Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Ambitious"

Portal 2, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, released April 2011 by Valve, the same developer who brought us the Half-Life series, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and many more. Portal 2 received generally positive opinions from game critics, with a 93-95% rating on Gamerankings, and 95% across the board on Metacritic, but I'm here to give you my opinion on the game, what I liked and what I didn't. intriguing


First and foremost, this is a fun and interesting game to me. I'm someone who mostly plays fast-paced adrenaline-filed action games, like Call of Duty for example, but being slower-paced and a more intellectual game, Portal 2 really appealed to me. On the outside it's a first-person-perspective puzzle game, which doesn't sound like it has much depth, but in similar fashion to the first game, which I enjoyed also, the story starts off slow, which by no means is a complaint, and works its way up to something really interesting and a story you will definitely want to see the end of. And I certainly was not dissatisfied with the ending.

If you haven't played Portal 2, it's an adventure-puzzle game set in a massive facility and your character, Chell, has a Portal gun, which can shoot two portals, and you're attempting to escape. Moving through one portal will lead you out another. While Chell doesn't talk, the characters around you do, and are funny at times as there is a lot of comedic relief which helps the flow of the game, especially in slower parts.

The gameplay itself is fun and challenging, but definitely not difficult. No matter what level of intelligence someone has, it's still enjoyable and shouldn't take longer than 15 minutes to figure out even some of the later puzzles. The Single Player story can be completed in around 6-8 hours, but even after that there is a rich co-op experience just waiting, with over 35 levels to enjoy with you and a friend.

The biggest problem I had with the game was the loading times. In between rooms, with tension building, a 30-second long loading time will often take the player out of the immersion and breaks up the pace and flow of the game, which was a bit disappointing.

If a player were to struggle, there isn't any in-game help but I don't really see this as a negative because the fun of it is figuring it out for yourself.

It's difficult to pick out flaws with this as there isn't really anything else to compare it to, aside from the original game, which this definitely lives up to in my eyes. It's funny, intelligent and fun. It has clear graphics and a smooth frame rate, and is a neatly polished package overall.

If you haven't played Portal 2 and are looking for a unique game that sets its own standards, give it a go. I can't personally tell you if you are going to like it or not so you'll need to check it out for yourself. If you're not really interested in this game that's okay because it's definitely not for everyone, so don't feel forced to try and enjoy it.

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Story: 2/5 - Though not really needed

Presentation: 4/5

Gameplay: 4/5

Multiplayer: 4/5

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Overall: 8.0/10 (Not an average)