop map which can not be solved as easy as it may look like when you see the map for the first time. This map is not very big, there is toxic water and you can see the exit door. But how to get there together with your partner in science? Be clever, work together and use the given elements, then you shall be able to succeed!
Complexo by jonatan
jonatan has created quite a few singleplayer maps in the past and now he released his first cooperative map! As in his singleplayer maps his focus is to make the map very difficult and keep the players in it for a long time before they can find out how to solve this map. If you got a cooperative partner and you love difficult puzzles, this is like just made for you.
Tower Defense by PortalCombat
To round up this roundup let’s focus on something very special: Our member PortalCombat created a cooperative Tower Defensive minigame-map! Incase you don’t know Tower Defense, it’s explained quickly: Some creatures (or objects) are trying to reach a certain point and you have to make them stop. In the case of this map there are companion cubes on floating platforms moving through a big room towards an exit. In this room you have lots of elements which you and your partner can use to try to stop the cubes! There is no real objective like reaching a goal in this minigame, it’s just for fun. So if you need a minigame for a change, this may be worth it to give it a go.
