Portal 2

X-Box 360 version

            This is a triumph, I’m making a note here huge success. Sorry had to say it, I couldn’t help myself. The time I have been waiting for has finally arrived. Portal 2 has come straight at me with all new puzzles and interspatial pleasures. This game granted every wish I had but I can’t help but feel it will not be such a godsend for some people. Let’s break it down. This game features a single player story where you play as returning character Chell in all her silent glory. Yes she is still mute not much of a surprise here. Along with a co-op multiplayer mode, which is a fun new challenge.

            In single player you get a nice story to accompany your usual puzzle solving endeavors. It is much more in depth and narrative-driven then the previous game. You wake up as Chell in a small room and are immediately confronted with a small painting. A small robot comes to help you escape the aperture facilities once and for all and along the way you encounter your old friend GLaDOS. Some of the levels in this game are elaborate tests set up by GLaDOS while others take you deep into old parts of Aperture Labs in an attempt to find a way out. The game play is the same as the first with new elements added in later levels to mix it up. In the game you get followed by many voices instead of just GLaDOS. I found them all to be pretty fun, and funny. Though I suspect some may find being talked at by snarky AI’s and pre recorded messages for the whole game a bit annoying. If you are the type of person who hates that kind of stuff you may want to stay away. All in all I found the story mode to be awesome and the story was fun and eerie just like the first one. Makes me even more excited for the next Half Life.

Chell is back with a more relaxed more confident style. 

            The multiplayer is new and I find it incredibly fun. My girlfriend and I sat down for a couple of sessions and its set up like this. You play as two robots, a tall lanky one named PBody, and a fat short one named Atlas. Though GLaDOS refers to them as Yellow and Blue respectfully. You start a simple series of tests to get acquainted with having two Portal guns. The puzzles here are simple and fun. After doing this tutorial you enter the “Hub;” here you can enter test nodes where you and your partner attempt to make it from one end to another. You can interact with the cameras or your partner by doing commands like rock paper scissors or waving. GLaDOS will often say something demeaning and humorous when you do so, try it. The puzzles tend to be a bit more complex being you now have up to four portals you can simultaneously create. But the portal guns work the same way, meaning that only two portals fired from the same gun are linked. You can’t link a portal you place with a portal your partner places. This makes for some fun problem solving between the two of you.

Robots have friends too. 

            Portal 2 is far better then the previous title and I can’t recommend it enough to people who, like me, loved the first. This game needs to be bought now.

Portal 2

5 out of 5

Written by: Kevin Mason (AKA LempiElinika)

Edited by: Sarah Lawhorne