The sequel to 2008′s Game of the Year is just as smart and charming as it’s predecessor.

I really wasn’t going to pre-order Portal 2.

The first game was too perfect. The story of a girl and her “gun”, a homicidal artificial intelligence, and baked goods, Portal took the geek zeitgeist by storm in 2007-08, simply because nobody was expecting it. It was supposed to be the undercard of Valve’s Orange Box compilation, packaged alongside Game-of-the-Millenium Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. But the unique gameplay and comedy, as silly as it was sinister, propelled Portal to a few awards of it’s own. Even the song at the end, written by the hilarious Jonathan Coulton, was perfect. There’s no way Valve could ever duplicate it all.

If you’re unaware of the original, I’d point you to Jeff McGinnis’s article in last week’s Star. If you don’t have that handy (WHAT?), here’s a quick primer: You’re trapped in the vacant Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Your only tool is a gun that will paint a hole on a wall or ceiling. You place one hole on one side of the room, place the other hole on the other side, and walk through the first hole to emerge through the second. You make your way though chambers that were specifically built to test aptitude with the portal gun with your only “companion”, the electronic voice of GLaDOS. She instructs you on the tricks of using the portals, and doles out generic compliments when you complete them, promising cake at the end. However, the closer you get to learning the true story behind Aperture Science, the more antagonistic GLaDOS becomes, until she’s downright mocking you face-to-robotic-face. Not to spoil it, but you destroy GLaDOS and nearly escape. And, as you no doubt heard from your favorite nerd, the cake was a lie.

Portal hooked me instantly. Anything that can make you think and laugh at the same time automatically gets high marks from me, and it consistently delivered on both fronts.

That brings us to last week’s release of Portal 2. How do you follow up the perfect game? You have to make some changes, or it’ll be derided as being the Same Old Stuff. Change too much, and it’s not even the same franchise. Keep in mind, Portal sold for $20 when they eventually separated it from the Orange Box to sell standalone. This was a full game, and came with a full price ($50 for PC/Mac, $60 for the 360/PS3). Not only did they have to make new stuff, they had to make it last longer. Could the minds at Valve pull it off? My brain told me no, but mere hours before the game was officially released, my heart took over and I pre-ordered. Saved $5 bucks, and received a copy of the original to gift to somebody (You’re welcome, Ryan).

Portal 2 returns you to the laboratories of Aperture. It’s some years into the future: the facility is in disrepair, and vegetation overgrows the once-pristine walls of the Enrichment Center. A different artificial intelligence, this one named Wheatly (and brilliantly voiced by Stephen Marchant), leads you through the vacant hallways in an effort to escape. Of course, you reunite with GLaDOS, who is not to happy about the “blowing-her-up” bit from the first game. Her barbs this time hit a little lower and dig a little deeper. The test chambers have a few new toys in them: lasers, light bridges, and gels that can make you jump higher or run faster. As you’d expect, the portals are the key to using these new pieces to the puzzle.

With the longer playtime, the writers at Valve really get to dig into the meat of what was going on at Aperture Laboratories, and it becomes the foundation for this game’s humor. Long gone are the running gags about cake; instead you are treated to the history of a corporation so incompetent, they developed a portable device that punches holes in time and space, and they somehow went bankrupt. On that backdrop, any gag makes sense, and they made good use of it.

If you blew through the single-player campaign in two nights (I did), don’t fret: there’s a whole separate series of tests in a brand-new co-op mode. You and a friend play a pair of robots armed with portal guns, with puzzles built specifically with multiplayer in mind. And while you may be the unofficial children of GLaDOS, don’t think you’re exempt from her verbal abuse.

I will say that Portal 2 does suffer a little because of it’s length. The second act tends to drag a little, with a couple of puzzles that aren’t very intuitive. Sometimes, I felt like I had the right solution, but wasn’t getting the right result. Other times, the key to the puzzle was hidden a little too well. Keep YouTube handy; if you get stuck, there are plenty of walkthroughs online already.

That being said, If Portal was an A+, it’s sequel is a solid A. By the time I hit the third act, I had lost track of the times I had to stop playing because I was laughing so hard. The test chambers got harder, but I no longer saw the rooms. I saw lasers, buttons, doors… and I saw how my little quantum-physics disruptor could tie it all together. I was thinking with portals again. And it was just as amazing the second time around.

Guest review by Matt Culbreath

Tags: Matt Culbreath, Portal, Portal 2, video game reviews

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 23rd, 2011 at 11:14 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Video games.
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With the release of “Portal 2” on April 19, gamers around the world are finally able to once again enter the world of Valve Software’s mind-numbing puzzles and genre-bending game structure. But for many, the return of “Portal” is a cause for celebration for one very simple reason: It means GLaDOS is back.

“Cake and grief counseling will be available at the end of the testing period.”

When we first encountered her in the original “Portal,” released in 2007, GLaDOS certainly didn’t seem like a villain. In fact, she didn’t seem like a character at all. As gamers began exploring levels in the “science institute” that provided the game’s setting, an odd, automated voice accompanied them from room to room, providing guidance and information. Since the game’s structure and physics were unusual, her presence helped acclimate players to the new elements “Portal” was introducing.

“Momentum, a function of mass and velocity, is conserved between portals. In layman’s terms, speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.”

But as time passed and players got deeper into the game, clues began to appear that their helpful guide was not all she seemed. Her attitude toward any peril the gamer experienced seemed flippant and uncaring. Her demeanor darkened, and more lethal traps were placed in the player’s way — all in the name of “scientific testing,” of course.

And strange graffiti plastered everywhere — seemingly by a previous participant of “Portal’s” devious tests — informed that “She is watching you,” and, famously, that “The cake is a lie.”

“At the end of the experiment, you will be baked, and then there will be cake.”

It all led up to the game’s conclusion, where players learned that the voice was that of a sinister computer program named GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System). She was, in fact, the only thing controlling the “testing” that went on at the lab, having apparently murdered the rest of the staff years earlier.

“Good news. I figured what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a morality core they installed after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin.”

For all the gameplay innovations and intriguing puzzles provided by the original “Portal,” the game might have gone down as little more than a curious footnote if it had not been for the addition of GLaDOS to the mix. As performed by the extraordinary Ellen McLain (her voice modified and mixed to make it sound more artificial) and written by the Valve Software team, the character is a nearly perfect mix of deadly antagonist and hilarious commentator.

“Unbelievable. You, <subject name here>, must be the pride of <subject hometown here>.”

Her demeanor and story arc have inspired comparisons to other famous computers-gone-mad, such as HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s immortal “2001: A Space Odyssey.” But I would argue — film purists, be braced — that GLaDOS is a

more successful and engaging character than even HAL.

“Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it? Because despite your violent behavior, the only thing you’ve managed to break so far … is my heart.”

HAL was also a computer that was simply following its programming to its logical conclusion — the mission was more important than the lives of the crew, so it was OK to kill them. But GLaDOS goes far deeper as a character, with her astoundingly witty dialogue and genuine malevolence giving her more levels than even Kubrick’s legendary foil.

“You’ve been wrong about every single thing you’ve ever done, including this thing. You’re not smart. You’re not a scientist. You’re not a doctor. You’re not even a full-time employee!”

And as “Portal 2” is unleashed on gamers worldwide, players will once more be confronted by the subtle-yet-powerful presence of its usually-unseen-yet-always-heard antagonist. And if the trailers and sound bites released in advance are any indication, GLaDOS’s remarkable personality has been fully retained and enhanced for the new game. She’s still as evil — and hilarious — as ever. And fans would have it no other way.

“I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster.”

Email Jeff at PopGoesJeff@gmail.com.

Tags: GLaDOS, Jeff McGinnis, Pop Goes the Culture, Portal

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 at 6:22 pm and is filed under Pop Goes the Culture, Star.
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