Somewhat Nerdy Gaming: Portal 2 Review

Overall Score: 9.7/10

Genre: Puzzle

Systems: I played it on Xbox 360, it's also on PS3, PC, and Mac
Release Date: April 19, 2011
Publisher/Developer: Valve Corporation

Valve Corporation is known for: Half Life 2, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike

Gameplay: 10/10
Story: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9.5/10
Replay Value: Medium

Let me start out by saying this game rocks! I was skeptical at first because Portal 1 was short and didn't have a whole lot of content. But Valve delivered a quality Game that is well worth the $60 Price tag. I'm going to try my best to keep this review free of spoilers.

When you first start, you wake up in a nice looking hotel room. You hear a man's voice over an intercom, he tells you to do some things such as looking at pictures on the wall and talking (which you can't do so you end up jumping instead). After this, what seems like he's testing your motor functions, he then tells you to go to sleep. When you wake up again the whole room is being torn apart. Wheatley, a small robot who's movements are confined to a railing on the ceiling, enters the room. You recognize his voice as the one who told you to look around the room earlier. Come to find out the whole laboratory is being torn apart. You and Wheatley are trying to find a way to escape. In order to keep this review spoiler free, I'm not going to tell you how, but you end up in the testing chambers. Now you need to play along and find a way out.

Wheatley is voiced by Stephen Merchant, a English actor, writer, director, and radio presenter. Wheatley steals the show. The voice work is all around some of the best I've heard. It's incredibly funny, charming, and clever. It's even funnier than the first Portal and that's saying something. You later get introduced to Cave Johnson, voiced by J.K. Simmons. You may know him as Juno's dad or J. Jonah Jameson on the Spider man movies. Simmons does an awesome job as Cave Johnson.

The music is very ambient yet motivating, a perfect mix for this game. All the sound effects are top notch and best experienced with a good head set or surround sound. The graphics are a little up and down on the Xbox 360 version. The lighting, shadows, and animations are really good, in fact I was blown away by it at some parts. For the most part the reflections are fantastic. My only complaint about them is that you can't see your own reflection in the water. The environments are pixelated at times and when you look down you can't see your feet, you're just floating, but aside from these minor set backs the graphics are stunning. I watched a friend play the PC version and I saw no pixelation. The PC version definitely has the best looking graphics.

The controls are very easy to use, anyone can pick it up and play it. Basically you shoot two portals that are connected together and walk through it like a tunnel. You use these portals to salve puzzles. It's a very simple idea, but the puzzles can be really hard and take time to figure out. This installment is quite a bit harder than the first. Although it was rare, I found myself getting frustrated at times. But when you finally figure out that puzzle you've been working on for 15 minutes, it makes you feel like a genius!

Portal 2 has a lot more puzzle pieces, if you will, to work with than the first game. These additions include: three different colored paints. Blue paint allows you to jump and bounce really high. Orange paint allows you to run and slide really fast. White paint allows you to put portals down anywhere as long as there's white paint to put the portal on. For instance, if I needed a portal on a wall that I normally couldn't put one, all I need to do is manipulate the white paint to splash on the wall. Then shoot a portal onto it. Combining these three paints to solve puzzles is a thing of beauty. There are a lot of other additions but I don't want to give away the surprises. You'll just have to play to find out.

The co-op mode is full of new test chambers that are completely different than the single player experience. You'll need to use teamwork to solve these puzzles. You can do cool things like placing a marker where you want your partner to shoot a portal or giving each other high fives when you solve a difficult puzzle.

In closing, this is definitely worth purchasing or at least renting. Although it can be frustrating at times, this game will expand your mind and leave you feeling like a genius. Valve has delivered another top quality game and they deserve all the good things critics are bound to say about it. Best game of the year so far.

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