Value: Portal 2 ‘Heavily Influenced’ By Left 4 Dead

Portal 2 was ‘heavily influenced’ by lessons it learnt with Left 4 Dead, it has been revealed.
During an interview in the latest issue of Edge magazine, the magazine states: “Portal 2 is clearly the result of a few lessons learnt by Left 4 Dead, with the HUD displaying the position of your Portal through walls”.

Writer Chet Faliszek says that the teamwork and in-game conversation have both taken inspiration from Left 4 Dead.

“You’re going to end up talking about what you’re doing with your friend,” he explains. “It’s one of the things we learned with Left 4 Dead, where [there’s] this base story, but we want to pull it back a little bit.”

Edge states that even the puzzles in the game show influence from L4D, as well as new mechanics such as energy balls and ‘light bridges’. 

Edge reports: “The result, a product of Valve’s learning from how players approached the original as well as Left4Dead is more immediate than the original [Portal], even more tuned and even more witty.”