[Review] - Portal 2

[Kevnvek]

Developed by: Valve Corporation

Published by: Valve Corporation

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

Players: 1-2

Rated E10+ by the ESRB

Not only is the cake not a lie, but you can have seconds! Portal 2 is the sequel to the massively successful Portal, which quickly ascended to cult status, with many of its elements becoming memes that can be found on practically any gaming forum today. But does it live up to the charm and originality of the first game?

Short answer: YES. Portal 2 is every bit as good as the first, and better in almost every way. From beginning to end, it had a much more cinematic feel to it, with more characters involved and much, MUCH larger set pieces than the first. Whereas the first game was mostly a series of smallish chambers, with some parts where you get to go outside of the testing area towards the end, Portal 2 allows you to explore a great deal more of Aperture Laboratories. Though the game is still linear, there is a lot of detail that can be seen in the environments, from turrets being built and packaged, to the inner workings of the tube based weighted cube transportation system, and much more.

I can't say much of the story other than what's shown in trailers and comprises about the first third to one half of the game, or I'd spoil some great plot twists. After the events of the first game you awaken once more as a test subject for Aperture Science. You are quickly greeted by a new character, an AI core with a British accent, who is going to help you along your way with some vague escape plan. This new character begins to establish some of the clever humor written into the game with his inane dialog and more-often-than-not poor suggestions. The dialog is a huge part of what makes Portal 2 great. There is a seemingly endless amount of witty dialog and funny comments to be heard. I often found myself refusing to advance to the next area until I had heard all of the dialog.

As you probably saw in the trailers, GLaDoS is back, and she isn't too happy about what you did to her in the first game. She will test you once again, and this time she won't be so friendly about it. She really brings the claws out this time around, finding every opportunity to insult you in a hilarious fashion as you progress through the test chambers. But as I mentioned earlier, some huge plot twists occur, and the game seemingly changes entirely after the first half, which is more like the first game than the latter half is. It is during the second part where things really start to get interesting with some of the new mechanics introduced in the game.

Though some of the new mechanics, such as lasers and cubes that can redirect them, are introduced early on, some of the even more interesting ones come later. Eventually you will be testing in new ways with gels, paint-like fluids that can cover surfaces and modify the way you interact with the environment. They are dispensed through tubes like the weighted cubes but flow fluidly, dripping or pouring out of them. Anything the gels touch becomes coated with it and take on new properties. There's orange Propulsion Gel, which allows you to run faster while on it; blue Repulsion Gel which makes everything bouncy; and white Conversion Gel, which makes most flat surfaces accept portals when covered by it. There are also tractor beams called Excursion Funnels which can convey objects, gels, and the player through the air, as well as Hard Light Bridges, bridges that can pass through portals to help you get to new areas. You use these new elements to accelerate, bounce, and portal your way through new obstacles in new areas of Aperture Laboratories. It's a refreshing change of pace and reinvigorates the game partway through.

The original Portal could be beaten in roughly two hours if you were quick and knew all of the solutions to the puzzles. Though this isn't so bad when you consider that the first playthrough will take around 4-5 hours as you figure out all of the solutions for yourself, which is half of the fun. Portal 2 took me roughly 7 hours to complete, and it felt like a much bigger game than the first, with all of the dialog and detailed areas you pass through. Surely there will be people boasting 3 or 4 hour completion times, but rushing through the game like that would take out all of the fun of exploring all of the content that Valve squeezed into the game.

A great new addition to Portal is co-operative gameplay. From the menu you can access a separate set of levels from the main story, designed to be completed by two players. Both players take control of the new Cooperative Testing Bots, Atlas and P-Body. These new test chambers provide another level of difficulty to the challenges, where you have to work with another player to solve them. The new challenges will require both players to use their separate pairs of portals together to find a way to the exit There are plenty of great griefing opportunities to be had along the way, such as cutting out the bridge from under a player crossing over a deadly grinder by placing your portal somewhere else, or making an excursion funnel push them into a crusher.

Overall Portal 2 is a really fun game that has a great value to it. Awesome humor, great puzzles, and fun co-op make this yet another stellar title in Valve's already legendary line up. Don't let the misguided claims of short length and overpriced DLC fool you. The "DLC" is essentially just an item store akin to the one seen in Team Fortress 2, with items solely for aesthetics, most of which seem to be unlockable at random through normal gameplay. I fully recommend Portal 2 to anyone who has even the slightest interest in platforming or puzzle based gameplay. Valve has put a lot of work into creating something truly epic that will remind fans of the original Portal why they loved it so much.

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