Portal was one of the best games of 2007. Valve have followed up with Portal 2, which is certainly one of the best games of 2011. As before, you will use your portal gun, companion cubes, buttons, switches and more to navigate and solve many different test chambers in the gargantuan Aperture Science facility. While you are alone most of the time, a number interesting characters speak to you, providing much of the game’s humour and some unforgettable, quotable dialogue.
The single player campaign once again puts you in the ‘Long Fall Boots’ of Chell, the heroine of the first game. Portal 2′s story starts up like dynamite – a short gentle introduction, then you explode into the game world. Even though the entire story takes place in the Aperture Science laboratories, you encounter a number of different and interesting environments. Parts of the facility look overgrown and run down. Some of it appears pristine. Certain locations seem to belong to another time entirely, incongruous with the newer ones.
When you get into the guts of the facility, some areas exude a sense of immense space and various structures disappear into the distance, both horizontally and vertically. Wherever you are, the place always feels abandoned and eerie. From time to time, you encounter scribbles or amazing wall paintings, which add some life to the surroundings, but for much of your adventure, you’ll feel alone. Almost. In some areas, walls or platforms that are in disarray when you enter the room, come to life and lurch into the proper places in the chamber. It’s a nice touch. The overall feeling is that something has gone (and is still going) wrong in this place.
The gameplay builds on the features introduced in the first title. You enter a test chamber, and have to make your way to the exit. To do this, you may have to cross chasms or breach barriers, press buttons or avoid musical turrets (which make a welcome return in this game). To help you out, you have you trusty portal gun. You use it to place two portals on susceptible surfaces and then travel between them. Momentum is conserved through the portals so you often find yourself jumping off high platforms into a portal on the ground and then exiting the other portal at great speed to cover large distances. It’s a fun and thrilling experience for a first person game. You will also make use of some of Aperture Science’s other inventions to solve your tests, including solid light bridges, gravity beams, spring pads, and gels which speed you up or make you bounce. You often need to combine a number of elements in order to solve a test.
Whenever you beat a level, you’ll have plenty of time to bask in the glow of your success. The loading times are a little on the lengthy side, but they are logically placed and never interrupt the gameplay at an inopportune time.
You’ve probably encountered many a first person shooter with lacklustre storytelling and terrible voice acting, but these are areas in which Portal 2 excels. This is a world in which science and bureaucracy have taken the place of reason and logic… in the most awesome way possible. You need not have played the first game in order to enjoy the second, but the experience will be far more special if have. Before checking out Portal 2 (because, you know you’re going to), have a look the amazing comic, Portal 2: Lab Rat developed in-house by Valve, with the aid of artist/writer Michael Avon Oeming, which can be found here.
All of the characters you encounter are such fun to listen to and have such wonderful dialogue. A number of characters will provide assistance and commentary throughout the game. All are voiced beautifully – nobody phoned their lines in here. Near the start of the campaign, an announcer will guide you through several tests as though the facility is fully operational. Artificial Intelligence Core, Wheatley (brilliantly voiced by Stephen Merchant from “The Office”), provides friendly, funny company, and it’s not long before everybody’s favourite psychotic AI, GLaDOS, makes a comeback. Even pre-recorded messages from Aperture Science’s enigmatic CEO, Cave Johnson, add to the overall atmosphere of the game.
Although she is mute, apart from grunts of pain or exertion, Chell also has presence as a character. You’ll get glimpses of yourself (Chell) through portals. She also appears in many of the wall murals, which often present her with the awe of a goddess or some mystical figure. The online comic provides a description of her in her file, which I think is probably one of the best descriptions of a hero in all of gaming, “Proctor’s note: ‘Test subject is abnormally stubborn. She never gives up. Ever.’” Take that Bruce Willis. At the end, after completing all the challenges placed in front of you, you are treated to a boss battle and finale that tops off the entire experience like the sweetest dessert.
If all that weren’t enough, you also get a cooperative campaign featuring two new robotic characters, ATLAS (blue) and P-Body (orange). You can play with another person via a network or in splitscreen mode. The game-play mechanics are the same, but the puzzles are harder. Valve clearly put a lot of thought into this mode and there are a number of tools to make cooperating with your counterpart simpler. There is a countdown clock, (imperative for precision timing) and a function to draw your counterpart’s attention to a point in the room, or to specify that a portal is placed in a particular area. You can also invoke little animations such as high-fives or dances which generally result in a funny comment from GlaDOS. The multi-player is a fine addition to this series.
There are just so many facets to this game that make it a great experience and virtually no issues to dampen it. You should check it out. For science.
