Initial Impressions: P0rtal 2

I'm about two hours into this little wonder, and I am highly impressed.

The game picks up where the first one left off - kind of. You have been somehow detained in suspended animation, and awoken by a male AI voice that informs you that "you have been asleep for FIFTY days" and instructs you to "look at the art on the wall" to stimulate your brain. Then you are instructed to go back to sleep. The next time you wake up the voice says "you have been asleep for 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9..." and your room looks like an ancient ruin, leading you to believe that you've been launched hundreds, if not thousands of years into the future.

Then the anticipation begins. Where is GlaDos? She is nowhere to be seen or heard as you make your way through the first few levels of the game, instead you are guided by an extremely friendly, witty and for some reason, British droid. When you finally do reunite with GlaDos, the tension is at a fever pitch and it's clear that she is bent on revenge. But not simply killing you - that would be too easy. The first few hours that I've played have shown GlaDos piling on the insults. Calling you fat in clever ways, torturing your mind with the fact that you will never leave the testing chambers, making things up about your back story and your parents, saying that your standard issue Aperture Science testing uniform looks "Stupid" on you, and only you - saying that this fact is stated on file by a female scientist with a fashion degree - from France.

What a bitch

The one thing I was worried about was that they would try too hard with GlaDos in this one. Making her more aware and conscious than she should be. One of the things that made her so much fun in the first game was that she was still restricted by the fact that she was a computer - kinda like how you're often reminded that Stewie is indeed still a baby on Family Guy.

To an extent, they did try too hard. GlaDos just sounds like a mean human female with auto-tune, but I don't care. The writing is so sharp and funny that it doesn't negatively impact my impression the way I thought it would. And not nerd-funny like "Oh they made a Star Trek reference" or "Haw haw! A Periodic Table joke!" Like this is legit, clever comedy writing.

The gameplay has undergone several tweaks and adjustments - all for the better. Here's what I've seen so far:

The "energy pellet" that you so often had to redirect in the first game has seemingly been replaced by a redirect-able laser beam. You can now see through walls to any portals you've laid down - similar to how you can see an outline of your allies in Left4Dead. There are the new "light bridges" which can be redirected through portals, and finally the "faith plates" are like human catapults that fling you around the room, which allows you to use the fling+portal mechanic upside down - which makes for very interesting gameplay.

Light Bridge

Overall, it's incredible. I'm finding it a little easy, and I'm not as "brain tied" as I was when I started the first one, but I know it's coming with the heavily promoted "gels" that I have yet to see.

I will have my revenge on GlaDos. I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!