Review: Portal 2

In the original Portal (2007), gameplay was simple. You play a test subject within the walls of Aperture Science Laboratories. Helmed by a malevolent computer (GLaDOS), your lot in life was to be placed in a room with a puzzle that you must escape from. Each room led to another room; each containing a puzzle.

Helping solve the puzzle was your portal gun, an appliance that formed holes in walls, floors and ceilings that could then be used to teleport to other parts of the room.

You were left with only your wits to survive.

The game was short, but garnered wide acclaim and won numerous awards.
Portal 2 expands and widens and deepens the original in ways that should lead to many additional awards this year.

You return once again as Chell, the tester trying to escape the confines of Aperture Science. Joining you in your efforts is Wheatley, a computer core who is not the smartest microchip on the motherboard.

GLaDOS returns as your nemesis, who is even more focused on your destruction since you killed her in the first game. After rebooting in Portal 2, she sets out to make the puzzles more difficult and more lethal.

Hindering your efforts in using your portal gun was the restriction that only certain places in a room you were in were able to receive portals, limiting your options.

Other obstacles were buttons that needed to be pressed and robotic turrets that were intent on killing you. Oh, and vast bottomless or toxic sludge-filled pits were a problem.

The early part of Portal 2 is much like the original. Clever puzzles, supplemented by snappy repartee from GLaDOS, but with the added muddled musings of Wheatley.

Starting simply, the puzzles become maddingly difficult, but rarely so hard that frustration sets in. The game forces players to think differently, whether it’s where to place the portals or how to best utilize platforms or pits. Adding the possibility of quick death from friendly-sounding turrets or bottomless pits ratches up the quick thinking.

After completing a slew of these puzzles and a confrontation with GLaDOS, things start to get interesting.

Without revealing a lot of spoilers, Chell ends up in the old Aperture Science environs, where the disembodied voice of the founder of the lab still speaks and instructs.

There, the old-school testing chambers still function and you are tasked with completing them. At your disposal, besides your trusty portal gun, are other sciencey things that were being developed at the time.

There’s repel gel, which allows you to bounce much higher; and propulsion gel, which causes you to slide at a much higher speed and transport tube waves that can be portaled.

Then there’s conversion gel that makes (just about) any surface suitable for portaling.

This section of the game offers a whole new bevy of puzzles with your newfound options.

New to the series is cooperative gameplay, with two players joining forces as robots to solve more complex puzzles and retrieve information for GLaDOS.
Portal 2 is a special game. It’s based around puzzle-solving – not the most exciting genre – but makes a player feel like they’ve actually accomplished something when a particularly tough room is defeated.

There is no killing (of anything technically alive) and your only violent attacks are defensive in nature.

Portal 2 also features some of the best writing for a videogame in recent years, embuing three of the main characters with wisdom and pathos and humor, even though none are in human form.

At times during the game, just pausing to listen to the dialogue was a pleasure and the source of much amusement.

Portal 2 should be grabbing many awards by year’s end. It is witty and challenging and ultimately satisfying as a game and as entertainment. The feeling when the mental tumblers fall into place and the solution to a puzzle is unlocked is especially nice.

Platform: Xbox 360/Playstation 3

Rating: Everyone

Manufacturer: Electronic Arts