Portal 2 is the follow up to the unique and inspired Portal from 2007. Portal was a short but incredibly tight and smart game budget game, while Portal 2 is being sold as a standalone product which has a lot to live up to. Portal to not only lives up to the legacy of the first Portal, but improves upon it in many ways. Portal 2 largely manages to maintain the strong points of its predecessor while simultaneously pushing the production values much higher, making the game worthy of being a full retail release as a standalone.
Portal 2 returns the player to the role of Chell, the protagonist of the first game. The game begins as Chell awakens from sleep in a bedroom to a knocking on the door, which when opened reveals a new character to the series, Wheatley. Voiced by Stephen Merchant, Wheatley is a fantastic addition to the game and has some of the best dialogue I have ever heard in a game. Glados makes a return, and with an extremely small cast of characters, Portal 2 pulls off an enthralling and deep story. The story in Portal 2 is much thicker than in Portal. Character backgrounds are more fleshed out, conversations reveal more snippets and the history of Aperture Science is explored. Like its predecessor, Portal 2 has no dialogue wheel and no cutscenes. The story all plays out during gameplay, control is never removed from the player and thus immersion is preserved while the story plays out. Much of the background story elements are told via the environment itself and in subtle ways. Its a typical Valve method of storytelling, but it works extremely well. Portal 2 also furthers the links between this franchise and the Half-Life series, but I won’t say any more on that topic to avoid spoilers.
Graphically Portal 2 is a good looking game, but it is not stunning. The source engine is beginning to show its age, but it still does a fantastic job in this game. What really impresses in the visuals is the attention to detail. The facility goes from a state of disrepair to re-mechanisation with incredible speed. When you enter an area you will often see wall plates move and mechanised crane arms do their work. The machinery interacts with the environment in an incredible way, and its intricate nature is absolutely stunning. While Portal 1 focused very tenaciously on small almost claustrophobic environments for its test chambers, Portal 2 also has vast cavern areas and much larger and more detailed areas to traverse. The level design is completely divergent from the first game, with incredible dense and haphazardly built areas just waiting to be examined. Its a much more frivolous yet impressive approach to environments, and makes the game a graphical marvel. Textures are all excellent, as is the lighting and colour. The animations are brilliant, with plenty of environmental interactions to be seen throughout the game as objects smash and break in natural and realistic ways. Its amazing what Valve achieved in this game visually considering the engine dates from 2004.
The sound track of Portal is as subtle as the last game, but is equally effective at setting the tone. Sci-fi style music plays during particular puzzles and in certain areas which really helps in permeating an atmosphere of mystery and dark secrets in the ruins of Aperture Science. There is no “Im Still Alive” this time, nor a song to match it, but the music is still of an excellent quality and integrated into the game in a subtle and suitable way. The voice work is extraordinary, with Stephen Merchant stealing the show as Wheatley and Ellen McLain maintaining Glados’ previous quality. The characters make numerous snide remarks and verbal jousts at each other, and I genuinely laughed at some of these bouts. The voice acting really helps to carry the game, and is absolutely top notch.
The gameplay of Portal 2 is again based around the solving of puzzles via the use of the now legendary portal gun. However, this time the puzzles start out small in scale but become vase and intricate by the latter stages of the game. Having used cubes and portals in the first game, this time you are introduced to cubes that can redirect laser beams, 3 types of gel that alter environmental surfaces and energy lifts and bridges. These mechanics sound daunting, but they are introduced slowly and in a way that quickly familiarises the player with their use. Some of the puzzles require some trial and error, but they are never chores and are satisfying to solve. The pacing is great in the game, though its not as focused an experience as the first Portal. This is because between puzzle areas there are large sections of the game where you will be traversing the halls of the facility learning and taking part in story points. This is not a bad thing, its just part of the game being a larger production. Valve does an excellent job of presenting you with all the necessary clues without slapping a set of instructions onscreen to explain the way forward. Its a refinement and expansion of the gameplay in Portal 1.
Portal 2 is an extravagantly designed game with some great production values. No matter how complicated the puzzles get, the solutions are always sensible, even with all the new mechanics thrown into the fray. There are some set pieces in the game which truly demonstrate the increased production which went into this game over the original. The game still maintains the core of its predecessor, but the emphasis has been shifted and the events are all larger and more significant. There is also a co-op multiplayer mode in Portal 2 which I played some of. It has much more difficult puzzles than the single player, requiring cooperation at a high level. Its brilliantly crafted, but needs to be played with a friend as communication is crucial. You can set context-sensitive markers on parts of the environment to wordlessly indicate where a portal should be placed, where a partner should move, and even trigger a countdown clock to synchronize when switches should be hit or buttons pressed, making team work that much easier. You will need these mechanics as the puzzles are very challenging.
With Portal 2, Valve avoid leaning on callbacks and nods to Portal 1, instead removing all the restrictions to scale they placed on themselves in that game to create this masterpiece. Its not quite as well paced as the original, with a slow moving and slightly disorientating middle chapter, but it still all feels great. The voice acting and character interactions are fantastic and the dark humour of the series returns. The mythos deepens, with nods to Greek mythology in the mix, and definitive links to Half-Life in the game. Portal 2 lacks the surprise factor of the original, but it off sets this with massively increased scale, impressive set pieces and new puzzle solving mechanics. Its not easy to find a game this well designed, original and funny. The single player is about 8 hours long on the first try, though it has little replay value. Despite this, Portal 2 is a must buy for any lover of gaming.
Pros:
- Greatly increased scale
- Amazing writing and delivery of dialogue
- Small cast of characters create a fantastic story
- Music creates atmosphere and sets mood perfectly
- Gels make the puzzle solving even better
- Developer commentary is always welcome
- Set pieces are stunning at times
- The portal gun is still a class act
- Co-op mode is excellent
- Greater variety of environments
- Pacing is not quite as good as predecessor
- Little replay value
- Load screens are a little too prevalent
- The potato is a lie
- 9/10