In 2008, a game called “The Orange Box” was released. It was a collection of three games and

one of them was Portal, a game of difficult puzzles and test chambers. It was a game that involved

creating portals, and it was a great success. Almost immediately, the company that created Portal called

Valve started work on a sequel to Portal. I have played both Portal and Portal 2 and realized very quickly

that the creators put a lot more effort into Portal 2. Portal 2 is easily one of my favorite games that I

have ever played because of the plot, game play and additions from Portal to Portal 2.

In the start of the game, the player wakes up in a cheap hotel room where they meet Wheatley,

an AI robot. He helps he player try to escape, meeting GLaDOS, another AI, in the process. Eventually,

the player ends up in the first test chambers of the company, Aperture Science. There the player hears

voice recordings from the owner, Cave Johnson. What I really like about the characters are the funny

quotes they say and the dark side of some of them. The new characters really enhances the plot of

Portal 2 that wasn’t in the first Portal.

In Portal 2, the player is holding a portal gun in which they can place two portals, an orange

one and a blue one. The player jumps through one and comes out of the other. To complete levels, the

player needs to use portals to get to a door. Another part of the game is the companion cube. It is used

for holding down buttons that, in turn, opens a door to the exit. These are the basic components of

Portal, which were in the first version. There are also some other things that, when added, make Portal

2 a little more complicated.

In the first Portal, there was an element called “The Aperture High Energy Pellet” and it would

bounce off walls and if it went into a receptacle, it would potentially open a door. All of this was very

difficult, so Valve made a change to lasers instead. Lasers were easier to direct and the player could see

exactly where it was going, and that was a great improvement. Another addition was the three types of

gel. The player could put gel on anything by directing gel flow with portals. The three gels are repulsion,

propulsion and portal gel. The repulsion gel would, when jumped on, fling the player to the same height

as when they jumped. The propulsion gel, when walked on, would make the player run faster than

normal. Finally, the portal gel, when painted on the wall, allowed the player to place a portal where they

usually could not. Like the characters, the additions of gels and lasers, makes Portal 2 a more enjoyable

game to play than the original portal.

With the plot, game play, and additions from the first Portal, I would recommend this game to

anyone. Not only does it have fun test chambers and puzzles, it also has a great plot that anyone would

enjoy. Valve started with a great game and somehow made it better.