Portal 2 Review - It’s Good To Be Back, Now… Continue Testing

It’s tough to follow through on a game that was such a seminal critical hit like Portal. Portal was a break away success. It was never meant to be a huge game on its own, and was an experiment for Valve(part of the Orange Box package). It ended up being one of gaming’s classics for combining puzzle elements with a first person perspective and having an interesting theme and back story to boot(and generated a bunch of internet memes). With Portal 2, Valve wanted to ‘make a sequel that was more of the new rather than the same’(Gabe Newell said this).



Games like Portal 2 are very narrative heavy and finding out about the back story is part of the fun, so I’ll try to avoid touching on the specifics of the story. Portal 2 takes place many years after Portal. Valve changed the ending of Portal to show Chell being dragged back into Aperture Science. At the start, you meet Wheatley, an AI core that implores you to escape(Wheatley wants to leave this place as well, I mean why wouldn't he?). But one thing led to another and you both accidently woke up(activated) GlaDoS.

Things are in a mess, as you can see, it's been a long time

She separates you from Wheatley and now, she wants you to continue testing. For science of course. She clearly isn’t very happy that you murdered her the last time and lets you know of her animosity towards you. Great, a vengeful AI that you know has a tendency of lying to you. This can only lead to dangerous situations for Chell.

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You Shoot Portals


Portal’s gameplay is rather ingenious(if you’ve played Portal, then you already know this). With the use of a Portal gun you shoot a blue and orange portal and you can traverse through areas using these portals. Very simple, but using this simple mechanic, Valve has managed to construct some rather devious puzzles. You can shoot Portals on only a specific type of wall, limiting you from spamming portals any where.

THIS is art

Add a host of devices to complicate things further and you have a mind bending puzzle game that no other game quite like it. In Portal 2, Valve has added gels that augment your movements. Blue gels make you bounce when you land on them and orange gels make you move fasters as you run on them. Using the new gel mechanics, there is a lot more emphasis on puzzles that require momentum on Portal 2. You’ll often have to use the momentum of your fall or movement speeds(*hint* orange gel) to fling your self across rooms to solve puzzles.


"Once you’ve figured out a puzzle that was stumping you, you reaction would be ‘Oh yeah that makes sense’"


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In my opinion, these were the best type of puzzles in Portal and it’s nice to see them expanded with a lot more of such puzzles in Portal 2. Not to mention, there are many levels that are huge! Gone are the smallish test chambers and… without going into spoiler territory, let’s just say that there is more sense of scale and immensity that was not present in Portal. You now really feel a sense of vertigo as you fall hundreds of feet to get to hard to reach places.

Gels are a new addition. Getting them to specific spots is key to many puzzles

There are also puzzles with these white gel which will allow you to place a portal on any surface the gel is on. Key to those puzzles that have hardly any surface that you can portal up. Let’s just say you want to keep an eye on these white gels, these are very important. And then you  have the usual, turrets, bouncy pads, an energy bridge(that you can use portals to extend them), some sort of energy field that moves you slowly across the room and laser redirection cubes that are used to either destroy turrets or turn on a switch. They all have rather cute names(which I cant remember at the moment).

While most of the puzzles are not supper difficult or don’t require the dexterity of a ninja, they are just in that perfect zone of being challenging and satisfying to complete. None of the puzzles are cheap or ridiculous. Once you’ve figured out a puzzle that was stumping you, your reaction would be ‘Oh yeah that makes sense’. Sometimes the solution is in the previous room or in the way the surfaces you can place a portal on is arranged. You just need to look harder.


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You wont get many references back to the first game. But this is the only cake reference I found

For Science


While Portal was known for telling an interesting little story with little scribbles on walls, and GlaDoS’s script, Portal 2 take story telling bits up a notch. Valve really are masters of this style of story telling and they’ve been doing this with the Half Life series. In Portal 2, you have new characters such as Wheatley and Cave Johnson that flesh out the narrative a bit more(quite a lot more actually).

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There are dramatic moments in the game that set the tone for sequences in the story. And then there are the quiet bits and even here, Valve does a great job of letting the environment do the story telling. You learn a lot more about Aperture Science, and even GlaDoS. It’s incredible stuff, I can’t say much more than this without spoiling it.


Continue Testing… With A Friend

A new addition in Portal 2 is coop. It was certainly one of the most wanted modes based on fan feedback and Valve delivered. It’s just 2 player coop for obvious reasons(it would have been nice to have more players but realistically it would have been chaotic), they would have to design super complicated puzzles if it was for more than 2 player(using up to 8 portals for 4 player would have exploded my brains).

That's A LOT of steps! The coop hub world has a giant billboard that shows you your progress and statistics

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In Coop, you play as one of the two robots, P-Body or Atlas and play through 5 different sets of puzzles(each set has about 9 levels). Valve created a hub world where you and your coop partner get thrown in the beginning and you get to choose whichever set of puzzles you want to solve(as you play through each sets, a new one opens up in the hub world). These coop levels are more challenging than the single player campaign simply because you are now dealing with 2 sets of portals, so the levels are designed in ways that require teamwork and even more timing based stuff.


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What’s astonishing is how well Valve has been able to make non human robots feel so animated and life like(this also applies to Wheatley). The robots high five each other(much to GlaDoS’s chagrin), they hug each other, they make cute noises urging the other robot to look at something. It’s an absolute joy to watch your characters animated in such a way. It makes me wonder why other developers have such a hard time trying to make their in game characters animate in a believable way, and Valve has been doing this since Half Life 2. Yeah I get it, it’s hard.

One thing Valve added that didn’t make much sense is a Robot Enrichment Centre(sitting idly in the bottom corner of the main menu). An in game store, much like the one in Team Fortress 2. You can purchase gestures and hats! Yes hats! Awesome. The thing is, Portal 2 coop is just a 2 player affair. It doesn’t make much sense to use such ‘vanity’ items in the game when you can’t show it off to more than just one person. Maybe Valve expects you to play the coop many times with different people. But still, while I think the robots look cute with new gestures and apparel, it kind of misses the point. Either way, it doesn’t detract from the game experience, but odd choice nevertheless.

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Stop bouncing around and start testing... for science!

Hey! Not This Type of Potato!

Conclusion

It’s really hard to write a review for Portal 2 without sounding too hyperbolic about it. But it is just that good. Portal 2 takes what Valve has done with Portal and manages to top it with everything Valve has learned to do well in games. This is Valve on top of their game, completely in control of what they are doing and loving it to bits. And while it’s easy to say oh it’s going to be tough for them to top this(and remember we’ve all said that about Portal 2 before release), but it’s hard to doubt Valve now(yeah, bring us Half Life 2 Episode 3!).

Like its predecessor which was able to embed itself into a much greater cultural threshold, it is without a doubt, Portal 2 will be following its footsteps. Portal 2 will become a cultural icon for gaming. Its ability to transcend from just gamer culture and put its foot into mainstream culture makes it one of gaming’s finest example of the medium. Portal 2 was an absolute joy to play. If it isn’t exactly apparent yet, I like this game a lot. Easily recommendable. This goes on my list of best games ever made.


Pros:

• While it isn't Crysis 2 level of graphics fidelity, they’ve managed to make Portal 2 look pretty damn good. A lot of the art design hints the player at the inner workings of Aperture Science.
  
• The puzzles are great as usual. Less of the reflex type puzzles more brain benders. Levels have a greater sense of scale and size and you’ll have to fire portals very, very far away(which is why the zoom function comes in handy).
  
• Valve are at the top of their narrative game. Excellent story telling
  
• The gameplay and the narrative of the game fits perfectly. So many times in many lesser games, you feel the gameplay is disconnected from the story.
  
• Amazing voice over performances by Stephen Merchant(Wheatley), Ellen McClain(GlaDoS) and J.K Simmons(Cave Johnson)
  
• One of my favourite soundtrack in a video game plus really good sound design. Every little jump, bounce gives off a little musical flourish
• Oh an that moment when and then you and then holy crap I never imagined . Lot's of moments like that!
• While it's easy for me to say yeah graphics, sound, and all that jazz is awesome in Portal 2, the biggest achievement for Portal 2 is how they all merge into one very delicious, pota...I mean one amazingly entertaining game. 

Cons:

• Not as replayable as any of their multiplayer games. To be expected for a puzzle game with a strong emphasis on narrative, your first play through will be the most satisfying.
  
• In game store doesn’t make much sense but ignorable. I’m sure some people will buy the in game items anyways.
• A bit too many loading screen, sometimes punctuating key moments.

Verdict: Portal 2 Is A Glowing Testament of What The Very Best of Video Games Can Achieve



Note: The review copy for this review was sponsored by e-Club Malaysia. The official distributer for Valve products in Malaysia