Portal 2 is a magnificent game, from start to finish, from single player to cooperative, from technical specifications to story telling. If you are a person looking for the evolution of gaming, Portal 2 is the game for you.
The single player campaign in Portal 2 picks up from where the original Orange Box title left off. Roughly. I won’t spoil too much, but suffice to say, Portal 2 takes place after Portal. The story is told in a similar fashion to the original in that you are a silent protagonist, and you “interact” with a guide. You will have several different guides this time around, instead of the one previously. The environments are much more realized, and cover a wider range of atmosphere. You still have the clinically clean testing chambers, but you also have some chambers being rebuilt, and certain wide open areas.
New to the series is cooperative play. In cooperative play, you and a buddy (either online or locally) will run through six courses with roughly eight tests per course. Suffice to say, the cooperative experience is fully fleshed out. You can communicated through normal voice chat means, but in Portal 2, you also have a new set of communicative tools, including a ping tool (where you can point out a specific target, or area), a countdown timer (to synchronize trigger pulls) and gestures, such as dancing, hugging, or high-fiving (to annoy GLaDOS).
The story of Portal 2 is absurdly funny, and downright enjoyable to no end. While I’d love to explain some of the story, theres so little of it, any information can be pertained as spoilers. What I can say is, that this time around, you don’t just interact with GLaDOS, you also encounter a personality sphere named “Wheatley” and the founder of Aperture Science, Cave Johnson. All of it is hilarious. Even your old buddy the companion cube makes a comeback.
Where Portal 2 shines above any other game is the feeling you get, where you start solving these puzzles. You enter a chamber or area and feel helpless, having no idea what to do. Then you start poking around, portaling here, jumping there, and before you know it, you see the path. This is doubly amazing in cooperative play, where you work with someone to overcome a common goal. Truly, the game is it’s own reward.
Portal 2 lacks a few of the time trial tests and more single shot challenges that Portal had, but ultimately, they do not feel missed. You can replay the chapters from the main menu, but you must select start new game, then which chapter. It’s a bit tough to find, but replayablilty is important, and to get certain achievements, you’ll need to get to specific parts of the story.
While this review seems a bit short for such a masterpiece of a game, this is a game that really must be played to be enjoyed and understood. Rarely have I ever been pulled through a journey where I felt compelled to complete it, and this goes for both the single player and the cooperative. Quite simply put, Portal 2 is a game that will grab you, and never let you go.