I paid for Portal 2 three times on three different platforms. First one disc for Xbox 360, then Steam and finally Switch, Compared to 2007’s Portal, this sequel is a very different animal. For starter, it’s much longer. This “I know what to do” Switch run for Portal took me about 73 minutes (The save file says “1 hours and 3 minutes” when I checked it just after credits roll. I looked at my watch and knew that 10 minutes had passed since that auto save). Portal 2’s last section alone took 150 minutes, with a fully-charged Switch down to eight percent. Oh well, they did charge 60 us dollars for it back in 2011.
The other difference is production value. While the 2007 original was built with left-over parts of Half-Life 2 and its Episodes, the 2011 sequel got serious money behind it. As if saying “So, some of you think Half-Life games all start too slow, huh?”, Portal 2’s “opening train ride” is a set-piece with so many moving parts that only those “nutjobs” at Valve would ever attempt. And almost as a mid-finger to id, this game also has pitch black segments showing off more impressive dynamic lighting that the then 7 years old DOOM 3. Holy cow, see how those shadows move! Visual flairs are not all for show. As in the putting weighted cubes on button, the cubes themselves would give a yellow glow to indicate that the switch is on now.
What remains the same with the Half-Life series would be the bummer for returning players opening. To be fair to this sequel though, the bummer is more of the “Just when you think you are out, they pull you back in” variety rather than the usual “Screw you for not saving nothing.”. And it was retconned into the last game.
Just as Portal 2 was announced in 2010, Valve patched in some robotic voice and yanked away motion to Portal’s post final boss fight cut scene on Steam. So, when players on Steam boot up Portal 2 and see Chell still in Aperture, they would not be baffled. Playing the game for the first time on Xbox 360 though, I was bit baffled.
But this ain’t your grandad’s Aperture, that would have to wait until this game’s second act. After who-knows-how-many years, Aperture’s lab seems completely abandoned and reclaimed by nature. But it’s still haunted by ghosts in machine, and it’s up to Chell to exorcise it again and maybe, just maybe she can leave this place for good.
The much longer run time of Portal 2 can be separated into 3 acts. First act is what one might except from a Portal sequel, with a laser grid replacing the first one’s Half-Life 2 energy balls. Lasers can be redirected with prism cubes. There is also jump pads to enhance the sense of speed. And there is light bridges added just for more paths.
The second act is about seeing Aperture’s past and have a surprise star appearance. J. K Simmons plays Cave Johnson, the long-deceased Aperture founder in recording form. They must really Mr. Simmons’ performance here since the actor and the character were brought back in the only detailed instruction manual for the Steam Deck. The second act introduces gels: first the blue one for jump higher; then the orange one for run faster; finally the white one to make more surfaces subjectable to portal opening.
It's also at this part of the game that Portal 2 runs into the “bigger but necessarily better” wall. With so many variables in the playground, even returning player can be baffled. While 2007’s original kept things simple and intuitive, too many ingredients in the 2011 sequel can worsen the flavor.
The third act is all about cyber exorcism and escape. A reversible force filed is added. And of course the final boss fight is an extended affair compared to this last game. The final interactive punch line is great. I laughed my ass off back in 2011 and I grinded ear to ear this time around as well. Portal series proved itself to be an actual comedy rather than a story with a dark sense of humor. All got what they deserve, none dies. And the only time I saw the co-op characters is their cameo by the end. Nice effort to make this game more like a mascot platformer, though, those robotic guys sure are!
In many ways, Portal 2 is a departure for Valve. It totally dropped the façade of seamlessness started with 1998’s Half-Life. The loading screens show Aperture of different times and some montage of 3 acts. And as far as non-VR singleplayer story game goes, this is the last one Valve in almost 13 years and counting as the time of writing. No, I am not counting Aperture Desk Job, it’s just instruction manual for the Deck.
The line “…a gun makes holes, not bullet holes” somehow got funnier after learning about Gabe Newell’s “bullet-hole mandate” for Valve shooters since before Half-Life was finished. The empty dock from where Borealis departed also feels like the studio giving up on making any level set on a ship. All in all, by very early 2025, yours truly still love Portal 2 despite some minor flaws of its. Now, would this lousy industry kindly make more like it with a quality over quaintly mentality? You all seem to take "more variables than Portal 2" as a compliment while it should be taken as condemnation.