Portal 2

“Portal 2” takes the innovative and addictive gameplay of its predecessor and expands upon it in every way imaginable. The puzzles are more complex and diverse, featuring new elements like laser redirection and the introduction of gels that alter surface properties, adding new layers of strategy and experimentation. The game also introduces the hilarious character of Wheatley, adding humor and depth to the storyline.

Although the game can become slightly repetitive after extended play sessions, it remains an engaging experience that rewards players for thinking out of the box. Best suited for quick sessions on mobile platforms.

The first Portal made quite a splash with its release in 2007, with its innovative mechanics and unique gameplay, making for a singular experience that would soon shed its influence on games to come. It combined similar styles of puzzle, platformer, and FPS games to craft something that encompasses many styles of other games yet stands all on its own. I thought it was good, but felt underdeveloped in some ways. Most of the chambers just weren't very interesting in their design and the narrative it follows hardly went anywhere. Regardless, I liked it and, despite popular opinion, thought it was quite challenging.

Eventually, Valve released this, the sequel. It expands upon the things I thought could use some improvement from the first one. While I respect the minimalistic design the first Portal employed, the setting in this one is much better. Your player is basically traversing through the destroyed remains of Aperture Science, the aftermath of course being the fault of your character. It gives a lot of the early chapters a natural look that juxtaposed well with the high-tech levels.

Speaking of, the level designs are much better. Despite adopting many of the fundamental mechanics laid out from the first one, some elements such as the lasers or the gels in the later chapters make the gameplay still fresh and stand out. Even having been used to the portal functions from my experience with the first one, the gameplay is no less rewarding or challenging because of it, There are more levels as well, many taking on a different aesthetic look with new elements revealing themselves along the way with new challenges seemingly through every new door you open up.

The story is better as well. The narrative pulls you in right off the bat and doesn't let loose, taking many interesting directions as you play through. The twist in the middle when Wheatley becomes in charge of the facility and transforms GLaDOS into a potato was brilliantly funny and a definite highlight from the game. The ending was great too when the game psychs you out after GLaDOS assures you she won't kill you but you come face to face with the military androids. Turns out she was not lying to you because instead of shooting you they play a little song! It was awesome! AND YOU AT THE VERY END WHEN YOU LEAVE THE FACILITY YOU GET YOUR BUDDY CUBE BACK!! I love it.

I do have my gripes though. Regarding the story, when GLaDOS comes back to life they try to make it like this dramatic "uh oh!" thing but if it wasn't already obvious from Wheatley going on and on about how she isn't waking up, the post-credit scene song about her still being alive clues the player in pretty hard that she, in fact, is waking up (I know this sentence is a bit of a mouthful, not sure how to shorten it lol).

The humor adopts a more overt sense of humor compared to how subtle it was in the first one, which is fine, I definitely laughed a bit more, but GLaDOS feels a bit inconsistent because of it. She feels a lot more human in this when in the first one it was just, like, unintentionally funny robot speak. It's not I didn't find her funny, I did, I just thought her sense of humor was at least inconsistent with how she was in the first game. This new style works very well for Wheatley and Cave Johnson though.

Absolutely wonderful game.

You literally can't hate any of the characters in the game. Each one is written so wonderfully and keeps you hooked.

Visually this game hasn't aged a bit, and could probably be mistaken for a current-gen title.

Music is wonderful and really brings the vibe of aperture science.

This game has one of the best atmospheres I've ever seen in a video game.

Puzzles are challenging, and give you a feeling of satisfaction after beating them.

As a puzzle game, portal 2 biggest flaw is that (unlike the original portal) every test chamber is mostly made of surfaces you can't place portals on, except for the places where they are supposed to go. Because of this almost every puzzle is extremely easy and practically solves itself. I'm also not a fan of how different GLaDOS is. In the original game, she was very inhuman, cold, & unintentionally funny, which made her feel like HAL if 2001 was a black comedy. In the sequel, however, she just acts like a bitch and makes jokes about you being fat constantly. None of her jokes are clever nor stupid enough to make you laugh, and she ends annoying you the entire length of the game.

Portal 2 is probably the only game I think is fantastic in every single aspect of its production. A lot of what composes is absolutely outstanding that it makes me want to say this is my favorite game of all time.

First, we have the gameplay, basically an hybrid of two opposite genres, first person shooters and 3D platformers, you shoot portal as a main mechanic, but navigate and move through platforms, the concept is simple to understand and it is pretty fun to explore. You shoot portals and go through them to teleport, that's it! Now try to navigate through the Science Facility to escape.

The mechanics are explored deeply using momentum and physics exploration through several fluids or paints to help you around using the Portal gun. It never gets boring or repetitive. It doesn't tire you with difficult jumps or hard to do acrobatics, it is all in the mind and how you can discover the solution to the problem.

Second, the story of the game is just fantastic, basically a Sci Fi Black Comedy with so many great quotes to mention. Even when the game uses a lot the resource of recorded messages to develop one of its characters, it just works well and it gives you a reward to understand more of the world of the game, which is already an enhancement from the first game that didn't give you that much of a story. In Portal 2, for every chamber you get, you get a new line or piece of the puzzle, which is a lot more rewarding.

It is difficult for me to say all the things I like about the story without going in too deep or recurring to spoilers, but I can safely say that it does have the same caliber to the writing of a peak-era movie from Pixar.

The cast of characters it is minimal but almost every character is really memorable, aside the silent protagonist which was designed to be a self insert for the player (which is something I think could have been developed better or executed well, but it is not a big issue). The villains are funny, the secondary characters are hilarious and there is a sense of mystery as well for you to try and understand what it is happening as you go. The first time I played this I just went through it as fast as I could because I really wanted to understand the story.

The voice acting is incredible. There are no more than 3 main voice actors on this game, every person aces their role and give a very distinct personality to each one of their characters. Even then secondary actors had some great lines and funny quotes. Yes, I'm talking about you, Adventure and Space Cores!

The atmosphere is superb, set up in what seems to be an abandoned laboratory in an post apocalyptic world. There is a sense of loneliness and sadness in the destroyed and abandoned buildings as well a hint of despair, but the comedy always balances it out.

The soundtrack is amazing, some kind of electronic music to accompany the robot and futuristic themes of the story and becoming really cinematic and awe inspiring when it requires. There are some tracks that are just so good for their own good, my favorite being the pensive Tripe Laser Phase. The music compliments the atmosphere the game is going for seamlessly and adds that sense of sadness and longing from a post apocalyptic abandoned world when it needs to, and it becomes fast paced and frantic when it is necessary. The full compilation lasts around 3 or so hours and it is always a blast to hear from beginning to end even when you are not playing.

While Portal 2 might suffer from lack of replayability due to being a puzzle game (after all, once you find out the solution to a problem, the challenge is mostly gone) Portal 2 solves this partially introducing community maps, which are mod levels you can directly download into the game from the Steam workshop with no manual file tampering required, giving you an seemingly endless amount of content for the game, there is even a level editor that you can use as well and it is not that difficult to figure out.

If there is one thing I don't like about the game is its chapter interface. Being a long, single gameplay campaign, there are no easy ways for you to simple choose a map or scene you want to choose and replay, if you complete it you might just continue the whole story, the chapter autosave is sometimes confusing to navigate, you can't rename manual saves either and it doesn't have enough map divisons for you to chose. For how long Portal 2 is, being divided in only 9 chapters ends up a bit impractical. I always like to replay the final boss and I ended up having to download a save myself because I just couldn't find the right one from the ones the game gave me.

But still, I find that just mostly a nitpick in what is otherwise amazing game. My only major complaint would be is that I still don't have any friends for me to finish the co-op story.

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