Game title: Portal 2
Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360, PC/Mac
Developer: Valve
Release date: April 18, 2011
Pregame:
When the original Portal was released in 2007, Valve wasn't sure the concept would fly. A first-person puzzle-platformer using "quantum tunneling"? It does seem a little far-fetched on paper. So Valve packaged it in with the rest of the fantastic games in The Orange Box and hoped.
As it turns out, Portal was just what gamers never knew they wanted. It packed dark humor into a mentally challenging game that had the player think outside their FPS comfort zone. Not to mention the avalanche of memes it spawned, making it an Internet sensation overnight. Faced with Portal's overwhelming success, the question for valve became, "how do you top that?"
Portal 2 had some big long-fall boots to fill, and against all odds, it did just that.
Play-by-play:
So what sets Portal 2 apart from its oh-so-famous predecessor? In a word: scale. Portal 2 is a much lengthier and more complex romp through Aperture Science laboratories, and some new puzzle elements will stretch players' capacity to think with portals.
Staples from Portal like turrets and the weighted storage cube will return, although the newcomers tend to outshine them. The more notable examples of new elements include the hard light bridge, excursion tunnel (essentially a tractor beam) and a variety of colored gels that all have different effects. Players will come across the latter while traversing the older, often condemned sections of the lab. While they're down there, they will also meet (through old recordings) Aperture Science's founder, Cave Johnson.
Johnson is able to give the player something Portal never had time to provide: history. Through Johnson's hilarious recordings, players will learn about Aperture Science's early days and even a bit about the origin of everybody's favorite friendly neighborhood psychopathic A.I., GLaDOS. Lending his distinctive voice to Johnson is J.K. Simmons, who you may remember as J. Jonah Jameson from the Spider-Man movies, among other things.
Other than the speechless protagonist Chell, this game has a grand total of four characters: GLaDOS, Johnson, Johnson's secretary Caroline (she has a couple lines), and a lovable British A.I. named Wheatley. That's it. Quality over quantity, people. Each distinctive character packs its own brand of humor.
There's more to the plot this time around as well, although it still boils down to Chell thinking, "get me the hell out of here" really hard. The dialogue is incredibly well-written, and while Chell typically solves her puzzles in silence, the beginning and end of each test is often hilarious. Chell will also venture beyond the typical testing environment and into Aperture Science behind the scenes. In any case, the game's focus seems to be puzzle solving peppered with humor, and it does those things very well.
Although Portal 2 is certainly longer than its predecessor, it's still a fairly short game overall. That's pretty much my only complaint for this one: it ends. Even that isn't really a valid complaint, as Valve saw fit to include both the Perpetual Testing Initiative and the Cooperative Testing Initiative with the game.
The Cooperative Testing Initiative was a surprising move, at least to me. Too few games have co-op these days, and I certainly didn't expect it from a puzzle game. The cooperative tests are completely different from the single-player puzzles, and the game's complexity grows when you need to think with four portals. Some of these puzzles even have different entry points for each player, and they get to be legitimately hard. During co-op, players take on the roles of ATLAS and P-body, two robots who were literally made for these tests. Try to live up to that expectation.
You can join a friend online or via split-screen co-op (if you are playing on PS3 or Xbox 360), and cross-platform multiplier is even possible between PS3 players and PC/Mac users.
The Perpetual Testing Initiative earns its name by providing level editing tools, and it lets the Portal 2 community supply an endless amount of new levels to try out. It's even possible to create and play co-op levels through this game mode. It will be rather difficult to actually run out of content in Portal 2, so feel free to continue testing until your eyes cross.
Final Call:
Portal 2 is one of those games that everyone should play. If you haven't friends of yours that have played it will harass you until you do anyway. They'll do that because you'll need to experience certain moments first-hand, and being told about it just isn't the same.
This game is a rare beast. It's fun, funny, possibly cooperative (online or offline), virtually endless, and relatively cheap these days. If you're interested in the game for PC or Mac, there is even a discounted 2-pack on Steam that is specifically made so you and a friend can team up.
If you've got the time and a few bucks lying around, give Portal 2 a try. You won't be disappointed.
Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360, PC/Mac
Developer: Valve
Release date: April 18, 2011
Pregame:
As it turns out, Portal was just what gamers never knew they wanted. It packed dark humor into a mentally challenging game that had the player think outside their FPS comfort zone. Not to mention the avalanche of memes it spawned, making it an Internet sensation overnight. Faced with Portal's overwhelming success, the question for valve became, "how do you top that?"
Portal 2 had some big long-fall boots to fill, and against all odds, it did just that.
Play-by-play:
So what sets Portal 2 apart from its oh-so-famous predecessor? In a word: scale. Portal 2 is a much lengthier and more complex romp through Aperture Science laboratories, and some new puzzle elements will stretch players' capacity to think with portals.
Staples from Portal like turrets and the weighted storage cube will return, although the newcomers tend to outshine them. The more notable examples of new elements include the hard light bridge, excursion tunnel (essentially a tractor beam) and a variety of colored gels that all have different effects. Players will come across the latter while traversing the older, often condemned sections of the lab. While they're down there, they will also meet (through old recordings) Aperture Science's founder, Cave Johnson.
Other than the speechless protagonist Chell, this game has a grand total of four characters: GLaDOS, Johnson, Johnson's secretary Caroline (she has a couple lines), and a lovable British A.I. named Wheatley. That's it. Quality over quantity, people. Each distinctive character packs its own brand of humor.
There's more to the plot this time around as well, although it still boils down to Chell thinking, "get me the hell out of here" really hard. The dialogue is incredibly well-written, and while Chell typically solves her puzzles in silence, the beginning and end of each test is often hilarious. Chell will also venture beyond the typical testing environment and into Aperture Science behind the scenes. In any case, the game's focus seems to be puzzle solving peppered with humor, and it does those things very well.
Although Portal 2 is certainly longer than its predecessor, it's still a fairly short game overall. That's pretty much my only complaint for this one: it ends. Even that isn't really a valid complaint, as Valve saw fit to include both the Perpetual Testing Initiative and the Cooperative Testing Initiative with the game.
You can join a friend online or via split-screen co-op (if you are playing on PS3 or Xbox 360), and cross-platform multiplier is even possible between PS3 players and PC/Mac users.
The Perpetual Testing Initiative earns its name by providing level editing tools, and it lets the Portal 2 community supply an endless amount of new levels to try out. It's even possible to create and play co-op levels through this game mode. It will be rather difficult to actually run out of content in Portal 2, so feel free to continue testing until your eyes cross.
Final Call:
Portal 2 is one of those games that everyone should play. If you haven't friends of yours that have played it will harass you until you do anyway. They'll do that because you'll need to experience certain moments first-hand, and being told about it just isn't the same.
This game is a rare beast. It's fun, funny, possibly cooperative (online or offline), virtually endless, and relatively cheap these days. If you're interested in the game for PC or Mac, there is even a discounted 2-pack on Steam that is specifically made so you and a friend can team up.
If you've got the time and a few bucks lying around, give Portal 2 a try. You won't be disappointed.
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