Published: December 6th, 2012 Last Updated: December 9th, 2012

About once a decade, a game comes along that is almost impossible to describe to a mere passerby. When developers ensure that every single inch of a game is amazingly polished, thought over, and functional, good things are bound to happen. When you mix this elite level of craftsmanship with one of the most interesting game play mechanics ever expressed through a video game and a team of voice actors and writers that produced one of the most whimsically deep universes of all time….. Well, you get Portal 2.

It’s truly hard to pin point what exactly makes Portal 2 so wonderful. No, I take that back. There are far too many great things going for Portal 2 that attempting to pay respect to the extent that this game deserves in a single review would be impossible. But to start off, let’s pick apart the game play mechanic that the entire series revolves around. It isn’t extremely complicated to wrap your head around. You have two buttons, each placing a portal of a different color. Walk in orange, walk out blue. Throw something through orange, something comes out blue. It is not the extreme complexity of what the player is doing that makes it so remarkable, but instead the amazingly diverse array of puzzle possibilities that come from it. Many games feature an extremely elaborate control set up that will take a player days if not weeks to fully understand. Portal 2 on the other hand granted me access to a device that was simple to use and spent about 25 seconds teaching me how to use it. After that, I was prepared to face Aperture Science with a feeling of whim and excitement instead of confusion and frustration.

But Valve managed to get a a whole lot out of small things in many areas other than game play. The narrative in Portal 2 feels a little unlike anything I had seen before. The plot that drives the game forward is usually developing somewhat quietly in the background. You won’t be flooded with dozens of non nonsensical plot details in the first 5 minutes (*cough* Final Fantasy *cough*) but instead be pleasantly serenaded by two of the most hilariously witty characters found in any piece of literature, ever. There are really only a couple points in the game that one could really call a cut scene, but they are done well and do nothing to take away from the immersion that any player will quickly fall victim to. The story develops ever so slowly, but the atmosphere that exists between the Half Life and Portal games is one of the deepest and most developed I have ever had the pleasure of falling into.

At the end of the day, Portal 2 is simply (well, quite complexly, but what ever) a game larger than words. I don’t even call it a game. A more fitting term might be an “Amazing journey through space and time that, after completion, will leave you feeling amazingly grateful that you got the chance to experience it, but seriously disappointed that there isn’t more to experience.” But don’t worry. About 5 minutes after your first completion (5 minutes that you will spend staring off into space thinking about what just happened to you), you will jump right into Portal 2 again. The exact same game. The exact same commentary, game play, and atmosphere. And you will love it. Because this is not a game. This is a portal to another reality. One that is quite frankly a hell of a lot more awesome than the one we are living in right now. I truly struggle to find a reason this game isn’t perfect. It bites off just as much as it can chew, while not settling for excellence. This is truly an experience that raises the bar for what a “video game” can be. I thank you Valve. I thank you for creating the closest thing to perfection for the gamers of this planet: The masterpiece that is Portal 2.

10 / 10

-Ayer