Howdy folks. We’ve got a treat for you today. Sorry, not an edible treat, but it’s still a treat. Valve released Portal 2 last week on April 19th, and it is currently available on Steam (Mac and PC), Xbox 360, and PS3. We’ll try our best to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, but if you are afraid of any possible spoilers, you have been warned. Want to find out how well Portal 2 holds up through the looking glass? You know what to do fellow readers.

A FEW WORDS TO BEGIN

To start off this review, we just want you to know a few things first. First, we unfortunately have not been able to fully experience the online portion of Portal 2. Why is this so? Well, the version of Portal 2 used for this review is on the PS3, and the PSN has been down for almost a week (we will have a separate post on the PSN outage soon). We will have more info on the online co-op for Portal 2 when the PSN is back online. Second, due to the outage of the PSN, we have not been able to try out the Steam Play connection on the PS3, but if you did purchase your copy of Portal 2 on the PS3, you do have access to a free copy of Portal 2 on Steam for Mac or PC when, you guessed it, the PSN goes back online. All you have to do is connect your Steam account and your PSN account, and then type in a code on Steam.

An old test chamber from Portal. Everything old is new again.

SINGLE PLAYER

For those of you that have played the original Portal, you will notice a few similarities between the two games. We’ll be nice, and we won’t spoil what happened between the end of Portal and the start of Portal 2. We won’t tell you about who does what and why. But everything that happens in this game has a reason, and it was all well thought out. Everyone’s favorites from the first game have returned.

One thing we will spoil for you (look away now, last chance), is that some of the tests from the first Portal have returned, and a few have been tweaked for novices and experts alike. Also, the portal gun has returned, obviously. Gladly, there are a few additions to create some challenging tests. There were quite a few extremely complex sections in the game, but this only made the solutions that much more rewarding.

Portal 2 introduces some new goodies to use for advancing through the series of tests as well. The new goodies go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly. Great by themselves, but together? Oh my that is delicious! Want to know what the best part is? If you’re new to Portal, that’s OK. There’s no need to know anything from the original Portal. Everything is explained, and for veterans, some things have been cleared up.

Portal 2 co-op bots. Everything is better with friends

CO-OP MODE

Where this game really shines is the co-op. The excellent level design is amplified by bringing in an extra set of portals and an extra person. If you have someone that can play next to you, excellent. Otherwise, if you have an online connection, there’s always matchmaking to find someone new to play with. Sadly, we haven’t been able to try out the co-op mode online, but we have gone through a few of the tests via split screen local co-op. Fun times ensued.

A FEW FINAL WORDS

In short, Portal 2 is an FPS that makes you think. The dialog is smart, witty, and hilarious, with a dash of sarcasm thrown in for good measure. Everything we loved about the original Portal has been brought over to Portal 2, and everything new fits perfectly. The main downside was that the main single player component felt short, but what FPS these days doesn’t feel too short? One way the short single player component was addressed was by adding in the co-op campaign, which is available both online and split screen for consoles.

If you had to make a choice on a game to buy this month, Portal 2 is a good choice. Heck, it could even be the game of the month, and a contender for game of the year. We give Portal 2 an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5. Portal 2 is available now on Steam, PS3, and Xbox 360. As of this writing, the co-op mode has not been fully completed, and online access was not available as previously stated.

Source: Portal 2 official site