I realize we’re still pretty early in 2011, in terms of game releases, with big titles like Gears of War 3 and Battlefield 3 still coming out, but I don’t see how a game can be better and more fun than Portal 2. It has the perfect mix of story, humor, challenge and mechanics.  I’m going to try and talk about Portal 2 without giving any spoilers so things may be a little vague but when you play you’ll thank me for not getting anything spoiled.   I played through the campaign and then immediately after completing it restarted it again and got all of the solo achievements.  Now on to the rest of the co-op. Things start off very familiar if you played Portal but quickly new game mechanics start getting added in.  By the end of the game you’ve got multiple new mechanics you have to pair together to complete fairly difficult puzzles. It is not that they are hard physically to complete with a lot of fast portal switching but the take some real thought to figure out how to complete them.  The earlier levels you can experiment a lot more and figure out how to complete rooms, but later on there are a lot of traps that will kill you if you are not careful.  I don’t mind this though as it made me think about my actions instead of just running in all crazy.

Even when I was stuck on levels for a while I did not mind because the story and interactions are so funny.  Throughout the whole game the interactions are really well done and the voice acting of them is excellent.  Plus many of the levels have fun easter eggs that you will only find if you stop and look around for a while. The really reward exploration and finding unique ways to complete levels.  Doing something unexpected almost always rewards you with some witty remark or sarcasm. Valve also fills in a lot of the back story behind how the Portal testing got started and who the various characters are in relation to each other.  All of this is done without your main character ever saying a word.

I’m not really doing Portal 2 justice here but just rent Portal 2, play for a few hours and you will be hooked. It is that awesome!