Portal 2 - The Final Hours

book

The "interactive highlights" that are advertised on the store page don't work at all.

There is a good bit of broken content (polls and videos). However, I would not consider that too much of a concern.
The use of Adobe AIR made the whole experience awful. If you resize the window and it is not at perfect aspect ratio, bits of the next page are constantly flashing in the corner when using your mouse. And if you move your mouse to the bottom part of the screen, some menu pushes all content up. Using the scroll wheel to go to the next page would be reasonable I guess, but then introducing text areas that you have to scroll with click-and-drag feels like mocking.

Text is constantly split in confusing ways. For example, before sentence ends on one page, on the next page you find pictures and/or a huge headline, and then on the next page the sentence continues. Then end up going back-and-forth between the pages, trying to make sense what you were just reading. As if it was illegal to leave a tiny bit of whitespace at the end of the page, in order to not split the sentence before pushing a new idea in the middle of it. Even LARGE BOLD HEADLINES suddenly continue as regular text on the next page, which gave me trouble identifying that "yes, it is still the same sentence". Bonus if there is an image caption also shoved inbetween.

The content is alright, but not even remotely as intriguing as "Raising the Bar". Not really worth the purchase. Had it been a static PDF, I would say "yeah, go for it, it's worth a few bucks". But in this form, nah, I advise staying away.

Also, I very much hated random explosion sounds being played while "reading a book". That's just... What.

I really enjoyed reading this e-book, and I think it gives us a thorough insight to the inner workings of valve. However the functionalities of the book are lacking, and it is dependant on many outdated links/ software that cannot be utilised today. It needs to be rigorously updated; although I would be delighted if this happened, it is clear that there is no support for this.
Despite my somewhat negative review, the book is full of captivating stories and so I recommend giving it a read.

Nice book (which is why it's a thumbs up) but most of the interactive things are straight up broken. They show a white page or even a 404 error. The only one that's still intact is `Destroy Aperture`

No longer works

Now its 2025, its been 13 years since Portal 2 relased but i still love this game, i still play this game because this game is not just a game for me this game is like an door for me like a exit for escaping from my own reality... I love Portal and hopefully we will see more to it in the future.

-A*** B***

👍

portal 2 is a masterpiece and it is so neat seeing how it all came together

portal 2 book

Don't bother buying it, the novelty of the interactive bits in this just straight up don't work anymore. The image quality also is very bad, not even sure if it's even 720p. If I bought this in 2011 it would have been cool to read it but nowadays it's just not worth it.

finally... the boomer comics have been disproved... i CAN click the book!

It remains an absolute mystery to me how dispassionate and unconcerned some things were created, also in terms of maintenance and having to take care of it, The Final Hours of Portal 2, as well as this platform itself, are sad examples of this.
Apart from the fact that many functions in this so-called digital book no longer work and everything seems very broken, it is filled with more useless information instead of exciting stories.
Even if it wasn't as rotten as it is now, it would still be a rather inferior product from an objective point of view, instead of a nice-one-for-the-fans.

For example, I have one thing in common with a person in it, I don't need an alarm clock either and I need 8 hours of sleep.
So what do you do with this information now? Does it do you any good? did it create a connection for me?
Unfortunately, all these questions answer themselves, like walking naked on the street in winter at minus 20 degrees.
So if more cases become known where a Steam Deck has exploded, then people will talk about it, if competition is suppressed then some will file a lawsuit, if a Steam customer service doesn't care, then people will complain about it, if Steam employees delete posts and spread misinformation, then certain people will start documenting such things...
And, if there are questionable user regulations, then experts will point them out AND if a product like The Final Hours of Portal 2 is such a non-conscientious rusty thing, then some people won't be able to recommend it, plain and simple.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Steam/Valve, and I can appreciate a lot of what has been achieved, but at the same time I
don't let myself be taken for a fool and speak my mind when necessary. I love Portal but this digital book is a mess, if you want to know what I really think about Steam, you can hop over to my artwork folder and look for a certain picture.

As cool as it can be for the equivalent of Portal 2 Bonus Disc for interviews, retrospective and everything: this still stinks of Geoff Keighley. Yuck.

I would say that half of the documentary works other not so much and its a piece about how portal 1 and 2 were created and peaple ho helped to create it and some art and conceps for the game and some stories from the past.Its cheap and for a true portal fan its three quarters of a hour of good reading with some short videos few polls and sadly many not working ones
7-10

7/10

Be aware that Adobe Air, in which this is implemented, is basically EOL and not easily accessible.

Cannot recommend it in current state.

While the book is technically readable, many videos, panoramas and other interactive objects do not load as they require internet connection and hosts serving these files or scripts DO NOT longer exist.

It is some design and concept works with developer insights. What else were you expecting?

while it is cool, most of the interactive stuff appears to be broken

a ebook i can't read because im on linux....
I LOVE PORTAL so its really sad that i cant read this

Feels like I'm using Internet Explorer on Windows 11. For the die hard fans only.

A nice deepdive into Portal 2's development, as well as some insights on Valve's company structure. If you are really interested in Portal or Valve, I would definitely recommened picking this up.

Portal 2 - The Final Hours is a fun, short read if you are interested in the Portal franchise or other Valve games. Many embedded elements are not functional as of now, which is a bit frustrating to see, but I love these behind-the-scenes looks at any game I enjoy. With the Portal games being some of my favorite games of all time, I personally didn’t learn much more than I already knew due to community research osmosis, but if you aren’t as familiar with these development stories, it is much more a fascinating time. If you somehow haven’t played the Portal games before stumbling upon this digital book, please do that first, they are impeccable and perfect in my opinion, and this book functions as a delightful addition to learn how art came to be. I highly recommend it, sans the technical issues a decade later. With its cheap price, it’s hard for me to condemn. It should probably just be free and come with the base game, and it should be fixed though I do not see that happening.

its only a rerading story .......no game!

wheres the wheat

It's a good read however certain site links are MIA, 9 to be exact. However most if not all are only extra goodies that are not needed to understand to book.