Portal 2 tempts you back into the memorable world of Aperture science a second time - and you'll never want to be gone.
It's been over 3 years since Valve surprised us all with the original Portal. Tucked away inside the already critically-acclaimed Orange Box was the world of Aperture Science, creator of the simple-yet-ingenious portal gun. Since its release, the game went on to win numerous 'Game Of The Year' awards, and held its own against the other treasures of the Orange Box – not bad for a game created (rather ironically) as a test. Fast-forward to the announcement of Portal 2, and gamers were posed with two questions – could the game be as fun as the original, and could it justify being a stand-alone release, instead of a bundle? The answer to both is a definite yes. The portal gun, Aperture science, and the always-entertaining GLaDOS are back, bringing with them a plethora of new features, an entertaining and longer story, and some fun new companions in a worthy sequel.
You begin your adventure in circumstances that echo your first foray into Aperture labs - awakening in a room akin to a prison cell, you have little time to familiarise yourself with your surroundings before the walls crash down around you to reveal just how large the facility really is, and also how large a predicament you have found yourself in, about to be buried under the building. Enter Wheatley (voiced by the ever-enjoyable Stephen Merchant), a friendly yet dim-witted AI, who assists you in your effort to escape the rapidly-crumbling Aperture Science complex. Soon enough, you are re-united with your trusty portal gun, and flinging portals around left and right. Inevitably, you soon bump into GLaDOS, who is – yes – still alive, who is on even finer form than in the original game, doing everything 'she' can to destroy what little faith you may have in surviving another venture through Aperture science. The adventure that follows is even more fun than the first Portal outing – longer, more varied and with an equally-exciting finale.
Obviously, it isn't worth following a game story through to the end if it isn't fun to play – luckily, playing through Portal 2 is an absolute joy. The controls and the basic premise of gameplay are the same as in the original – your gun can shoot two portals, and whatever goes inside one comes out of the other. The aim is to simply navigate a series of rooms and environments, which become more varied as the adventure flows. Puzzles start off easy at first, and can remain so until quite late into the single-player campaign for those already familiar with thinking with portals. However, new additions to the gameplay help to keep things interesting for players old and new; catapults, pressure pads and levitation fields are but a few, but the main new addition to gameplay proceedings are the gels. These come in three types – blue to assist in jumping longer distances, orange to increase your velocity, and white to create portal surfaces. Though the gels themselves are introduced fairly late on, they are used very well to create some difficult puzzles and press you to think even more about how you use your two portals. The adventure flows along nicely, though between many areas there are loading times which can feel disruptive; that aside though, Portal 2 is an absolute blast to play.
The best addition to the already impressive package is co-operative mode. Instead of playing as a human, you and a friend (via split-screen or online) control one of two robots created specifically by GLaDOS to do what she likes best – testing. After all, they're not likely to try to tear her to pieces. Each has access to a portal gun, meaning two distinct sets of portals can be created, leading to some quite creative and taxing puzzles in each co-op 'course'. Communication and co-operation is the key to success, and playing on split-screen arguably makes this easier. However those playing online needn't worry – each robot can perform various animations and gestures towards key points in each test chamber, meaning even those playing online without headsets can still assist each other with ease. The robots themselves – named 'Atlas' and 'P-Body' – are hilarious, and can communicate with each other in various hilarious ways, such as high-fives and even playing rock-paper-scissors. Despite working as a team, GLaDOS attempts to pit the two against each other by commenting on who is doing best, but make no mistake – working together is imperative, as the term 'co-op' implies.
Visually, Portal 2 improves again upon its predecessor – the characters and environments all look beautiful, and the game certainly imposes on you a sense of grand scale. This however, does come at a price – many areas look very sparse and bare, and on numerous occasions you find yourself running through long and empty spaces; you get the impression you are a small fish in a very beautiful and large, but yet very empty and sometimes lifeless pond. Never-the-less, Portal 2 certainly looks the part. It also sounds amazing – the background music, subtle as it is, always fits the events occurring in the story, and both GLaDOS and Wheatley are brilliantly voiced. The gun turrets make a welcome return, and hearing their seemingly innocent voices once more is a treat – until they shoot you to pieces, at least.
Overall, Portal 2 will take you a good few hours in both single-player and co-op mode on your first attempts; though it doesn't last too long, it is always fun to run-through again if you have a spare afternoon, and when doing so it never feels old or stale. Though things start on an easy note, the difficulty soon steps up and has you scratching your head, before kicking yourself when you find the obvious solution in that mischievous way Portal does. There are also plenty of achievements and trophies to obtain which add to replay value, with only one or two that may be difficult to unlock if you don't know many others who own the game. Portal 2 certainly justifies its high price increase over the original, and provides you with many memorable moments which will remain in your mind even after the stunning finale. Portal 2 improves on the original in every conceivable way, adding exciting new features, memorable new characters and a more in-depth story; but most importantly, it is incredibly fun to play and one of the best adventures this generation has seen. Picking it up is a piece of cake (ahem) for new players, and whether you've entered the world of Aperture science before or not, it will charm you from beginning to end. Valve has struck gold in GLaDOS and company again, and if Portal 3 exists, it can't come soon enough.