Portal 2 is a 2011
first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by
Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to
Portal (2007) and was released on April 19, 2011, for
Microsoft Windows,
OS X,
Linux,
PlayStation 3, and
Xbox 360. The retail versions of the game are distributed by
Electronic Arts while online distribution of the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux versions is handled by Valve's content delivery service
Steam.
Portal 2 was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long
alternate reality game based on new
patches to the original game. Before the game's release on Steam, the company released the
Potato Sack, a second multi-week alternate reality game, involving 13 independently developed titles which culminated in a
distributed computing spoof to release
Portal 2 several hours early.
The game retains
Portal's gameplay elements, and adds new features, including tractor beams, laser redirection, bridges made of light, and paint-like 'gels' accelerating the player's speed, allowing the player-character to jump higher or place portals on any surface. These gels were created by the team from the
Independent Games Festival-winning
DigiPen student project
Tag: The Power of Paint. In the single-player campaign, the player controls protagonist
Chell, awoken from
suspended animation after many years, who must navigate the now-dilapidated
Aperture Science Enrichment Center during its reconstruction by the reactivated
GLaDOS, a
powerful supercomputer. The storyline introduces new characters, including
Wheatley (
Stephen Merchant) and
Cave Johnson (
J. K. Simmons).
Ellen McLain reprised the role of GLaDOS.
Jonathan Coulton and
The National each produced a song for the game.
Portal 2 also includes a two-player cooperative mode, in which the robotic player-characters Atlas and P-Body (both voiced by
Dee Bradley Baker) are each given a portal gun and are required to work together to solve puzzles. Valve provided post-release support for the game, including additional
downloadable content and a simplified
map editor to allow players to create and share test chambers with others.
Although some reviewers initially expressed concerns about the difficulty of expanding
Portal into a full sequel,
Portal 2 received critical acclaim, particularly for its writing, pacing, and
dark humor. The voice work of McLain, Merchant, and Simmons were also praised, as were the new gameplay elements, the challenging but surmountable learning curve, and the additional cooperative mode. Some journalists ranked
Portal 2 among the best games of 2011, and several named it their Game of the Year.
Portal 2 has since been hailed as
one of the greatest video games of all time.
Gameplay
Portal 2 challenges the player to use teleportation to traverse obstacle courses. Momentum does not change upon passing through the portal, converting the vertical momentum of the fall into horizontal momentum.
Portal 2 is a first-person perspective puzzle game. The Player takes the role of
Chell in the single-player campaign, as one of two robots—Atlas and P-Body—in the cooperative campaign, or as a simplistic humanoid icon in community-developed puzzles. These four characters can explore and interact with the environment. Characters can withstand limited damage but will die after sustained injury. There is no penalty for falling onto a solid surface, but falling into bottomless pits or toxic pools kills the player character immediately. When Chell dies in the single-player game, the game restarts from a recent
checkpoint;
[2] in the cooperative game, the robot
respawns shortly afterwards without restarting the puzzle.
[3] The goal of both campaigns is to explore the Aperture Science Laboratory—a complicated, malleable mechanized maze. While most of the game takes place in modular test chambers with clearly defined entrances and exits, other parts occur in behind-the-scenes areas where the objective is less clear.
The initial tutorial levels guide the player through the general movement controls and illustrate how to interact with the environment. The player must solve puzzles using the 'portal gun' or 'Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device', which can create two portals connecting two distant surfaces depicted as matte white, continuous, and flat. Characters can use these portals to move between rooms or to "fling" objects or themselves across a distance. Outlines of placed portals are visible through walls and other obstacles for easy location.
Game elements include Thermal Discouragement Beams (
lasers), Excursion Funnels (
tractor beams), and Hard Light Bridges, all of which can be transmitted through portals.
[2][6][7][8] Aerial Faith Plates launch the player or objects through the air and sometimes into portals. The player must disable
turrets or avoid their line of sight. The Weighted Storage Cube has been redesigned, and there are new types: Redirection Cubes, which have prismatic lenses that redirect laser beams, spherical
Edgeless Safety Cubes, an antique version of the Weighted Storage Cube used in the underground levels, and a cube-turret hybrid created by Wheatley after taking control of Aperture.
[2][9] The heart-decorated Weighted Companion Cube reappears briefly.
[10] Early demonstrations included Pneumatic Diversity Vents, shown to transport objects and transfer suction power through portals, but these do not appear in the final game.
[2][9][11][12] All of these game elements open locked doors, or help or hamper the character from reaching the exit.
Paint-like gels (which are dispensed from pipes and can be transported through portals) impart certain properties to surfaces or objects coated with them.
[2] Players can use orange Propulsion Gel to cross surfaces more quickly, blue Repulsion Gel to bounce from a surface,
[13] and white Conversion Gel to allow surfaces to accept portals.
[14] Only one type of gel can be effective on a certain surface at a time only. Some surfaces, such as grilles, cannot be coated with a gel. Water can block or wash away gels, returning the surface or object to its normal state.
The game includes a two-player cooperative mode.
[15] Two players can use the same console with a
split screen, or can use a separate computer or console; Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and PlayStation 3 users can play with each other regardless of platform; a patch provided in late 2012 added split-screen support for Windows and Mac OS X users under "Big Picture" mode.
[16] Both player-characters are robots that control separate portal guns and can use the other character's portals.
[2] Each player's portals are of a different color scheme, whereof one is blue and purple and the other is orange and red.
[8][17] A calibration chamber separates the characters to teach the players to use the communication tools and portals. Most later chambers are less structured and require players to use both sets of portals for laser or funnel redirection, launches, and other maneuvers.
[18] The game provides voice communication between players, and online players can temporarily enter a split-screen view to help coordinate actions.
[17] Players can "ping" to draw the other player's attention to walls or objects, start countdown timers for synchronized actions, and perform joint gestures such as waving or hugging.
[2][7][18] The game tracks which chambers each player has completed and allows players to replay chambers they have completed with new partners.
Portal 2's lead writer
Erik Wolpaw estimates each campaign to be about six hours long.
[3] Portal 2 contains
in-game commentary from the game developers, writers, and artists. The commentary, accessible after completing the game once, appears on node icons scattered through the chambers.
[19] According to Valve, each of the single-player and cooperative campaigns is 2 to 2.5 times as long as the campaign in
Portal, with the overall game five times as long.
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