Portal 2: Co-Op Impressions

I got my first taste of Portal 2's co-op mode this evening with my buddy, Eddie. Hot mashed potatoes, man - it's fantastic.

As you've probably seen from the TV commercials, player 1 and player 2 play as two different robots. Each of you has the ability to open two portals - leaving you with the mind-bending possibility of four total portals to work with. Valve really outdid themselves in this mode, the amount of thought and creativity that went into the level design of each of these test chambers is ridiculous. So far I haven't been stuck for more than a minute or two in the single player, but the co-op mode gave me that sense of utter brain-drain that I got from the first game. But more importantly, the sense of accomplishment for solving a particularly tough test.

Atlas and P-Body feel like Pixar characters.

Here's how the mechanics work in co-op. Each of you can lay down two portals, but travel can only occur between linked portals. So one dude lays down orange and red portals, and the other lays down blue and purple - you can only go from orange to red or blue to purple - not red to blue or orange to purple or anything like that. However, that's not to say that all four portals won't come into play at once. There was a particularly exciting test where you had to fling yourself across the room using two portals only to land in your partner's portal and flung out to the exit. It's hard to explain without seeing it - thankfully, God made Youtube:

GLaDOS is heavily featured in this mode as well, and her character here is more akin to what she was in the first game. She teeters the line between helpful and taunting. You get the sense that she's trying to pit you and your partner against each other by saying that one is doing well while the other is doing poorly. Her voice really rounds out the experience and gives some semblance of a story, albeit a thin one compared to the single player game. 

Overall, this is what 2 player co-op gaming is all about. My friend and I sat on the floor, little kid style, and just had a huge blast trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Tonight, I was ten years old all over again.