I played through twice and found P2/SP to be kind of 'serial' - ie only one solution to the posed problems. I enjoyed the story and realize that it probably must be this way for commercial purposes. However, after playing through P1 maps like Snakepit, Watcher Chambers and Afterburn - P2 was cake...
Omnicoder already posted a taste of what might be to come when 'creators' get to play with the P2 tools.... alas, back to waiting and playing P1 creations...

There was a discussion on another board I am on where people were saying how Portal 2 was a lot easier than they remember Portal 1 being. That it was "dumbed down" for a console release, etc. I told them to go back and play Portal 1, and it really isn't mind staggeringly difficult. It's pretty on par with Portal 2.

You also can't really compare custom maps with official ones. Players who play custom maps usually want and need more of a challenge, so cutom maps are usually further down the difficulty end of the spectrum.

quatrus wrote:
I played through twice and found P2/SP to be kind of 'serial' - ie only one solution to the posed problems...

I somewhat agree with this, but for a fair chunk of the game it's out of necessity. For the first section, the broken down and deteriorated testchambers often prevent the "intended" solution but provide a back-door sort of way to complete it, and I think this more or less eliminates multiple ways of solving the problem.

There are multiple possible ways in later issues, though; for instance, in the Conversion Gel early-Aperture test, I don't even fling up with the angled plate. I use a method with an infinite fall to build up speed.

My big disappointment came from the lack of the challenge maps, similar to what they did with the first (and i think this may be where quartus is coming from). I really enjoyed the "Fewest Portals" with the medals based on how many portals you shot and the challenge maps where they slimmed down where you can throw a portal, or took away one of the cubes. That was a main part of what made portal 1 for me, and it leaves the more advanced players simply waiting for the Portal2 sdk...

There are some achievements that attempt this challenge idea, but I've completed most of them already without too much difficulty >.>

multiplayer maps are NOT serial. most midgame multiplayer maps have at least 2 completely different solutions. (and if robots are just swapped i count that as the same solution)

quatrus, you should see what's been going on with the P2 speed run planning... There's some pretty creative solutions over there. And not all of them exploit glitches.

This is probably my favorite ricochet run and it's glitch free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHGtqyWYk64

Edit:
My bad... Upon further inspection, he does use one reportal glitch...

I think that they stayed true to the portal theme where the whole game is designed to get you thinking with portals but with all the new toys, yet they had a great story, i know some of my friends who didnt finish p1 cause they got stuck and missed the whole ending, so i did enjoy the fact that the story mode was a run through with good puzzles. sadly i have satellite internet and have not played the coop yet

it was easier for those of us that are already constantly thinking with portals after gaining said obsession with portals from original encounter

wondering how long it took everyone to play through it, did it in about 9 hours, i played all day
which was fun, had to look up the second to last chamber on you tube cause i was fallin asleep