Valve’s Portal was a surprise hit, garnering millions of fans and generating plenty of internet memes along the way. After several months of extremely clever marketing, Portal 2 is finally out. But how did it stack up against the colossal fan favorite that the first Portal came to be? I took my plunge into Portal 2 without reading anything about it story-wise, and I have to say that it was well worth it to have a “virgin experience”. Throughout this review, I will do my very best to critique it while keeping the spoilers to a bare minimum to preserve that fresh sensation. Trust me, it’s worth it to experience the plot twists first-hand.
What you get
Buy PS3, get PC/Mac!
Unlike the first Portal, which was just a part of the Orange Box bundle, Portal 2 certainly contains enough content to be considered a full retail game. Included is both a single-player campaign as well as a totally separate co-op mode. Both offer a unique experience to the Portal universe with separate storyline and endings. Depending on how fast you can figure out the puzzles, the campaign will last about 6-10 hours, while the co-op clocks in at about 4-6 hours, making for plenty of substance.
I noticed that the PC version also has an “Extras” section on the main menu that I don’t remember the PS3 having. It includes several of the Portal 2 trailers, as well as the Lab Rat comic. I definitely recommend taking the time to read the comic, as it helps bridge the story gap between the end of Portal and why the protagonist Chell is in the sequel.
Also, taking the advice of our own article on Steam for PS3, I purchased the PlayStation 3 version
Controls
Anyone who has played the original Portal will feel quite at home in the sequel. The control scheme is nearly identical, with only a few minor changes. For those that are new to the Portal series, the game warms you up to the controls slowly so as to let you get your bearings. The button layout is fairly minimalistic: as a first-person shooter styled game, you can run and look around, jump, fire the two different portal entrances, and as a welcome addition you can also zoom the viewpoint. I absolutely loved the ability to zoom in; sometimes it’s necessary to look across vast rooms for accuracy, other times it’s just nice to take a closer look at props and take in the scenery.
Take control as P-Body and Atlas in co-op.
The co-op mode has an interesting addition that in practice works out very well. The most important one is the ability to point your reticle at something, and create a context-sensitive flag on that point. For example, if you point to a button, it creates a marker indicating to your partner that you want them to press it. If pointing at a wall, you can instruct them to create a portal entrance there. You can even start a 3-second timer to synchronize actions. In a similar vein, there are also gestures that are added, mostly for fun. These include waving, offering a high-five, and even the ability to play a game of rock-paper-scissors. I found the flagging and gestures to be a great way to non-verbally communicate with your partner in an extremely clear and concise way.
Gameplay
The first Portal game was acclaimed for its fantastic level design, entailing a series of increasingly complex and extremely clever puzzles, many of which were physics based. Portal 2 takes a great deal of this and expands upon it, without ever betraying the core of what made Portal fun. Because the controls are basically the same, veterans should feel right at home the moment the game begins.
The game progresses fairly linearly, which isn’t at all a bad thing. Many areas are open-ended enough to give a slight feeling of exploration. Quite frankly, the Aperture Science facility is vast and maze-like enough that I actually appreciated a somewhat linear path to follow, with puzzles dotting the landscape like a bizarre game of Pac-Man.
Speaking of puzzles, the level design in Portal 2 is top notch. Puzzles were always fresh and challenging, introducing new elements over time without any individual part wearing out its welcome. There were a few points where I was stumped for a few minutes, but I never got to the point of becoming frustrated. In fact, quite often I found myself marveling at just how much design work and playtesting must have gone into every single room of the game.
All the new puzzle elements were cleverly thought out and integrated into the core gameplay exceedingly well. I can divide the new elements into two main categories: “light beams” and “gel paint”. Starting with the light-based features, the first are lasers that can be re-directed with portals or prism cubes that you can pick up and place in the way you need the laser to travel. The second is a 3-foot wide beam that creates a bridge you can run on or use as a barrier to shield against turrets. The third is a tunnel of light that works like cross between an elevator and a conveyor belt, allowing you to move in any direction the beam is projected.
The gel paints are fun
The gel paints are the second batch of new things to play with in Portal 2. The gels come out of large tubes, and can be re-directed by portals to splash on planar surfaces to coat them like paint, giving them special properties. The blue “Repulsion Gel” makes the surface extremely bouncy, while the orange “Propulsion Gel” gives you the ability to run extremely fast across the surface. The third is the most interesting to me: a white gel that makes any surface painted by it to allow a portal to be placed on it, which feels like it breaks the status quo of limited portal-friendly surfaces. The way the puzzles use the gels is nothing short of genius, as the gels all work together accordingly.
The last thing I’ll touch on is the co-op mode, which was extremely well thought-out. First of all, the puzzles are not only designed for two people, but they really focus on synchronized teamwork, making things both extremely fun and satisfying when you complete the rooms together. Coupled with the aforementioned ability to flag objects like where to place portals, and the amusing gestures you use to interact with your partner, the co-op runs fairly smoothly. As an added bonus, try issuing gestures to GLaDOS’s camera at the end of a level to hear cheeky responses from her.
Hope you like seeing the Aperture logo.
It’s hard for me to find much to critique in a game with this level of spit-shine, but there were a few parts that irked me. First and foremost is the vast amount of loading screens I had to stare at throughout the game. After being used to the first Portal where you only get a loading screen every four or so test chambers, Portal 2 has a loading screen almost every step of way. Even the first few tiny little rooms were broken up by an elevator ride and a black “now loading” screen with the Aperture Laboratories logo that lasted 8-10 seconds on the PS3, and about 5-8 seconds on my PC. To top it all off, if you die, the game treats you to another few seconds of loading when really all it should have to do is re-set the room. These frequent interruptions really put a damper on the pacing of the game.
Another issue I had was really more of a personal nitpick, and it has to do with the gels. While the Portal-friendly white gel made sense, the others seemed overwhelmingly goofy. While I realize that Portal doesn’t take itself terribly seriously, at least it was generally believable tale of survival. However, a gel that can make cement as spring-like as a trampoline was a bit of a stretch for me, and one that lets you run faster without tripping just didn’t make any sense. While I admit this may be just me and that the puzzles that incorporated these gels were still well made and a lot of fun to solve, trying to visualize how a colored goo would let me move my legs faster while keeping balance dismissed a good chunk of the believability of the game.
Characters
The first Portal had one of the most memorable antagonistic characters ever conceived in GLaDOS: a sarcastic, cold-blooded, yet witty female AI that led the silent protagonist Chell through wave after wave of deadly trials. Having a silent character allowed the player to project themselves into Chell’s position, while developing a direct relationship with GLaDOS—one that balanced between loving the supercomputer’s wit yet having a strong desire to see her torn asunder. Portal 2 builds upon this and expands the cast with a few more characters, including a rogue “Personality Sphere” AI named Wheatley, and Cave Johnson, former CEO of Aperture Science Laboratories (and shower curtain rod expert).
Meet Wheatley, the bumbling British bot.
You meet Wheatley at the beginning of the game. He’s a basketball-sized robotic white sphere with a glowing blue digital “eye”. Now, the last time I saw a robotic character that matched this description was 343 Guilty Spark from Halo, whom I have absolutely zero favorable memories of. Regardless, I fell in love with the little bugger, as Wheatley brings a lot of fun and charm to the game. Perhaps its his quirky mannerisms, or the British accent. Either way, he’s fun to have around to contrast with GLaDOS’s digital voice and dry sarcasm.
The second new personality in the game that I can discuss is Cave Johnson, who was featured in a few of the more recent Portal 2 trailers. Cave was once the CEO of Aperture back in its prime, and carries a distinctive and booming voice that reminds me of a sports newscaster. While having a deep love of science and achieving progress in technology, it’s fairly obvious that Cave doesn’t hold much regard for his own test subjects, and frequently ridicules them with as much intensity as GLaDOS. This makes him a great source of comedy gold, as well as playing the role of the “likable asshole”.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Portal without GLaDOS herself. While I won’t go into great detail, GLaDOS is back, and with as much wit and bleak charm as she’s always held. One thing that is interesting is that as she now has a working relationship with the player, she is a little less robotic in her speech patterns, and a little bit more… human. They oftentimes say, “this time it’s personal”, as she frequently accuses you of being a murderer and that she has special plans in store for Chell.
Story
Portal 2 was built from the ground up with the purpose of weaving together story and gameplay, and they pull it off very well. Valve did a great job of laying forth a fantastic experience, without necessarily shoving anything down your throat in an obvious manner: basically, a perfect blend of both showing and telling the story. Oftentimes an important plot point is only hinted at rather than being explicitly stated; while it still leads to the same general conclusion, the vague manner that Portal 2 employs allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions at their own pace, which I loved.
Cameo jokes were sprinkled in for the fans.
There was a surprising amount of story and plot twists to be had in Portal 2. The game is split up into about six or so chapters, each with a different feel that ultimately brings the story in a full circle. The game starts by answering the question, “what would it be like if GLaDOS wasn’t in control for a while and the Aperture Science labs went abandoned?” Much of the beginning features an extremely dilapidated testing center, though the scenery changes dramatically as you progress through the game.
Overall, the game continues the surreal, “larger than life” feel that the first Portal had… and magnifies it ten-fold. There is now plenty more Aperture Science to be explored, and the scale of the facility is simply mind-boggling. With all the automated robotic systems and layers upon layers of offices and terminals, it’s pretty evident that the company must have been making more money than some European countries.
It’s also worth mentioning here that there are plenty of cameo hat-tips to both the previous Portal, as well as the fan base of the game. All of these were well-placed, without over-doing it. I myself am quite fed up with all the “cake is a lie” references, and thankfully they too were kept at a minimum in Portal 2.
Graphics & Art
Simply put, the art direction for this game is stellar. The style of your surroundings always fits the mood, and changes to suit the current environment well. When you start out in the dilapidated Aperture Science testing rooms, there are piles of debris, organic matter such as vines, and even what appears to be sunlight beaming down. Eventually the areas get cleaner and more sterile, replacing the golden rays and flora with fluorescent panels and, well, death. Beyond this, the scenery continues to adapt and coordinate with the story.
Are you allergic to anti-matter too? A pity...
The attention to detail in the game is also fantastic. The game is littered with fun little things to “stop and smell the science” with. From missing ceiling tiles with matching debris on the floor to retro-styled caution posters on the walls, the game really sets the mood one would expect from a Portal sequel.
The graphics were also quite impressive. On the PS3, everything looked great, the shaders let tiles glisten. There was also excellent draw distance—even when looking through portals, it didn’t break a sweat. I also gave it a try on both my modern gaming laptop and an aging desktop rig. Even on my 5+ year old desktop, it ran smooth on medium quality settings, even in larger and more complex areas. Then again, I have come to expect this from Valve’s Source engine, which was built to be extensible and has reached quite an advanced state. The dynamic lighting works very nicely (even on the older PC), and I couldn’t stop looking at the water, which is becoming borderline realistic in my eyes.
Audio
The audio direction in Portal 2 is exactly what I wanted it to be, with Valve scoring top marks here. Starting with the score, the game strikes a great balance between general ambiance and fleeting moments of pure musical adrenaline. During high-energy moments, the music kicks in with full force, swinging me to the front of my chair and making me love every moment. Then when it’s back to good ol’ puzzle solving, the music steps aside and yields again to the ambiance.
Dull metallic clanging reverberates eerily.
Speaking of ambiance, Portal 2 features some of the best ambiance I’ve heard in a game yet. There’s always something to listen to, and yet it never becomes grating on my ears while I’m scratching my head over a frustratingly tough puzzle. For example, in the cavernous industrial parts of the game, you hear echoing rumbles and deep reverberating metallic clanging noises from mechanized systems that are out of sight. It gives the game a creepy larger-than-life feeling that the entire facility is mechanized and somehow alive, like you’re within the belly of a giant steel beast. The payoff was well worth it, and thus the sound engineers were my heroes and deserve high praise.
Summary
Overall, Portal 2 is an extremely solid game, giving me well over 20 hours of entertainment. There is also good replay opportunities to see little details that may be missed, or to listen to the developer interview nodes scattered about in commentary mode. And, of course, the game is fun as hell, especially with the constant taunts from GLaDOS and company. The game plays well for the most part, is coupled with a simple yet complex story, and bolstered by fantastic graphics and audio.
There’s still a few things that are eating away at me from calling it the perfect sequel. While it may have brought a lot to the table, I’m still not convinced the wacky gel paints fit in the Portal (and by extension, Half-Life) universe. I’m good for a surreal experience that pushes the envelope, but as fun as they were, they were too much for me. Also, let us not forget the inexcusably long and frequent loading screens. The constant breaks killed any fluid sense of pacing, especially when you die and have to re-start a room. Ultimately, these are nit-picks. I fully recommend Portal 2 to just about anyone.
Portal 2 is available now on Steam for PC and Mac, PlayStation 3
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