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Review: “Portal 2”
It’s only May, but it’s hard to imagine there’ll be a smarter, funnier, more breathtaking video game this year than, “Portal 2,” the spot-on sequel to 2007’s polished puzzle-game gem .
The number “2” has been very good to Valve Corp., a Bellevue, Wash., game company that over the years has produced “Half-Life 2” and “Team Fortress 2,” two of the best games ever produced in their respective genres (adventure-shooter; online team-fragging warfare).
The original “Portal,” a single-player game bundled with four other titles in Valve’s “Orange Box” package, was about a series of test brainteasing test chambers presided over by GLaDOS, a robotic cross between HAL from “2001” and “Misery” nut Annie Wilkes. As the game progressed, you learned that GLaDOS (short for “Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System”) was not crazy about humans and was probably going to kill your character, a non-speaking test subject named Chell.
It was also hilarious, a dark science satire that spawned countless Internet memes and a memorable song, “Still Alive,” penned by Jonathan Coulton.
“Portal 2” runs with the original’s fundamental gameplay concept: a gun that can shoot oval-shaped transportation portals (think Wile E. Coyote’s canyon hole sticker from Acme Corp.). These portals can instantly transport someone from one place to another; it’s handy for getting up onto high ledges or using gravity’s momentum to jump across dangerous chasms.
Chell awakens in a non-descript room that is soon transported, crumbling walls and all, within a vast, deteriorating company. Soon, GLaDOS too is awakened, none too pleased that you tried to get rid of her in the first game. “Oh, it’s you,” she says, chillingly, “How have you been? I’ve been really busy being dead. You know, after you murdered me. OK, look. We both said a lot of things you’re going to regret.”
GLaDOS, voiced by human actress Ellen McLain, is even more passive-aggressive and her clever, menacing insults have a trace of Joan Rivers to them. She’s joined by two new characters, a helper robot brilliantly brought to life by “Ricky Gervais Show” co-creator Stephen Merchant. A third character, who figures into the history of GLaDOS’s company Aperture Laboratories, is played by J.K. Simmons, who nearly steals the show with his growling, gung ho voice of the past.
There are twists in the story (GLaDOS, it turns out, isn’t the only frenemy you must worry about) and new toys. Different kind of paints can be used to bounce, speed up or create new portal-friendly surfaces called Repulsion, Propulsion and Conversion Gels. There are also light bridges (hard, walkable surfaces that can be used through portals) and “Excursion Funnels,” which might remind you of the tractor beam from “Star Wars.”
They’re all part of the toolbox for solving increasingly large-scale puzzles in chambers that are much larger and more diverse in their appearance than in the first game. But that doesn’t mean that the game is exponentially harder. Much care has been paid to making the puzzles solvable with a little experimentation and thought. In all, the game lasts about 12 hours, much longer than the first game, but with more varied challenges and a more complex storyline.
That being said, that game suffers a bit toward the end from “Lord of the Rings” syndrome: it feels like it has multiple endings and goes on a few test chambers too many. You’d be forgiven for having brain fatigue from solving too many physics puzzles too quickly; it’s a game best enjoyed over multiple sittings, in short bursts.
But the payoff — an ending that is all at once touching, ironic and hilarious all at once (with a new Coulton/GLaDOS song over the closing credits) — is reason enough to finish “Portal 2.” There’s also a cooperative mode featuring new robot characters (who are easily as expressive as the ‘bots in “Wall-E”) who must work together to solve a new series of tests. The cooperative mode can be played split-screen on the same machine or online with a friend. (Voice chat is a must; you’ll need to communicate a lot to get through the challenges.)
In making “Portal 2” lengthier, more geographically vast and with a larger cast, Valve risked losing the specific, intimate feel of the original, which could have been called, “Just Me and My Homicidal Artificial Intelligence Pal.” But the game’s writing is just as witty and the gameplay is as finely tuned. The series has gone from a perfectly contained experiment in a sterile environment to something wilder and broader.
But it’s just as memorable, mostly because GLaDOS herself is a glorious, complex creation, an unexpectedly tender mechanical monster who has an unlikely character arc in “Portal 2.” She’s the malevolent, surprisingly likable heart of Aperture and thank goodness she’s still alive.
“Portal 2”
Rated E-10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
$50-$60 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC/Mac
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