Games of 2011: Portal 2

By Rich Stanton Published 27 December, 2011

For science.

You can tell everything about Portal 2 from the lack of cake. There's one gag in the whole game, and it's a fakeout - a door marked 'cake dispensary' that, if approached, falls flat on the ground. Portal was too perfect and its punishment was death by meme, the inane chanting that transforms a joke into a catchphrase. Portal 2 doesn't preach to the converted and retread past glories - the cake doesn't matter. And nor does much else.

This is a sequel that does things differently. The extended opening is no more than a statement of intent, giving you a few rooms that could be from the original before bodily throwing Chell into a whole other scale of adventure. Portal was a small, perfectly formed solo trek with a subtle narrative - Portal 2 is a sprawling comedy with star voice talent, and a brilliant co-op game. The hints of Aperture Science from the first game expand into a gigantic, overgrown complex that's halfway between collapsing and eating itself, a dying machine filled with ghosts.

Only Valve could follow up minimalist narrative with an ensemble cast and a series of chattering companions. Instead of ruining Portal 2's world, they make it: Wheatley's there from your first steps to the very end credits, a hovering sphere with a mechanical eye. He doesn't seem the most obvious conduit for slapstick, but that little ball is animated like a body, his protuberances swishing like limbs and prone to clumsy jerks. Steven Merchant's babbling delivery and Bristolian vowels are the perfect counterpoint to the computer-filtered tones of Glados, and even though Wheatley's a monumental clown and kind of evil he's a great buddy.

But Merchant has the tools to work with. Portal 2's script puts every other AAA game to shame, veering between acid put-downs and monomaniacal soliloquies without missing a beat, setting up future jokes and somehow always keeping things moving. My favourite line comes after Wheatley's been boasting about reading Machiavelli ("Do not understand what all the fuss was about.") Some time later, he springs a very obvious trap: "Spinning blade wall - Machiavellian!" Not just a brilliant line at the right moment, it's also a little hint that Wheatley can't actually read.

There's even room for a little payback. One of the running themes is the various antagonists trying to undermine Chell's self-esteem by talking about her weight ("like an eagle... piloting a blimp"), leading to a series of ever-more idiotic variations on 'fatty' as they press for a reaction. Wonder where Valve got the idea for that from.

But clever and witty as single-player is, and there's so much more to it than Wheatley - Cave Johnson and his combustible lemons, the irresistible tones of Caroline, potato Glados - Portal 2 is at its best, and funniest, in co-op. It's a unique experience that creates the perfect conditions for communication and slapstick, then makes with the brilliant puzzles and puts each player's life in the hands of the other.

I never mean to - really - but I'm always killing partners: shooting them into spikes, turning off the hard light bridge halfway, pulling a lever that smashes them into the ceiling. But Portal 2 understands that these moments are where the laughs are, so there's no restarts or any other punishment for dying at all. In fact one of its bests rewards comes with the seemingly endless Glados quips about one player or the other's incompetence: "It would be pointless for either of us to hurt Blue's feelings. But it's clear to everyone monitoring the test who's carrying who here."

This makes for unforgettable co-op, the most consistently funny and carefully engineered I've played. You glory in the spectacle as P-body backflips through a spike chamber, or Atlas casually pops out of a portal to grab a cube mid-air, and then someone messes up and everything slams into a wall. You couldn't do the puzzles alone, but that's only half of it - you can't do it without communicating, without constantly badgering, cajoling and laughing with your buddy.

To emphasise all its differences risks making Portal 2 seem like a complete departure, but of course it managed this transformation while keeping a tight hold on the original concept. Despite the scale and the script this is still built around the same portals, and its additions always enhance that tool rather than trying to replace it. The way the gels layer on top of the puzzles in the final stretch, adding momentum and bounce to elaborate rabbit runs, results in some of the most dizzying, thrilling motion ever achieved in first-person.

One of the nicest things about Portal 2 is that Chell gets a happy ending. But perhaps when Portal 3's announced this will be patched.

Portal 2 never goes in awe of its forebear. It reinvents old puzzles, twisting them into its new form, and the last boss fight is a perfect example. Wheatley announces he's watched the video of how Chell beat Glados at the end of the last game, and based on that has removed all portal-able surfaces and bomb-proofed himself. You then use the new tools to beat him in exactly the opposite manner - where you were tearing cores off Glados at the end of Portal, you're sticking them onto Wheatley at the end of Portal 2. That little reference, the symmetry and the twist, is what every sequel should aspire to.

Portal 2 is so good because it took nothing for granted. In early development it didn't even have a portal gun. It builds a different kind of game - two kinds of game, really - out of its predecessor's nuts and bolts, shaking up the original's industrial chic by showing its greasy roots and acting as a conduit for human performances that put most other comedies to shame, never mind games. It's an incredible feat of world-building, a unique co-op experience, and most remarkably of all still has that same mechanic at its core. Portal was the little puzzler that could. But Portal 2 is the big one that did.

Picture of Rich.

About Rich Stanton

Rich Stanton has been writing for Eurogamer since 2011, and also contributes to places like Edge, Nintendo Gamer, and PC Gamer. He lives in Bath, and is Terran for life.

Read more articles from Rich by visiting the Rich Stanton archive page.

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Comments (84) Latest comment 5 months ago

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  • ubergine #1 5 months ago

    Portal 2 was okay.

  • You_shlaaaag #2 5 months ago

    Game of the year. No question. A great article.

  • DrStrangelove #3 5 months ago

    Space, space, wanna go to space

  • medicineboy #4 5 months ago

    I'm both thrilled and ashamed that I haven't played either of the Portal games yet. Like listening to my first Beatles album at the age of 19; I knew it was all ahead of me.

  • Jonny5Alive7 #5 5 months ago

    Brilliant game, reading this makes me want to go back and play it again.

  • Nath_monn #6 5 months ago

    Game of the year for me I absolutely rinsed it, really tempted to pick them both up again as they're truly something special. Great article too.

  • PaulieWaulie #7 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 14:23:40 06-01-2012

  • Killerbee #8 5 months ago

    Great game - not my personal GOTY (that'd be Dark Souls) but easily top 3. More than any other game ever, this was the perfect co-op experience. Hilarious yet also wonderfully ingenuitive. I loved those moments when your planning and puzzling just comes together as you hoped and you finally manage to fling your buddy to some far off ledge.

    If there's one thing I could wish for it'd be for the DLC to have been a bit quicker off the mark but that seems a silly complaint really.

    Oh yes, and getting the PC version free when I bought it on PS3 was wonderfully generous. Well done Valve!

    Now, about Half-Life 3...

  • TurboBailey #9 5 months ago

    I'm a convert. Fab game. PC version is stunning and so well designed

  • Zerobob #10 5 months ago

    Played the first Portal and it was good, if not a little too short. Played a bit of Portal 2 with a mate and, while the production values were higher, I wasn't bowled over by it. Maybe give it a chance in the new year.

  • Mister-Wario #11 5 months ago

    A truly wonderful game, really. One of the funniest and most memorable experiences in recent years to me.

  • CaptainQuint #12 5 months ago

    I'm playing Skyrim at the moment and I'm astounded by it. But Portal 2 is still my game of the year. A magnificent masterpiece, there's nothing else quite like it and I doubt there'll ever will be.

  • rob_of_the_robots #13 5 months ago

    Check out the Yogscast's attempts at Portal 2 co-op, it's brilliant

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f3I91ZRsGg&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL99569FDEB6F4FB46

  • -cerberus- #14 5 months ago

    My personal GOTY. Had a lot of fun with this one, both in single and split-screen co-op play. Portal 2 makes you feel like a total retard for not finding the correct solution but once you do, you feel like the smartest person alive and that's what kept me coming back for more.

  • Softie2k #15 5 months ago

    Supremely overrated. If it wasn't for the funnies, the game would have plummeted like a stone.

  • danidrums #16 5 months ago

    16th!!!!!!

  • gelf #17 5 months ago

    Easily my GOTY, nothing else comes close.

  • SniperZoz #18 5 months ago

    When this came out ... I said GOTY ... but then ... Sykrim was release ... and IMO nothing can touch it!

  • marmaduke #19 5 months ago

    Portal 2 and Bastion were my joint top games of the year. Both were extremely tight, clever and entertaining, and I reckon put together had more imagination than most of the other games released this year combined.

    Skyrim takes third place- it was a tough call, but it was the voice acting during ending of the main quest that took the shine off. It sounded like an am-dram version of Xena: Warrior Princess. And that's being generous.
    Edited by marmaduke at 27/12/11 @ 12:50

  • Boom #20 5 months ago

    Great game from a coop perspective. Single-player didn't quite reach the heights of the original, but still a good game and a worthy goty mention.

  • Kami #21 5 months ago

    SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

  • UncleLou #22 5 months ago

    Supremely overrated. If it wasn't for the funnies, the game would have plummeted like a stone.

    Did you just not like it, or do you really think it's "overrated"? Massive difference.

    I am also pretty sure Monkey Island wouldn't be the classic it is if wasn't "for the funnies".
    Edited by UncleLou at 27/12/11 @ 13:43

  • Hellion83 #23 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:35:41 22-05-2012

  • marmaduke #24 5 months ago

    @Hellion83 are you *sure* you were born in 1983?

  • Sonic_D #25 5 months ago

    Portal 2 was a very good game, but it doesn't reach the heights of the first. But then there was little chance it ever would. The increase in scale means the focus could not be as tight. Plus I disliked Merchant's voice over work from the Barclay ads quite a bit already, so that didn't help.

  • spekkeh #26 5 months ago

    I never played the coop as my wife didn't really like the game (I know, file for divorce right), so my impressions are based solely on the singleplayer. I appreciate the game for once again being extremely well made with good level design / streamlining. Also I was grinning a couple of times and would even consider it an excellent comedy if it wasn't for the horrendous subtitles delivering the punchline way before the characters did. The comedic aspects above all is what I remember, as the puzzles fell a little flat. For me the main ingenuity was 'thinking with portals' something I had already learned in the previous game. Because the game had to accomodate for newcomers alike, the first half of the game was too easy, whereas the game started to drag a little before you reached the semi-interesting new stuff.

    In the end I couldn't help feeling that the game didn't bring enough new things to the table to really warrant a sequel, apart from funny characters. But then the story didn't move in a meaningful direction either. Therefore this is game manages to both be one of the best made this year while still feeling pretty inconsequential. When I think of last year, I won't really be thinking of Portal 2 (not like Portal 1), and I fear the game will be pretty much forgotten a few years on.
    Edited by spekkeh at 27/12/11 @ 16:44

  • TheGuvernor #27 5 months ago

    Appreciated the genius of design in this game - but felt the voice acting & script were totally overrated.
    I was completely underwhelmed by Wheatley & Glados, even irritated.
    Except the industrialist guy, he was v.good.

    Best script & voice acting goes to Bulletstorm, Sushi d**k!
    Absolutely brilliant writing & delivery.

  • Nazo #28 5 months ago

    I picked this up for £20 today in the HMV sale, hope it's as good as everyone makes out, I never played the first one.

  • WadiumArcadium #29 5 months ago

    I still haven't played this yet, slightly ashamed of it. Still need to finish the 1st one on my laptop.

  • GitSomE_UK #30 5 months ago

    Whilst I really enjoyed Portal this one left me a little cold. Excellent production, lovely graphics, lots of funny moments and I especially liked the back to the beginning of the labs with the suspended spheres.

    However, I just found that something didn't quite click as much as the first one did. Maybe it was because with Portal it was something that nobody saw coming and was totally refreshing. Now Portal is kind of aware of it's own originality and in doing so that sense of wonder and newness is now missing.

    Funny, i've never played it again since completion whilst with Portal I did.

  • tedbrown #31 5 months ago

    I still can't fathom why the game must stop and load between levels, instead of streaming new data. It's a linear game with small spaces that share tons of textures! This was jaw-droppingly poor form for Portal 1, and inexcusable for Portal 2.

    Beyond that, yeah, excellent game. =)

  • SG #32 5 months ago

    Given that I bought a laptop capable of gaming a month or so back I think I'll give this a go as I've always been intruiged by it!

  • Golgo #33 5 months ago

    Agree. Portal 2 coop was the most delirious and refreshing game experience I've had in many years.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #34 5 months ago

    Game of the year? This could well be one of the games of the decade.

    Most games would be happy to have any one of Glados, Wheatley, The Turrets or Cave Johnson.

  • rotmm #35 5 months ago

    I loved the first Portal.

  • rotmm #36 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #37 5 months ago

    But for some reason didn't pick this up on or near release date.

  • rotmm #38 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #39 5 months ago

    So in actuality I have only just picked this up in a Steam sale in the past week or so.

  • rotmm #40 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #41 5 months ago

    And I don't like it anywhere near as much as the first.

  • rotmm #42 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #43 5 months ago

    I can't really put my finger on why. It started well enough introducing Wheatly.

  • rotmm #44 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #45 5 months ago

    and then introducing some simple puzzles designed for those new to Portal

  • rotmm #46 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #47 5 months ago

    but what a few years ago seemed fresh and new to me now appears trite and forced

  • rotmm #48 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #49 5 months ago

    Even the Stephen Merchant character, while excellently voiced, hasn't held my attention.

  • rotmm #50 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #51 5 months ago

    To be fair, I haven't yet finished it and am only about half way through level 6, so it wouldn't be right for me to dismiss it entirely.

  • rotmm #52 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #53 5 months ago

    However, the very fact that I've had it to play over the Xmas period and it hasn't grabbed me enough to suck me in while I have all this free play time speaks volumes.

  • rotmm #54 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #55 5 months ago

    I appreciate that opinions are like arseholes and there are more than enough voices out there that show I am (edit: drown and restart) in the minority in not thinking this game is anything other than average,
    Edited by rotmm at 27/12/11 @ 21:04

  • rotmm #56 5 months ago

    loadscreen

  • rotmm #57 5 months ago

    but that doesn't diminish my disappointment that (for me at least) Portal 2 it a serious climbdown from the original.

  • ulikmegee #58 5 months ago

    Manz thought it was a bit shit you get me? Portal had the surprise factor this is like Robocop 2. Manz wantz to see some new shiznitz in the inevitable Portal 3 you get me fam.

  • goldenbone #59 5 months ago

    Portal 2 and Dark Souls were my games of the year. Both brilliant.

  • Romeric #60 5 months ago

    Really good article. I've never laughed so much and so hard at a game, without chemical assistance (Mario Kart on the Wii probably wins that.) But no matter how in love I am with Skyrim, Portal 2 is game of the year for me. Simply because as a game, it does exactly what it sets out to do, with absolute perfection. My favourite part was probably when Wheatley INSISTS that you turn around. I didn't even try to sneak a peek because I loved the character so much.

  • Romeric #61 5 months ago

    Oh and Glados' line, 'before you say something you'll regret.' Awesome :-D 'You monster'

  • figaro7 #62 5 months ago

    One of my top 5 games of the year, simply a sublime experience that takes you on a journey that at times you never want it to end.

  • Tomo #63 5 months ago

    Brilliant article this. Really captures the significance of the game in not many words!

  • Hellion83 #64 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 20:12:17 01-02-2012

  • petebritish #65 5 months ago

    Loved the 1st one,just picked up this for £7 from Morrisons and initial impressions, top notch..

  • Code_R #66 5 months ago

    Totally game of the year, perhaps because I didn't get how they could do a sequel to something like Portal. Beautiful.

  • DrStrangelove #67 5 months ago

    mmm, mmm, mmm.... SPACE!

  • jogyourmind #68 5 months ago

    I preferred the first one... but it was still pretty good.

  • cardboardMonster #69 5 months ago

    Grab me grab me grab meeee!

  • bionic_v2 #70 5 months ago

    Might give this a go, once I'm done with Batman - Arkham City

  • Casserole #71 5 months ago

    GlaDOS: "Oh no! This is the part where he kills us!"

    Wheatley: "Hiya" This is the part where I kill you."

    Chapter 9: THE PART WHERE HE KILLS YOU

    Xbox Achievement: The Part Where He Kills You... this is that part.


    And it turns out... he doesn't kill you. Though if you listen to him when he asks you to go back, listen to how he tries to convince you to jump in the pit...

  • jogyourmind #72 5 months ago

    @bionic_v2

    You should! Although priority goes to the first one if you haven't played it already. Gotta say though, Arkham City sure takes some beating in my book. I haven't enjoyed a game that much for a looong time.

  • xavier_dragoon #73 5 months ago

    @ubergine - Smmmmmooooooothhh...

  • neilka #74 5 months ago

    Are you really suggesting that Gabe Newell put in the fat jokes as some kind of revenge...?

  • Megacore #75 5 months ago

    Agreed.. A clear GOTY

    Enjoyed every second of it.

  • Jimster71 #76 5 months ago

    I really must play the coop of this sometime.

    I thought the single player game was decent, but I found Wheatley to be a bit irritating. Cave Johnson was the star of the show for me.

  • benchesh #77 5 months ago

    I enjoyed Portal 2 most of the time. I've completed the single player and the co-op, but I certainly didn't have as much fun as I did with other games this year. If you're not good at puzzles, chances are you'll hate this game. The witty dialogue serves as your reward for beating each puzzle, but during the puzzles themselves, you'll have to settle for nothing more than factory noises. Getting stuck in this game is depressing.

    Portal 1 got everything right for me - it only took me 3 hours to beat, and that worked well with the narrative. But Portal 2 drags from about half way through, any satisfaction I got from beating a puzzle turned into frustration when the puzzle ahead left me daunted. I never found Portal 2 infuriatingly difficult, but I never found the first difficult or confusing at all. The mechanics were simpler and the puzzles were easy. And that is what perfected the pacing of the game.

    Portal 2 wanted to be a game with a tight narrative - and if a game has a strong focus on storytelling, the challenge must be just right for every player. These are the benefits of a linear game - it offers a movie-like experience. When it got to the point where I'd spend about 10 minutes on each puzzle, the reward of 20 seconds of well-written dialogue wasn't satisfying enough. That, and there were just too many puzzles. Strangely enough, the actual gameplay was what I ended up disliking the most about it.

    Don't get me wrong - I don't hate Portal 2. Good game? Yes. Game of the Year? Absolutely not.

    Just an opinion!

  • digiwalsh #78 5 months ago

    Sorely lacking a spoiler alert on this article :(

  • alexbulluk #79 5 months ago

    Incredible game, no doubt.

    Its one of only 4 PS3 games I've actually put the effort into getting platinum for.

  • jonfon #80 5 months ago

    @Jimster71
    Agreed, JD Simmons stole the show in terms of performance for me. Easily my favourite part of the entire game, both in terms of the setting (some awe-inspiring vistas) and Caves recorded monologues about the oddest of things (the one-liners about his ever-declining quality of his test subjects is brilliant).

    Weirdly I found the puzzles much, much easier this time around, towards the end I remember thinking "I don't feel too challenged here at all".

    Wish I'd managed to try the co-op levels too.

  • madmaardigan #81 5 months ago

    Playing through couch co-op with my girlfriend (who's not really into games) was definitely my gaming experience of the year.

    The single player was great as well, with a superb narrative pushing it all along.

    The graphics may not look amazing in screenshots, but they don't capture the physics and malleabilty of the levels, which makes other games feel incredibly static in comparison.

    And its great they put so much resources into such a kooky/cerebral/non-violent concept. Well done Valve!

  • TaniumZX #82 5 months ago

    Preferred the original as part of the Orange Box. As a standalone (much hyped) product it felt a little empty and barebones. I traded it in for Gears 3. Yep, sorry, I like to be entertained.

  • AgentCool #83 5 months ago

    Game of the Year by a mile. Nothing else came close for me though I enjoyed Uncharted 3.

  • lasersrule #84 5 months ago

    I never finished Portal 2. It just got too annoying, I was fatigued by doing puzzle after puzzle and the more the onion skins were peeled back, the more ridiculous and implausible the world became - until it was just this massive, stupid place that made no sense. Too thick with the jokes, too thin on plausibility, and too much of a shark-jumpy exageration of the original.

    It has some decent stuff, but it's nowhere near a GOTY.