Games I Love: Portal 2

I played a lot of games during December, but the last few months of school have been very busy. I’ve wanted to write about so many of them, because I played a lot of great games! I finally have a little time to write about some of them. Portal 2 came out a year ago next week, so I thought it would be the perfect time to write about Portal 2, for the few people who haven’t played it yet.

One of the test chambers in Portal 2. With objects flying toward you courtesy of GLaDOS.

Portal 2 is a brilliant game. It’s challenging, it’s fun, and it has some of the best writing and voice acting ever seen in a video game. Hands down, it’s just all around great. But if you haven’t already been convinced by everyone else on the internet to play it, I won’t convince you either. It’s just amazing. And I’d recommend it to anyone. So do yourself a favor and just play it already. If it’s too expensive for you, wait for it to go on sale. They’ve even dropped the price to $20 now without a sale, so there’s not much excuse to not get it. Did I mention it’s even compatible with Macs?

I’m gushing all this praise on it and I haven’t even played the co-op part yet! Now that’s saying something!

Neurotoxin Tank — It’s your old friend: neurotoxin. At least you’re not in a test chamber this time.

And the companion interactive e-book “The Final Hours of Portal 2” is a very fascinating read. It chronicles the game’s development, including the internal struggles they had. It’s very open and honest, even talking about the year they spend developing Portal 2 before scrapping the entire game to start over because it just wasn’t working. It’s a great look into how a game is made, including the struggles of developing a sequel to an instant classic.

Portal 2 on Steam, The Final Hours of Portal 2 on Steam for PC and Mac or on the App Store for iPad. BONUS: Download the Portal 2 soundtrack for free! (Don’t worry; it’s totally legal!)