What a weird game
I played the first portal when it first came out. I was just a few levels of finishing it, it just got too hard, so i didn't have the patience and/or time to finish it; nor did I think that I'd have much of a sense of accomplishment if I did.
That was part of the reason why I was reserved about Portal 2. I just didn't want to think and strain my brain to be frank. I wanted to play more or less mindless games and lose myself in the virtual world.
Boy was I wrong. It's hard to describe this game, nor is it just to simply stamp the description of "It's a puzzle game". This game has a heart and maybe even a soul if I need to stretch that. There are only a few characters in the game but their performance if flawless. The whole game is a stage and you are the main actor, albeit a mute one. That's the part that bugs me. You still have no voice, just like in the first game and you still can't see your legs or cast a shadow.
The writing is spectacular. There are no dialogues except between Glados and Wheatley. You, obviously, are a mute, so all you do is listen and progress forward. You have absolutely no verbal or intellectual input of your own. You have no opinions, all we find out about you is that you are adopted. No name, no personality; there are only brief glimpses of your appearance through portals. So the story could be even more engaging and dear to the mind if the protagonist was even remotely felt as a human being. Seriously, I might just as well play as a robot in the main story line - would barely make any difference aesthetically speaking.
We know little about the nature of the testing chambers that you go through, but as you play, the witty public announcements give you more insight. We learn that it was some kind of private company that was engaged in conducting science way ahead of its time. We also learn that dozens if not hundreds of years passed during your cryosleep. So when I finally finished the game I was excepting a more bleak outcome. I would rather make it so that the only "friend" left on earth was the one that just finally let you go, without a possibility of return. That would have been a nice and cynical twist I think.
At one point in the game, you are warned that you may see the future or the past version of you and you are instructed to NOT interact. I was so psyched about that. Sadly. nothing like that happened, although I do think they could implement a moment of two of seeing yourself in the past or the future. They could show you dying in the future for instance (without showing the string of events leading to your death) and then have you figure out a way to not die.
Overall, there are some great distinct moments in the game that will stay with you for a while.
I enjoyed Co-Op as well. Although I played with a close friend of mine via the microphone. I cannot imagine playing Portal 2 Co-op with some stranger online since there is a LOT of communicating involved. "Place the first portal there, jump over there and place the second portal there while in mid-air; NO you idiot, place the portal THERE". Done, repeat again and again and waste hours of time. It DOES get tedious. The co-op levels are MUCH MUCH harder than in the single player campaign.
The source engine is still as great looking as it did in Half Life 2 seven years ago and as it does right now with the Left4Dead series. It's a geometry engine. The textures look great, the physics are worked out and there are many sharp corners. I couldn't imagine playing Portal 2 on any other engine.
Solid 8.5.
Valve sure knows their games.
So what's with that Episode 3 thing anyway?