Portal 2 is… kind of perfect. Leave it to Valve to take a simple idea of portals and turn into one of the most ingenious games out there. Back in 2011, I played this game to death and it was even the first game I ever beat. Something I was so enamored with back then was the atmosphere. The cracked glass, muddy Portal panels and hanging vines of the run-down Aperture laboratories bring a somber and sad vibe while also being intriguing and vast at the same time. It really feels like you’ve been trapped in this hellish facility for forever. As for the gameplay, it’s Valve at their best. You know, mature design that really gets you thinking. The newly added spheres, gels, lasers, light bridges, excursion tunnels and aerial faith plates are new toys to play with, adding way more creativity to the various tests and allow you to experiment more and find new solutions to puzzles. The portals combined with these various elements of the levels is an imagination prodding playground. All of the game mechanics are cool on their own, but when you figure out how they interact with each other to find solutions due to fantastic level design, it is one of the most satisfying things in any piece of media, making you feel like the smartest human alive. It really shows that this portal formula that blew people away in the first game is foundational and needs no makeover, just smart evolutions and creativity. The highlights of the game this time around are the ways that it immerses you more in this universe. GLaDOS is as GLaDOS as ever. Sassy, sarcastic, and now strapped right to your Portal gun for half the game, giving you and her a new perspective that carries the story. Her sharp whit juxtaposed with the newly introduced Wheatley’s literal programmed in incompetence and stupidity is a hilarious dynamic and makes for some fun moments and an exciting conclusion. Halfway through the game you get flushed by a power hungry Wheatley to the abandoned part of Aperture labs from the 1960s. Here you learn more of the lore of the facility, its connection to Half-Life’s Black Mesa, and its former CEO Cave Johnson, who is descending into madness just as fast as the organization he heads. Cave Johnson by the way, is perfect because he is voiced by JK Simmons. Anyways, this section is a treat, and all the storytelling is done in the classic Valve way, keeping you in control and letting the world around you do the work. In short, Portal 2 is a masterpiece. A delight from start to finish and one of the best games of all time.