Okay Geek Farm
PS3 / PC - Portal 2 Review
Alex Tretrop
It isn’t a stretch to say that nearly ever serious gamer has heard of Portal. What started out as a student project has now become one of the most beloved games of this past decade, with its deviously simple puzzles being a favorite among its community. Thus with great joy we are happy to finally see Portal 2 come around and, as per usual, Valve has delivered another wonderful puzzler that is both fun, funny, and fantastic in every possible way.
Story
Portal 2 returns you to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center after an undisclosed amount of years since the apocalyptic ending to the original. You’re still in control of Chell, the mute protagonist who was subject to GLaDOS’ interesting choice of tests all in the name of science. When a personality core named Wheatley wakes you up, you set off to escape the facility yet again. And for fear of spoilers, that’s all I’ll say.
Whereas Portal’s story was primarily conveyed at the end of its short experience, Portal 2 has a much more overarching narrative that succeeds at being both tense and hilarious at the same time. There are some genuinely fantastic twists and turns in the story as well as one hell of a memorable ending, with the few characters the game employs all being superbly presented with wonderful voice acting, making them come to life in their own zany ways. Wheatley is your nervous, motor mouthed companion who is written into the story brilliantly, and GLaDOS, the deadly AI core, who seriously comes out of her shell in this iteration, has some greatest lines you’ll ever hear in a video game, which no doubt will certainly make themselves into memes on the internet very soon.
What’s fantastic is that Portal 2 strays away from jokes that were already presented in the previous game. You won’t find a mention of the cake being a lie here, and none of GLaDOS’ previous jokes are repeated — giving you a surprisingly contained experience, that doesn’t rely on jokes and characters from the established precusor title, making it appeal to wider audience while still feeling like something that veteran players can enjoy. Overall, its three-part story arch exceeds in everyway and never disappoints.
It should be noted however, that the Co-op mode doesn’t make use of the excellent storyline. It’s made clearly obvious that it isn’t the primary drive to complete the levels, having GlaDOS only spewing a couple of subtle lines to cause a little tension between you and your partner. It’s more of a side game to keep the exprience flowing past the end-game.
Gameplay
Portal 2 takes the already clever gameplay from the original and implements it in full swing here. It does a great job of easing you into the game, teaching you about your dual portal gun and its immense possibilities quickly and effectively. Once you hit the second act, the puzzles start to become much more challenging but you’ll generally solve them after a few minutes of thought and experimentation, which just reinforces how well designed some of them are. Many of them require quite a bit of abstract thinking but it’s always fun to try some crazy new idea you have and see if it succeeds or fails. By the end, you’ll be bouncing off walls upside down at crazy speeds with ease and you’ll smile at just the sheer amount of memorable puzzles the game actually has in its arsenal.
As you progress, you’ll take the knowledge of portals, buttons and boxes into newer territory as the game mixes in gels that make you run faster or jump extremely high, as well as crazy launching platforms that just add to the amount of creativity and craziness you’ll get up to in these levels.
Portal 2’s Multiplayer element feels like true cooperative gaming. You play as the two lovable bots, Atlas and P-body, in what is probably the more mechanically impressive side of Portal 2. If you thought playing single-player was a blast, well, if you can get a friend on the couch or someone with a mic, then you’re in for some truly mind bending times. Between the two of you, you can each shoot two Portals and while it isn’t the most ideal solution, there is a ping tool, which allows you to point out locations for said portals, or start a count down timer for precision but you need to be able to communicate with your partner especially in the more complex puzzles. Sure, there might not really be a drive story-wise jere but the puzzles alone are enough to keep you going.
My only gripes with the game are generally with the loading times. While we shook it off in the original Portal, in the newest installment there are an absurd amount of loading screens which doesn’t always keep the flow of the game moving at the pace you’d like it to. That being said, they are all fairly quick but, most notably in the multiplayer, it seems like it takes just a little too long to get to the next level.
Audio / Visuals
Everything about Portal 2’s audio is fantastic, I don’t even know where to start! All the characters seen, and not seen, are brought to life stellarly in a way that other games can only hardly fathom. From Stephen Merchant as the hilarious AI core, Wheatley, to J.K. Simmons as Aperture’s CEO Cave Johnson — oh, and let’s not forget of course, Ellen McClain’s GLaDOS, which just can’t be matched. It’s hard to think of another game in which the voice cast clearly took their jobs seriously, and really put everything they had into making you believe these characters were real. That being said, the writing must also be mentioned for without it we’d only have the sounds of the turrets to compare to.
The music is also extremely important for Portal 2 and it doesn’t disappoint either. From the ambient tracks that get louder and softer depending on whatever crazy shenanigans you’re pulling off in a level, to the amazing work put in by The National and Jonathan Coulton while the game’s story rises in tension, it really doesn’t get any better than this. The charming ending song to the first Portal, “Still Alive”, is one of the most recognizable tunes in the industry, and I’m happy to say that nearly every song in Portal 2 meets or surpasses this high standard.
In terms of its visuals, Valve’s running Portal 2 on the Source Engine, which was used for games as old as Half Life 2, almost 7 years ago. And you know what? It still looks great. It’s been heavily modified and optimized but everything still looks fantastic in Aperture, from the poorly thought out layout to the plants and floara now infesting the neglected test chambers. Portal 2 doesn’t do anything totally out of this world with its environments but it’s still impressive, especially during the later parts of the game when the test chambers become totally bonkers in both design and look.
Overall
It’s really hard not to love Portal 2! While the first game was an experiment by Valve to see if the students who had created Narbacular Drop could turn it into a functioning game, Portal 2 takes center stage with a lengthy, unforgettable single player experience, an excellent cooperative element and some of the most mind-bending puzzles you’ll ever encounter in a game. Valve promises high caliber games and this one is no exception. Run, don’t walk and pick this one up!
Pro’s
- Hilarious Story, Memorable Characters
- Awesome Gameplay
- Excellent Cooperative Element
- Fantastic Visuals and Sound
Con’s
- Annoying amount of loading screens
- Co-op lacks the fantastic narrative of the single-player
Portal 2 is the best game so far this year. A hilarious and interesting story, memorable characters and crazy puzzles are just some of the things Valve have done to take a simple concept and turn it into one of the most original, fun and creative games out there. It’s an experience you shouldn’t miss out on!
