My Portal 2 Review

Occasionally, i will post reviews of things such as video games and movies. Seeing as how i just recently finished Portal 2's single player and co-op, I will write a review for this amazing game.

 So where to begin? I guess first off, I want anyone who is reading this review to play through Portal 1 beforehand. That was a great, short game, but i feel like it was slightly overrated. Portal 2 is not overrated in the slightest bit. Portal 1 was pretty much a small bonus game that Valve put in the Orange Box. Portal 2 is a standalone game, and feels like one. Portal 1 flourished on how it was nothing that we've really seen before, being so unique. GLaDOS was new to us, and the game's humor was new. Having experienced that, how will Valve's sequel fare when we have already played through the first one? Short answer: Valve was up to the task.

The game is so polished and most parts of the game were almost flawless. With added elements such as repulsion gel, propulsion gel, conversion gel, excursion funnels,  and thermal discouragement beams, the puzzles are more ingenious than ever.When i would finish tough puzzles, I would always say to myself, "How the fuck did they come up with that and why couldn't I have figured it out before?" Even when Portal 2 gets tough, there is a perfect balance between the difficulty of the puzzles so that even if they take forever to figure out, you aren't frustrated. That's very hard to achieve.

There are added concepts to the game that make the puzzles even more fun and brilliant.

The story takes place right after the events of Portal 1, with the mute Chell still being the playable character. This time, the Aperture Science Facility is collapsing, and Chell needs to escape. Because the facility is collapsing, it does not look like the same, clean, test chambers you have seen in Portal 1, and that is a refreshing sight.

This isn't the same looking Aperture Science you've seen before. Plants are growing, and the facility is collapsing.

The game introduces a new character, Wheatley, who is a personality sphere who is trying to help Chell escape, but [minor spoiler] accidentally reboots GLaDOS and Chell is sent off to do some more testing! Woohoo! You might think, why the hell would i care about the story of a first person puzzler when the playable character is mute and only listens to those AI's? Well, for one, Valve wrote 13,000 lines of dialogue for Portal 2. The voice acting is not trash, either. It is the opposite. The voice actors for Wheatley, GLaDOS, and Cave Johnson suit their characters perfectly. There are also twists and turns which you wouldnt expect in a puzzler, and that was a pleasant surprise for me. Oh yeah, the ending is AWESOME.

Then there's the co-op. You and your partner in science (or friend, whatever you want to call it) play through a seperate cooperative campign and each person can make 2 portals. That means 4 portals in all. That opens up a vast amount of ideas for test chambers, and when you complete them you appreciate Valve's creativity. The co-op campaign takes place after the events of Portal 2's single player, and you play as one of 2 robots, Atlas and P-Body.

According to Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson, Robots are 6 seconds more trustworthy than humans. The key to any cooperative assignment is trust.

The co-op requires the full cooperation of you and your partner, or completing the tests will be impossible. There's a non verbal tool you have access to, when you press the F key. You can tell your partner to do something, look somewhere, or press a lever in 3 seconds. This makes cooperation much easier and not frustrating.

Just because they're robots doesn't mean they can't show affection.

So pretty much, everything about this game is near perfect. It seems to good to be true, but it really isn't! This game is so polished and extraordinary, you HAVE to buy it. You have to. Some people complain about the game's length, but those people rush through the game and don't take time to enjoy the dialogue and environments, which i never understand. I took my time to enjoy the game, and beat both the single player and co-op in about 20 hours. It's quality over quantity, and I couldn't ask for better quality from this game. Not to mention, there will be FREE UPDATES with new content, which Valve is famous for. Do yourself a favor and buy this game!!! Just make sure you have a friend to play the co-op with.

With all that being said, a game can't ever be perfect.

9.7/10