Portal 2 is a triumph, but will it be a huge success?

Developer Valve Software is a rarity in this digital age. While their commitment to the modding community or their digital distribution network could be pointed to as what sets them apart from other developers, Valve possesses another attribute not all game developers have – an ability to create a deeply believable and utterly captivating world. For example, Left 4 Dead can be played as a straight forward first-person shooter but for those who explore and do a little digging, the world they are playing in becomes deeper and more realistic.

Great science-fiction writers like Philip K. Dick understood that creating a deep, believable world is important, but making that world seem alive by alluding to other interesting events is just as important in captivating a readers’ imagination. For instance, in “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said” another civil war has caused America to become a police state but outside of the main character contending with the police force, not much info about the conflict itself is presented leaving you to wonder just what pushed the country to another, dividing war.

While Portal 2 is a story about a prisoner of Aperture Science trying to escape a crazed A.I., many details of the world around you are presented but not necessarily explained. We know that Aperture exists in the same world where another Valve series, “Half-Life,” takes place, as Black Mesa is referenced numerous times. We also know Black Mesa is a direct competitor of Aperture but we gamers are left in the dark about the rest of their interactions and when, exactly, the events of Portal 2 even take place.

Despite Chell’s apparent escape at the end of the original Portal, she finds herself again the prisoner of Aperture Science to begin Portal 2. Only this time she isn’t alone. No Rat Man (a scientist still living in the walls of Aperture, evading GLaDOS) isn’t going to be playing a bigger role in Portal 2, rather, Chell is aided by a personality core named Wheatley (played by the hilarious Stephen Merchant). Bumbling Wheatley initially wants to help Chell escape but manages to cause more trouble than anything else. Chell’s adventure in Portal 2 will take her to places you’d never expect as she learns an incredible deal about Aperture Science and herself in the process.

Valve didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken with Portal 2, keeping many aspects of the acclaimed series similar to its predecessor. Chell can’t do much to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center test courses outside of jump, grab objects and, of course, use the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (or portal gun). However, new testing elements have been added to make the already mind-bending puzzles even more insidiously difficult. The most notable additions are the gels. Repulsion gel will act as a trampoline, bouncing Chell to new heights, while the speed gel will increase Chell’s movement when laid down in a straight line.

Atlus and P-Body

Perhaps the greatest addition to Portal 2 is the cooperative mode, where you and a friend (in splitscreen or over the internet) can team up to tackle original courses, designed to be completed by two portal users. Players take on the roles of P-Body and Atlus, robots designed to complete Aperture Science Enrichment Center test courses. These robots face the same obstacles that Chell does but their puzzles are twice as hard, as they both can utilize portal guns to complete tests.

Chell, as a protagonist, is pretty boring. She doesn’t say anything and nothing ever seems to sway her. Luckily the other characters in Portal 2 more than make up for her lack of dialogue. Wheatley offers a lot of great comic relief as Stephen Merchant (you may remember him as Ricky Gervais’ ineffective agent on the HBO series “Extras”) expertly delivers perfectly timed jokes. Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson (voiced by the incredible J.K. Simmons) plays a role in Portal 2 as well, but perhaps no character is as important as GLaDOS.

GLaDOS (or Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), though a computer, has an incredibly dynamic relationship with Chell. Though GLaDOS admittedly murdered everyone in the Aperture complex in the first game, she keeps Chell alive for some unknown reason. Maybe it’s because she’s the only one who has ever completed many of GLaDOS’ tests but there are other reasons you may be able to uncover in Portal 2. Also, there is something just hilarious about being made fun of by a computer. And GLaDOS is especially salty in Portal 2 (well you did murder her after all – you monster), which leads to some great jokes. Some favorites of mine being, after Chell completed a test course, GLaDOS informs her, “We have your test results – ‘You are a horrible person.’ That’s what it says, ‘horrible person.’ We weren’t even testing for that.” Or the time where GLaDOS states she’s making a note in the commendations section of your personal file and that there is plenty of room in that section.

Portal 2 is a triumph (Get it?? Brilliant, I know, no one has ever used that line from “Still Alive” in a regular sentence before.) in every sense. The writing is stellar, the gameplay is simple but incredibly fun and being able to play coop with a friend will be enough of a draw on its own for some. Though I was easily won over by Portal 2, some may find fault with the (relatively) small amount of content as there is only the single play story and the coop story to play, with nothing unlocking after completion. However, I just today read that Valve has announced the first (of many, hopefully) DLC pack for Portal 2, which should be releasing this summer. This pack (titled “DLC #1”) will allegedly include new test chambers, leaderboards, challenge modes for single and multiplayer and capped off with the vague wording “and more.” The DLC pack will be available for PC, Mac, PS3, and Xbox 360 but the best news? It’s going to be completely free for every platform. So go out and play Portal 2 now so by the time the DLC comes out, it’ll be almost like getting another game’s worth of content for free.