When I started playing the original Portal, I was skeptical. The premise just didn’t sound very interesting to me. The only thing that convinced me to play it was a recommendation from a friend who is normally very picky about his games, so I figured if he liked it, why not give it a try?

In summary, I am very glad that I decided to play Portal. It’s a puzzle game at heart, but it has such an engaging story and great sense of humor that I found myself longing for more “trials” after I finished the game. Most of the game revolves around trial rooms, which after some manipulation with the portal gun, will allow you to progress to the next room. If you’ve seen the movie Cube, it goes something like this: you move from a death trap from one room to the next.

So you’d think when Portal 2 was announced, I’d be excited. Actually, I was the opposite. He was convinced that the designers could never recreate another Portal game and make it work as perfectly as the first one did. I was wrong.

The setting of the game is more or less the same, but the story makes it feel completely new. I won’t go into the details of how the first game is like the second as it will ruin the story, but even with the similarities it still works. And you may think I’m being silly trying not to ruin the “story” of a puzzle game. Trust me, you’ll be glad I didn’t say anything.

Besides just using the portal gun, there are other items added to the game. Different gels add different effects to the landscape, adding another layer to the puzzles. The blue gel bounces, the orange gel is super slippery and will propel you forward at high speed, and the white gel allows you to shoot a portal on any surface it covers. In fact, I was afraid that the white gel would make the game too hard, because sometimes the only reason I cracked a puzzle was because I couldn’t shoot a portal ANYWHERE. However, my fears were unfounded and Portal 2 has just the right amount of difficulty.

I haven’t had much time to experiment with cooperative play, but from what I’ve seen, it seems to be a lot of fun too.

Overall this is a perfect addition to the Portal franchise. I definitely look forward to a third installment. It is definitely worth playing.

4/5 stars