The "Pillsbury" of Puzzle Games
Portal 2, simply put, is intelligent, innovative, and massively entertaining. At least, that’s what it says on the back of the box. But the truth is, the game is so much more than that. Portal 2 delivers an experience that not many other video games do. The game combines mind-bending puzzles, clever humor, and a great story to create a very strong game of the year contender for 2011.
Portal 2 continues where the original left off. You are woken up by a small little robot, which leads to you running into a good old friend. The game knows exactly what it is, and uses that to its advantage. The story is slow at first, but really picks up mid game and near the end. The ending cinematic is very enjoyable, especially if you enjoyed the original.
The most important aspect of any puzzle game is of course, the puzzles. If you have never played Portal before, basically you shoot one portal at a wall; another one at a different wall, and you can go in one and out the other. Everything starts off easy, but eventually you will be dealing with different types of gels that make you jump and run faster, placing portals in effective locations to gain momentum, destroying turrets, and many that will just leave you scratching your head. Generally after you beat a puzzle you will tell yourself you couldn’t believe it took you so long to figure it out. Near the end however, there are some incredibly complex puzzles. Portal 2 takes the formula from the first game, throws in several new features, and then polishes everything to perfection.
As of April 2011, it is expected for games to look pretty decent, stretching the limits of current generation consoles. Although Portal 2 may not stretch the limit, it looks pretty darn good. The game looks very smooth. Although some of the test chambers may be boring, there are many more exciting areas with a variety of different colors. I really liked the way the gels look (blue and orange), especially as I saw the cool effects as they floated in the air near the end of the game.
One of the really great things I liked about Portal 2 was the clever sense of humor. There would be so many off the wall things characters would say, or stupid things, that were just flat out funny. One example I remember specifically was when a character said, “When mike gives you lemons, make lemonade”. I mean, this is completely random, and it really just added to the whole science and intelligent atmosphere that the game took place in. It’s almost guaranteed you are going to get several laughs out of this puzzle game.
Another great addition to this game is co-op. I’m happy to say Valve did an incredible job with this. There are a total of 35 co-op puzzles to be completed, and they are separated into sections based on the style of puzzle. Each puzzle really does require teamwork. One of my favorites was when my teammate was guiding me through a passage, while he was controlling aspects of the passage. I had no idea where I could go, but he could see the whole view of the passage and I had to listen carefully to him or I would have died.
It may not be the longest lasting game ever, no puzzle games are, but it is a great experience when you play through it. Although I’m not sure on the specific time required to beat it, I beat the single player two days after it came out. That being said, I invested a lot of time each day on it. I’d say including co op, you can expect to get around 15 hours out of this game, and even more if you want to go back and get all the achievements. I’m really hoping that there is a lot of DLC for the game.
Valve has created a masterpiece. Portal 2 is now on my top games of all time list. The game does so many things right, and nearly nothing wrong. You may want to wait for a price drop if you are concerned about replay ability, although there may be DLC in the future. However, if you’re looking for a clever game that is a great experience to play through, Portal 2 is for you.
