Exceeded Expectations
I played through the first Portal and loved every minute of it. However, from the initial announcement right up to when I put the game in I felt like Portal 2 might suffer from being too much Portal. The first game felt like the perfect length and a sequel on that, while probably still great, may have become tired quickly. The opening 5 minutes of this game shattered those fears and reminded why I loved the first one, and why I am going to love this one.
One huge thing Portal 2 has going for it is that it completely forgoes the easy route of hitching itself to the massive success of the key jokes in the first Portal. There is in fact only one callback to these jokes late in the game. it is brief and not even spoken. Portal 2 is hilarious and brilliant on it's own merits and creates new jokes and quotes rather than reusing old ones.
You begin the game in what seems like a replica hotel room getting the basic movement tutorials laced with Portal humor until you're instructed to sleep. You are awoken an indeterminant amount of time later to see that everything is falling apart. This is where the first new character is introduced.
Wheatley is a small, spherical AI on a guide rail voiced by Stephen Merchant. The interaction you have with Wheatley is what so quickly made me fall in love with Portal all over again. He carries a nervous rambling type of humor and will be your "helpful" companion for a decent part of your journey. Wheatley never ceases to be hilarious and you will find yourself eagerly anticipating what he is going to say next.
The beginning rooms are very reminiscent of the early rooms in the first Portal as they are introducing the core gameplay mechanics again, but the game quickly picks up speed and never slows down. Not far in you are reacquainted with your old nemesis; GLaDOS. I won't spoil anything further, but this is where the game's plot and interactions start to become increasingly spectacular.
The other new character in the single player is Cave Johnson, the head of Aperture Science. You interact with and learn about him through pre-recorded messages that play when entering test chambers. Keeping in line with the nothing short of amazing writing this series holds, you won't want to miss a single word he says.
Portal 2, despite being significantly longer than it's predecessor manages to keep it's gameplay fresh by introducing several new gameplay elements. There are cubes that redirect lasers, light bridges, tractor beams, and 3 different types of gel. One that essentially functions as a trampoline, one that increases your speed when moving on it, and one that enables you to create portals on any surface it covers. The game is constantly creating clever ways for you to use these new mechanics and introduces them at a decent rate in order to keep the puzzles new and entertaining.
Having mentioned the length, this is not a game I would reccomend completing in one sitting, maybe not even two. I completed the game in two but was definately pushing it toward the end of my second session. Like most puzzle games, Portal 2 will probably cause some mental fatigue. As much as you will want to push forward into the next room to hear the next great bit of dialogue, sometimes it's better to just stop and take break. Coming back later or even the next day can help you solve a puzzle that you previously spent half an hour aimlessly jumping around in amazingly quickly and will prevent the frustration of not being able to move forward.
The setting in Portal 2 is similar at the start with the test chambers, but quickly shifts to a detoriating industrialized atmosphere where problems are almost literally swept under the rug.
The Co-op campaign in Portal 2 seems like something that could be really hit or miss. It has all the same mechanics as the single-player campaign, only with 2 people and puzzles that require you to work together to solve. I believe your experience with this mode will be entirely dependent on your co-op partner.
In this campaign you each take control of a robot that has no speaking dialogue, but progressively gains more emotes from a high five, to dancing, to stealing your friend's head, and of course, the hug. These emotes never really lost their ability to add some humor or personality to the situations for me, though I imagine there is a point of overuse. My only real advice here is to choose your co-op partner wisely. Think of who it will be the most fun with, and save your first time for them regardless of who else asks.
The stories of the two campaigns do not overlap too much, though the endings suggest a couple of things. In the co-op campaign you still have GLaDOS guiding you, trying to pit you against one another, and maintaining that great humor. The length of this campaign is much shorter, totaling in I believe 45 rooms, but the real thing that keeps the gameplay from getting a bit stale, that is if you played the single player first, is the presence of another person. It almost makes it feel like an entirely new game and is definately an entirely new experience.
Anyone who is a fan of puzzle games, the first Portal, brilliant writing, or fun should definately play this game.
Oh, and that ending. Man that ending.
