It’s been a long time. How have you been? - GlaDoS
Whether you played the original Portal game over and over or you are new to the game, Portal 2 has something for everyone. Based in the world of the Half-Life series, Portal 2 challenges players to think with portals, finish puzzles, and really brings to life what players loved in the original game, solving puzzles with portals, and adds new dynamics and tools for the player to use.
The Breakdown: New Elements
Portal 2 still offers the same great game play but has a twist to it. The inclusion of jump pads, laser beams, light bridges, tractor beams, propulsion gel (makes you move faster) and repulsion gel (adds height to your jumps). With these new elements, players have tougher challenges and new tools to meet those challenges. New test chambers will require you to use portals to redirect a light bridge to walk across, or add repulsion gel to an area to move over a pit. The new features are an amazing addition and really compliment the puzzle solving fun that is Portal.
Single Player Campaign
At the end of the Portal, the main character Chell, was drug back into the Aperture Science facility. Portal 2 starts 50 days after the end of the first story. You wake up in a room in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center and are instructed to conduct some simple tests. You then go back to sleep only to be woken up again but this time the enrichment center is in disarray. This is where the fun begins. You meet a new Artificial Intelligence named Wheatley, who helps you navigate the crumbling facility and eventually find yourself in familiar ground from the original Portal. The single player campaign has a number of twists to the plot and takes you into the history of Aperture Science making available test chambers from the early days of testing. The characters and dialogue are still disturbingly sarcastic and will have you laughing within the first couple of minutes.
Co-op Play
As amazing as the campaign is, Portal 2 co-op play is the best addition to the game. Instead of playing as the main character from the single player campaign, co-op mode features 2 robots created by Aperture Science. Both robots have their own portal guns and each can create 2 portals and Valve made sure to take full advantage of the extra portals needed. These test chambers require a lot of teamwork and timing to make it through each set. In game communication and team work is complimented with a ping tool.
This allows you to show visually to your co-op partner where a portal should be placed or removed, where to enter a portal group, where to stand, and all of these options have their own icons within the ping tool allowing for greater communication. With in-game shenanigans, cooperative game gestures such as waving and hugging the other player, Portal 2 co-op will be hours of fun for you and a friend.
Final Say
In my opinion, if you do not give this game a go, you are missing out on what will almost certainly be a finalist for Game Of the Year. Portal 2 builds on the successes of the original game and draws you back in with new innovative puzzle solving tools, co-op puzzle solving, and a sadistically wonderful story line. It is challenging for all ages and is rated “E” for everyone. From start to finish Portal 2 entertains and get the player(s) thinking as the make their way through to the end.
