"Portal 2"
4 out of 5 stars
Available for: PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PS3

The original “Portal” was a side project by Valve, the makers of the “Half-Life” series. However, it took off like a rocket becoming one of the best games of 2007, propelled by a strong sense of creative design, mechanics and memorable lines from GLaDOS — a robot with sarcastic, sadistic Artificial Intelligence.

The question is, can Valve recapture the original “Portal” success without being redundant? The cake is not a lie, so to speak; “Portal 2” is good.

“Portal 2” is a puzzle game requiring thought and timing to advance through each test chamber. Players shoot their portal gun at the wall, moving through orange and blue portals to move themselves and projectiles past obstacles and to open doors.

Momentum plays a factor in some puzzles; players may have to jump down a hole and go through one portal to get enough speed going through the other portal to get over a gap, for example.

There are some additions to the game’s mechanics from the original that add to the novelty. This includes various gels to shoot on the ground to change the area’s physics, such as allowing players to jump higher or run faster to get through different environments.

The game begins several years after the first game and the events of “Half-Life 2.” The protagonist, Chell, has been in stasis since the first game, and is helped along by a personality core named Wheatley to try and escape the dilapidated Aperture Science facility. Chell and Wheatley inadvertently reactivate GLaDOS, and she forces Chell to return to the test chambers yet again.

A saga of exploration through all levels of the facility follows, revealing Aperture Science’s back story piece by piece, including GLaDOS’ origin story and the company’s place in the “Half-Life” universe.

The single-player game is still relatively short, though longer than the original “Portal,” but an added cooperative game bulks up the game’s value.

Two players, as robots Atlas and P-body, work together with their own portal guns to advance through various chambers. Coherent teamwork is key to advancing through these test chambers, but messing with the portals and causing a teammate to get crushed or eviscerated by various environmental hazards is fun too.

The deadpan humor from the first Portal returns strongly in the sequel. An embittered GLaDOS still berates and insults players, while Wheatley, voiced by Stephen Merchant, does well as a cowardly idiot-savant that eventually goes mad.

Various recorded messages by Aperture’s CEO show the gradually changing character of the company, from being a cutting edge revolutionary company to one whose practices began to border on torture.

Even with the single-player and co-op campaigns, “Portal 2” is a pretty short game. This wasn’t a problem with the first “Portal,” which was given out as part of the Orange Box, but paying $50-$60 for about 12-14 hours of content isn’t for everyone.

That being said, brevity isn’t a detriment to puzzle games, especially depending on a player’s attention span. More importantly, the game is fun and is a prime example of quality over quantity in gaming, much like its predecessor.

If you’re looking for an intellectual workout and some snide entertainment, “Portal 2” is right up your alley.

— AJ Lansdale, professional writing senior