Portal 2 review
Portal 2 was my first experience with the series, which turned heads and made everybody and their professors stay home to play it. Maybe it was because puzzles make my brain numb or because GLaDOS’s threat of spending eternity placing cubes on pressure pads made my time with the game actually feel like an eternity, but I wasn’t expecting such a lasting and substantial single-player campaign.
From the first test on, I knew a generous game length wouldn’t be a problem. If I could master each scenario, then that would be an accomplishment to be proud of. And I did … for the most part. Admittedly, I did resort to GameFAQs a few times, and in three-fourths of those instances I regretted the decision immediately. The solution would have come to me on its own, if only I was a little more patient, logical, and observant. No matter how difficult the puzzle, none of them were unfair. I would say that maybe cheap tricks don’t compute with a robot like GLaDOS, but she did waste perfectly good confetti on humiliating me.
After completing so many tests, primarily in the beginning of the game, I did grow tired of GLaDOS’ insults and the constant barrage of portal-based puzzles. To my surprise, though, the game broke up the pace with a more action-focused segment and then continued to introduce new mechanics, gameplay objectives, and plot points so that I was never bored for long. Challenged, maybe, and cranky sometimes, but never bored with the same routine.
More than just orange and blue portals await the player. There are bouncy blue, slippery orange, and white surface-reinventing gels. There are excursion funnels and weighted and discouragement redirection cubes. There are also frankenturrets, which are, by the way, adorable.
All these oodles of gameplay combine with the dozens of ways you learn to achieve momentum and manipulate a testing stage. Add that to the many humorous or dramatic conversations with Wheatley and GLaDOS (the voice-acting is superb), and the wealth of content comes together to deliver an even stream of story and gameplay. Like many gamers of our current generation, I don’t always feel compelled to see a game through to its completion, even if it is, by critics’ standards, “good.” I did feel adequately compelled with Portal 2, and the motivation resulted in my witnessing one of the weirdest and most musical endings in any game. Its inclusion is no longer a mystery to me, considering that Jonathan Coulton’s name appears in the closing credits.
The game’s sound itself is interesting. Whenever you slide on orange gel or rocket off blue, a different theme can be heard in the background. Add that to whatever music might already be playing, and the result is often harmonious. Considering artificial intelligences are constantly making perfectly clear their desire to kill you, a little tranquility is appreciated.
I did get a taste of the multiplayer mode, and it fell very short of the quality presented in the normal campaign. But I guess the option alone counts toward replay value. Having to cooperate with another person to overcome challenges establishes a much different dynamic than the one in the single-player campaign.
Without spoiling the game, I can say the final boss fight resolves with one galactic-sized deus ex machina, but it was such an enjoyable and surreal deus ex machina that I don’t even care to think less of the developers for doing it. Who would have thought anyone would do that in a video game.
The final minutes do suggest another, much different Portal sequel could be on the way, and the suggested context relieves me. I had, throughout my time with Portal 2, dreaded what a possible continuation would consist of because as wonderful and thought-provoking as Portal 2 is, I wouldn’t want to put myself through another 12+ hours of this mental exhaustion. That’s like taking a week to solve a Rubik’s cube and then challenging yourself to another go, without the foggiest idea as to how you solved the damn thing in the first place. Once is enough, unless some big changes are involved. And no, I don’t mean an even bigger Rubik’s cube. Let’s not get carried away.
Rating: 9/10
Pros: Cave Johnson, black humor, cute frankenturret buddies
Cons: Wheatley’s change of heart
