A wonderfully crafted technically-a-first-person-shooter puzzle-platformer, with decent comedic chops and lots of interesting mechanics expanded upon by the community.
Note that I played Portal 2 first and Portal after. The tone is a lot lighter in the newer game, further detaching itself from Half-Life. Some mechanics have been refined, the slow-moving energy ball now a laser, and portal shots traveling instantly to their destination. New mechanics, such as the speed, bounce, and portal paint, are introduced and iterated upon over the course of the game, but like the original, it does not overstay its welcome. (It's still about twice as long as the very short Portal.) Somehow, I have yet to actually play through the co-op mode, which by all reports seems to be another 8 hours.
Also like the original, Portal 2 is quite easy. Those looking for challenging puzzles may find more interest in community-made mods such as Portal Stories: Mel or Portal Reloaded, or community maps published on the workshop ranging from base-game easy to nightmarishly-difficult. A quick note on community maps: I highly recommend completely ignoring steam workshop votes and built-in discovery tools -- there is a lot of poorly-designed yet highly-popular maps there. Look for recommendations from humans, not algorithms. RedSilencer's Introduction to the Workshop collection is an excellent first choice on post-game community puzzles.
Portal 2 was the first game I played on my Steam account when I was 11 or so. It's not a long game, but I sunk many hours into it, playing through multiple times over the years and even longer just noclipping through the maps to see everything and listening to the developer commentary, always a extra treat in Valve games for budding or wannabe game developers. (Unfortunately: *gestures broadly at the gaming industry*)
Note that I played Portal 2 first and Portal after. The tone is a lot lighter in the newer game, further detaching itself from Half-Life. Some mechanics have been refined, the slow-moving energy ball now a laser, and portal shots traveling instantly to their destination. New mechanics, such as the speed, bounce, and portal paint, are introduced and iterated upon over the course of the game, but like the original, it does not overstay its welcome. (It's still about twice as long as the very short Portal.) Somehow, I have yet to actually play through the co-op mode, which by all reports seems to be another 8 hours.
Also like the original, Portal 2 is quite easy. Those looking for challenging puzzles may find more interest in community-made mods such as Portal Stories: Mel or Portal Reloaded, or community maps published on the workshop ranging from base-game easy to nightmarishly-difficult. A quick note on community maps: I highly recommend completely ignoring steam workshop votes and built-in discovery tools -- there is a lot of poorly-designed yet highly-popular maps there. Look for recommendations from humans, not algorithms. RedSilencer's Introduction to the Workshop collection is an excellent first choice on post-game community puzzles.
Portal 2 was the first game I played on my Steam account when I was 11 or so. It's not a long game, but I sunk many hours into it, playing through multiple times over the years and even longer just noclipping through the maps to see everything and listening to the developer commentary, always a extra treat in Valve games for budding or wannabe game developers. (Unfortunately: *gestures broadly at the gaming industry*)