Portal 2 is the prime example of a game that truly lives up to the hype it has amassed over the years. Every single little thing about this game is just perfect. I'm not too big of a puzzle game fan because I'm more of a platformer and RPG fan but there's elements in this game I really appreciate since I'm not familiar with puzzle games. Once again, the portal gimmick is still amazing but also the new features such as the coloured goos and the tractor beams (I don't remember the names) were really fun to use in tandem with the existing things. I think the best part of this game is the shift to a more narrative direction. Portal was more about its puzzles with an escape sequence that was really well done, but Portal 2 amplifies everything and has a fun and engaging story with two very wonderful characters on the forefront that make the journey so much better. Just having banter and even music as well made the experience so much better. It's also impressive that most, if not all jokes landed. I streamed it to a friend and I had an absolute blast playing this, and there's a co-op campaign as well that I want to try out as well, though for my review here I'm going over the single-player one. Overall, this game is a really engaging and fun puzzle game with a pretty solid story and great gimmicks and it truly deserves all the hype it gets.

Much like the first game, the story and humor are on point in Portal 2. Wheatley is a great counterpart for GLaDOS. The mechanics are substantially expanded from the first game with the various types of goo, and I enjoyed the variety of new puzzles that provided.

The intro to the game really drags on, though, with lots of incredibly easy puzzles and loading screens. I would have preferred if it jumped into more challenging puzzles much more quickly. I liked the general idea of the non-puzzle areas, but I did get a bit tired of hunting around for the little bit of wall that I could put a portal on.

Those are just minor complaints, though. While Portal 2 isn't necessarily a personal favorite, I can see why it's generally rated among the best games of all time.

An extremely common subgenre of the puzzle genre is what I'm going to call the one-mechanic genre, where all the puzzles in the game build on one mechanic from start to finish, with the end goal almost always being the same, usually getting some object from Point A to Point B. 90% of those make the same mistake for me: the mechanic gets old. There are only so many ways you can push a box, draw a line, etc. without it getting dull. I'd say Portal 2 is the best example of this type of puzzle game, and it does it effortlessly. I don't think this game has a bad puzzle, or a boring stretch, at any point in its relatively long playtime. This is helped by the antics of Wheatly and GLaDOS but, obviously, the game design itself takes most of the credit. I think the main thing is that Portal 2 adds new and interesting mechanics regularly, and always combining them with old mechanics in interesting ways. This feels like an obvious statement, of course you want to add new types of puzzles as the game goes on, but it's so hard to do this well and Portal 2, again, does it in a way that feels effortless.

I wish Valve still made games regularly, because I think their work is genuinely masterful when they do.