Portal 2 Passes the Test
Below is the review for the single player campaign of Portal 2 and contains spoilers.
Portal is an epic experience. From the gripping opening to the closing seconds of the game it is rollcoaster of pure awesome. Typically I would not string a series of adverbs in my writings but here they pale in fully describing how much I truly enjoyed the game. For Valve fans I think this sums up how I feel: I would rather have a Portal 3 before a Half-Life: Episode 3 or Half-Life 3.
The game starts off more or less right after the events of the first Portal and does a great job showcasing the graphic improvements Portal 2 boasts as you watch Aperture Laboratories literally tear itself apart. It is not long after the tutorial that you come across your best friend from the first game, GLaDOS, and the game really takes off from there.
The game keeps true to its puzzle roots established in the first Portal however definitely ramps up the quality of storytelling. The first game was a series of puzzle rooms strung together by sharp one liners and soliloquies by GLaDOS. Portal 2 starts with the puzzle rooms for the tutorial, however, upon reawakening GLaDOS you break from the traditional surrounding and attempt to escape through the innards of Aperture Science Laboratories.
That is one of the greatest improvements and striking aspects of the sequel, the environment. An atmospheric effect like this has not been seen since the first BioShock. Aperture Science feels like a living, breathing world that you are traversing through. The level of detail Valve put into the environment and portions of the backdrop that a majority of players probably will never even seen is astounding. At one point in the game you move through a portion of the factories where the turrets are being constructed and I think I stared at the process for at least 5-10 minutes. That is how intricate the process was and how awe-inspiring the detail put into Portal 2 is.
One of the highlights of the first Portal was GlaDOS and she is just as, if not more entertaining her. GLaDOS carries utter hatred from you when first seeing you again and I feel that her range of emotions are actually believable which is a feat that a majority of games cannot even claim to come close to achieving. A great example of her wit and one of my favorite lines was, "Well done. Here come the test results: 'You are a horrible person.' That's what it says. We weren't even testing for that." In addition to GLaDOS comes two new characters, Cave Johnson and Wheatley, both of whom give GLaDOS a run for her money when it comes to the most interesting personalities in the game.
Valve's mythos for Portal 2 reaches a level unheard of in video games. This is one of the main reasons why they are able to have their game dripping with details. Over the course of the game they present such a large number of explanations and resolutions to questions that it is amazing. The best part of this is that at not point to they have to stop the game and use a cutscene to facilitate the storytelling or have the gamer read a large amount of text to get the full storyline. Instead you are able to gleam details from your surrounding to anecdotal statements made by the three A.I. (GLaDOS, Wheatley and Cave Johnson) that serve to guide you over the course of the game. This is a process that made the Half-Life series so great and I think that they have perfected it here with Portal 2.
Surprisingly with a game containing only one human who is a silent protagonist, there is a very fulfilling story arc that has character growth. GLaDOS undergoes resurrection, hatred, betrayal, bitterness, misery, hope, despair, determination, apathy, forgiveness, and denial over the course of the game and at every point it is completely believable. I could not believe it when I was actually rooting for GLaDOS.
One of the biggest departures from the first game is the addition of three gels that add different attributes to the level. The repulsion gel allows you to jump higher, propulsion gel allows your character to move much faster and conversion gel allows for you to use portals on substances that were formally unportable. The game does a great job introducing each gel and testing you to do what you thought was impossible with them. Some of the hardest puzzles in my mind were the final gel puzzles for each of the substances. Then with the puzzles and the final boss fight you are forced to use all three of the gels in a coordinated manner to be able which equated to the other more difficult puzzles in the game.
One disappointing thing about the game was that the final boss heavily reflected the battle against GLaDOS at the end of Portal, granted I am not sure how they really could have made it any better or ended with a different boss. However, the events that take place directly the boss fight that serve to fully beat the boss is best described by the achievement name that you unlock when doing it, "Lunacy." The thought by Valve to actually have players shoot a portal into the moon and have the shenanigans that follow ensue is ridiculous.
One of the most amazing thing is the single-player campaign is only half the game. With a co-op campaign that is supposed to be just as fleshed out and long as the single-player, it is amazing the amount and quality present in Portal 2. Furthermore, Valve has already announced free downloadable content that is coming soon to further the Portal experience.
Overall Portal 2 is easily the best game thus far this year and ranks among one my favorites of all time. With the ending it seems that they is a chance that there may not be a sequel but then again the original ending for the first Portal seemed to not leave any room for a sequel but Valve changed the ending through patches. I am hoping that this is not the end of the series, there are a few more questions that I would like answered and the world and game play mechanics have me thinking about the game even days after finishing it. So please Valve give us more Portal!
