K-SCORE: 99
Publisher / Developer: Valve
Writers: Erik Wolpaw, Chet Faliszek
“Even if it wasn’t a game but rather a film with the camera floating over Chell’s shoulder, it would be better than ninety-five percent of movies made.”
Portal 2 is a cut a above every other game in anything close to its genre. It is completely satisfying from both a puzzle and a story standpoint. The two introduced characters are fantastic. Glados develops excellently without ever losing her wit or charm and somehow Chell, the voiceless protagonist, becomes an inspiring figure for traversing the beautiful and disturbing, massive mysterious place that is Aperture Laboratories.
J.K. Simmons and Stephen Merchant deliver masterful performances for the characters of Cave Johnson and Wheatley. By throwing the history of Aperture’s foundations in with a new meddler in the robotic ensemble, Valve finds the perfect direction to expand upon the slim, yet pitch-perfect story of the original. Narrative in games though, is only a fraction of the battle. The new puzzles take the same base concepts to pleasantly mind-bending new heights. And mixing the lunar rocks into the game creates a bridge between gameplay and story that I never needed nor expected, but nonetheless greatly appreciated. Also it opens up the avenue for a conclusion so good that it may never be outdone in a game like this for as long as I live.
If Portal 1 suffers at all, it’s from the fact that the environments (by necessity of the puzzles) are tightly contained. You don’t really feel like you exist within the larger world. While keeping you in Aperture, the visual artists and game designers at Valve do an incredible job of fixing this minor issue. The new environments are huge and expansive, granting you the freedom with your portal gun to send yourself thousands of feet within seconds, up, down, across caverns, and through broken underground structures that feel like cities in their scope.
Somehow, while accomplishing all of that, Valve again has created a set of puzzles to “solve” the game, advance to the end, that never get repetitive, that never need to be explained with something as cheap as a hint button, and that never left me stuck for a frustrating amount of time. I was always able to slow down, think about the most recent puzzle in a new way, or notice some subtle abnormality or guide in the environment, and develop a solution without having to randomly experiment or head to the internet for help.
Portal 1 is the kind of game I tried to get non-gamers in my life to play because it’s short, fun, unique, and demonstrative of the power of video games. Portal 2 makes me wish more people in my life were gamers so we could share in the experience. Even if it wasn’t a game but rather a film with the camera floating over Chell’s shoulder, it would be better than ninety-five percent of movies made.
Hilarious, thoughtful, thought-provoking, deep, fast-paced, and strangely beautiful - it’s hard to imagine anyone with even a gram of interest in puzzles, AI, humor, or silly sci-fi science not finding a great deal of enjoyment in Portal 2. Quite simply this is one of the best games I’ve ever played.