Time to bake a cake and deploy some smooth jazz — Portal 2 (2011) has officially hit its 15th anniversary! Originally released in April 2011 by Valve Corporation, the developers had much to live up to. Its predecessor Portal(2007) was an unexpected phenomenon, now cemented as a modern classic.
The sequel was highly anticipated, and safe to say, it lived up to the hype. Portal 2 received mass amounts of praise, being rated one of the best games of 2011 by numerous media outlets including Time Magazine, NPR, and The Globe and Mail.
Those who stepped through Aperture Laboratories — myself included — have been chasing that high since the moment we first woke up inside Aperture’s walls. For years, we have been scouring the desolate lands of Steam, searching for any form of a puzzle game that comes close to what the Portal series delivered.
There have been some that come close — my personal favourite being The Talos Principle — but sometimes you just can’t outdo the original. So, for its 15th anniversary, I replayed Portal 2.
And oh boy, do I have thoughts.
The Portal games are master classes in storytelling for a number of reasons, but Portal 2 manages to go above and beyond for these aspects:
The first thing that stands out is the humour. This was one of the first games that actually made me laugh out loud — and these jokes aren’t told simply for the sake of being funny. The degrading remarks thrown at the player by a vengeful GLaDOS are witty, sharp, and add to the sense of foreboding for what she has in store for you. J.K. Simmons’ ramblings as Aperture’s wildly incompetent founder, Cave Johnson, paint a perfect picture of a man whose corporate greed was his ultimate undoing. And Wheatley’s hilarious quips, voiced by Stephen Merchant, bring light to the otherwise bleak opening portions of the game — only to twist into something far darker once the little robot is driven mad with power, becoming the game’s main antagonist.
Another element that has stuck with me all these years is the game’s environmental storytelling. The level design isn’t just decorative; every detail plays a role in the overall plot. In Aperture’s offices, children’s science projects sit abandoned after the events of the first game, hinting at the lives disrupted by the facility’s collapse. Hidden dens tucked behind wall panels contain illustrations by the first game’s character “Ratman” — depicting tiny fragments of what happened between the first and second games. And deep in the remnants of Aperture’s original test chambers, faded posters urge scientists to warn their supervisors if they spot OSHA inspectors, police officers, or worse… journalists.
Blending music with gameplay is not easy and Portal 2 implements it in such a unique way that most players might not even notice until they give it a closer listen. Harmonies layer themselves into the melody every time you line up a laser with its receiver. Trilling arpeggios rise in tandem with the music as you bounce across blue repulsion gel. Mechanical percussive hits add a satisfying crunch to the soundtrack when you pick up a cube or fly through the air by way of aerial faith plates. The music isn’t just a companion to the game, it is a very part of the mechanics.
This all brings us to the gameplay. Even after countless replays, the puzzles were still enjoyable and challenging — balancing cleverness and creativity, while being user friendly enough for players of all ages to navigate the various tests. In fact, some of my fondest memories of this game are playing it with my younger cousins, and watching them experience the adventure for the first time. The introduction of new mechanics, like lasers and gels, only expands the gameplay without sacrificing the core of what made the first game fun.
There isn’t a single element of Portal 2 that exists purely for show. Each piece is fundamental to the story. From the opening sequences, where you explore a seemingly abandoned facility, to the stretches where you navigate the remnants of its original testing chambers. You can feel the love and care the developers poured into this game the second you step foot into those Aperture Science Long Fall Boots.
My thoughts on Portal 2 honestly haven’t changed much since my first playthrough. Booting it up again felt like visiting an old friend. The way the developers so carefully crafted the story was inspiring to me as a wannabe writer in high school, and it’s all the more poignant now that I understand the skill it takes as an actual writer. Its wit, its charm, and its intoxicating gameplay have earned it a permanent spot in my top 10 favourite games of all time.
