The best puzzle game?
What Is It? Portal 2 is a 2011 first-person puzzle-platform game from Valve. The game features robust single-player and co-op modes, with different characters and stories between the two. I will be discussing the single-player mode here, which has you playing as Chell, a human who wakes up in the middle of a gigantic test facility and must solve puzzles to thwart robots and escape.
The game is played out over dozens and dozens of puzzles, most of which are contained to a room or two. You simply need to escape to advance in the game, doing so will lead you to the next puzzle, and so on.
In Portal 2 you are armed with a jump button and a portal gun. The portal gun allows you to fire two different portals, orange and blue, onto surfaces with the correct slightly-off-white coloring. Once you have placed two portals, you may walk through one to come out at the other. The most simple example of this is a level where the exit is high up out of reach. You can shoot one portal up to a wall near the exit while placing the other safely on the ground where you are standing. Walk through the latter to emerge out of the former then walk out of the exit door like the genius that you are.
The game, of course, layers on a slew of variations on this very basic theme. You will have to start carrying and placing blocks to hold open certain doors, use jump pads to do fun stuff, spread blue and orange goo to enable large jumps and quick movement, respectively, and a handful of other things.
The magic behind Portal 2 is how it slowly layers these different puzzle mechanics together over the course of the 8-10 hour game. There were plenty of rooms I had zero clue about how to solve initially, but piecing together the mechanics I’d used up to that point I was always able to find a starting point which, eventually, led to my escape. As someone who is fairly bad at puzzle games (and puzzles in games), it was a proud moment when I hit the credits in Portal 2 without using a guide to solve any of the puzzles. I could have cut an hour or three off of my playtime if I did, but I enjoyed the struggle.
Beyond the puzzles, the game shines through the NPCs. You are initially greeted by a small robot voiced by Stephen Merchant and later sections have you going through an area while JK Simmons voices a shady, at best, CEO through pre-recorded messages to test subjects. The game had me laughing out loud while my brain was melting trying to solve some of the tougher late-game puzzles. It was a bizarre combination, but it works wonderfully and it is a big reason the game holds up so well today.
Graphically, the game holds up better than many PS3-era games particularly because it doesn’t coat everything in brown like so many of the era. The bright, white walls of the early levels and the colorful goo you’ll spend hours figuring out later all look good.
The Best Part: Everything. This is, of course, a bad answer for this section, but the more I think about this game after hitting the credits last week, the more I realize that it wouldn’t be the same without everything it presents. The story, the puzzles, the comedy, the voice acting, the pacing; everything is vital to the game and makes for a truly special experience. Take any one away and you’re still left with a great game, but likely something short of an all-time classic which Portal 2 absolutely is.
The Worst Part: There are boss fights in this game and they are great. My nitpick complaint here is that there aren’t more of them. More of them might have dulled the experience, might not, I don’t know, but that’s the only nit I have to pick here.
The Verdict: Portal 2 is one of the “obviously one of the best games ever, but somehow I’ve never played it” games on my backlog. I have no justifiable reasoning for why I never played it until now; I just didn’t. Despite the massive “of course it’s amazing!” hype, I am happy to report that I had a wonderful time and instantly understand why this game is so highly regarded.
The puzzles are brain-melting, but never quite enough to make me give up and look up solutions or hints online. A classic “simple premise that takes off in a wonderful variety of ways.” The story is fun, backed by some amazing writing brought to life by fantastic voice acting.
The only people who should avoid this game are those who don’t like puzzle games. It’s that simple, really.
How to Play: PlayStation 3*, Xbox 360, Switch, PC, Mac
*console played on for this review
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