Review: Portal 2

The first Portal has been hailed by many as a perfect game. Like - literally there was nothing wrong at all and every second of the experience was enjoyable - and I agree. I've probably played the first Portal from start to finish 15 times. The only thing that held it back from eternal gaming glory was it's short length - playing as more of a ridiculously cool proof of concept than anything else.

Valve knew they had a hit with the franchise - but did they capitalize on their success or rest on their laurels?

STORY

Not a whole lot happened in the first Portal. Most of the story elements focused on the history of the facility - what happened before you started testing. The atmosphere was thick and GLaDOS was one of the most well drawn characters in recent memory, but as far as plot points - you wake up, figure out how to use the Portal gun and use it to kill GLaDOS.

Portal 2 is full of plot points. Two new main characters are introduced along side the silent protagonist and the vocal antagonist. The first one you meet is Wheatly (voiced by Stephen Merchant) - a friendly, British personality core that guides you through the initial test chambers. Here's a bit about 2 hours in that gives you a feel for his character.

The second new character is Cave Johnson (voiced by J.K. Simmons) - the founder of Aperture Science. About halfway through the game you stumble upon some of the original test chambers in Aperture, and Cave serves as that area's GLaDOS - his pre-recorded voice guiding you through the experiments. Throughout this section of the game, you are privy to the history of Aperture, how it started and how Cave Johnson eventually met his demise.

Cave Johnson

Overall, the eight hour experience yields many revelations - power changes hands, the world is turned upside down, pre-conceptions (among other things) are thrown out the window, and you are stuck in the middle. And while Valve didn't quite capture the sense of mystery and dread which radiated from the first one, the narrative is still one of the best this generation.

GAMEPLAY
The concept of "Thinking with Portals" was solidified for most players in the first game. Valve had the heavy task of capturing that same overwhelming sense of "what-in-the-world?!" in this newest jaunt through the bowels of aperture and they succeeded - to an extent.

The ridiculous number of new tools and gadgets to play with certainly showed that the devs weren't simply releasing Potal 1.5. From light bridges, to reversible gravity beams, to the runny, bouncy, sticky gels, to the redirectable laser beams to the catapults, they really gave you a lot to experiment with - and that's the key word - experiment.

There were a lot of "what if I did this?" moments that really played into the idea of scientific experimentation which fit really well with the theme of the game. And because there were so many new things to tinker with, eventually you end up combining two or three or four different things to reach the end of the level. Really really satisfying to figure out.

Bouncy Goo combined with Gravity Beam combined with Portals

The problem with this is, your first guess is usually correct. In the first game I would do a lot of "What if I...no...maybe if...no...oooh! I know...no..." To the point where I'd literally be staring at the test chamber for 15-20 minutes before I figured out what to do. This one, I would say 80% of the time it would be "What if I...yup, that's it!" First guess was usually right, but even when I didn't get it the first time, I don't think I spent more than 10 minutes in a single test chamber. The biggest challenge was usually simply finding a surface which accepts portals - what you had to do was usually apparent within 1 minute of entering a room based on the layout or angles of walls or some other hint. But you often had to hunt for a white wall or ceiling tile to make it happen. This also created another problem. If you can only put portals on this section of wall or this floor panel, it made it much easier to figure out the solution as opposed to the whole room being portal-ready like so much of the first game was.

Catapult Action

In the end, the game is seriously fun to play, and definitely mentally stimulating - just not to the extent of the first one. On it's own merits though - its spectacular.

PRESENTATION

This is where they sold it. One review compared Portal 2's Aperture Labs to Bioshock's city of Rapture, and that's about as dead on as you could get. The world was already thick with atmosphere and a palpable sense of place, but with the addition of the "Old Aperture Labs" and Cave Johnson's character, you would believe you're playing through a simulation of a real place that exists out in New Mexico somewhere.

The special effects are convincing, the backgrounds and art direction, while fairly "plain-white-wally" were perfect for what they were trying to accomplish. Plus when you get to Old Aperture, the color palette grows exponentially - and really shows off how old the place is with rusted platforms and deteriorating walls. They also did a lot with the lighting effects. If you go back and watch that Wheatly video above, you'll notice how the flashlight creates dynamic shadows that drape all over the silent walls of the environment. On top of all the new bells and whistles, everything just looks better, more polished, and more convincing. The frame rate runs at a much smoother rate and animations are much more fluid. It's polished out the ying yang.

The ridiculous liquid effects of the gels.

The voice acting, as you probably guessed, is some of the best I've ever heard in a video game. While it's fairly easy to play a computer, Wheatley and Cave Johnson were so brilliantly cast and voiced that, again, you could be convinced that these people/robots actually exist in the real world. I'm gonna use a word that's not usually associated with voice acting, but here it goes. The voice acting was stunning.

Stuff I Loved: 

• New Characters - Obviously painstakingly developed and well drawn
• New Toys - All the new gadgets and gizmos to play with really made the experience memorable
• Solid Story - 3 act structure, followed to a T, enjoyed to the max

Stuff I Hated: 

• A little too easy - too much of the game was simply finding a white wall
• Lost the sense of mystery from the story 

Portal 2 is worth $60. Easily. It's worth $120 if you have someone to play the co-op with. I would recommend this to anyone, any time, anywhere. Even that jerk from Green Eggs and Ham would play this in a box, he would play it with a fox.

Review in Ten Words or Less: 
Almost as good as the first. And that's saying something.