Portal 2
Man I wish Valve still made games
Why
- The orignal but better
- More variety in scenery/the tools at your disposal
- A lot of interesting lore about Aperture/GLaDOS
- Humour is spot on just like the original, and more frequent
Why Not
- You hate thinking just as much as Wheately
Impressions
The original Portal was a really cool puzzle game with some light story and funny moments to keep you motivated, but there are only so many white-walled test chambers a mute can struggle through. The best parts of that game were when you broke out of the cheese maze and explored the forbidden zones where researchers once watched, picking up little scraps of lore as you went.
Portal 2's designers clearly agreed since right from the get-go you're very much not in a test chamber, instead finding yourself in a crumbling habitation module piloted around the cavernous Aperture facility by a British robot named Wheately. After escaping that situation Chell is reunited with her trusty portal gun and teams up with Wheately to escape. Good thing GLaDOS is definitely dead and unable to get in their way...
Many hijinks ensue, and unlike the first game those hijinks frequently take you outside test chambers into the lore rich waiting rooms, maintenance rooms and offices of Aperture Science. Part way through events conspire to send you on a tour of 'historic' test chambers from Aperture's different past, so even when you're in them they can feel enitrely different to the norm. These blasts from the past are also where various gels are introduced, each providing a unique addition to your portalling toolbox (for me the orange gel was mostly a quick way to go flying into the abyss).
Overall it's every bit the classic it's held up as and almost makes one wish Steam wasn't an unstoppable monopoly so Valve actually had to make money by making games. Then you look at Epic & GOG repeatedly shooting their feet clean off and remember it's probably best things stay as they are. Definitely play this if you somehow haven't already.