Is cool.

Okay, I guess I have more to say than that. I know I'm a good month-plus late for any review I might do to have some sort of relevance, which in internet time is approximately seventy-four years, but guys, listen. Portal 2. Yeah.

Uh, good game.

The plot sequencing was a little blocky, cut into too-neat chunks that stretch things out longer than they may deserve on their own merits, but if you guessed "What is not at all" to the Jeopardy question "This is how much Nate cares," then you are today's big winner. The puzzles were almost unanimously fun and interesting, and the addition of redirectable lasers and the various gels added new dimensions. You end up flying all over the place and the levels are so well designed that even when you're in the middle of a madcap flight through chaotic levels of visual madness, somehow you are smoothly directed in the right ways to go without ever feeling herded.

The voice acting is top notch, the humour is delightful. I could play it again just to listen to it. The puzzles ramp up smoothly in difficulty and though there are a few head scratchers there's never anything that's keyboard-smashing tough, especially if you've played the first game and have some working knowledge of portal physics.

If you have any way at all of playing the two-player co-op levels, you really need to do so. Get some headphones and get on Skype with your partner. Joke and plot and swear at the puzzles. The co-op levels are fantastic. CNRedDragon and I played through them all over three evening sessions and loved them. You need teamwork and you need to bend your puzzle-solving Portal mind in all new directions when you have two sets of portals to work with. The puzzles here reach levels of complexity that are simply impossible to match in the single player game.

The single player game is about ten to twelve hours long, depending on how long it takes you to solve puzzles. That sounds a little short for a $50 game, and it is, but it's a very dense, full ten hours. The co-op campaign adds another six to eight hours. I don't approve of the general trend of shorter games, but I guess that's a price you pay for the development time involved in high end graphics. At least it approaches 20 hours in total if you're generous, and to be honest, I don't think the game could have taken too much more. The plot is already stretched, so all you could add is more puzzles, and I think the plot-to-puzzle balance is already pretty good. The game's overall impact is already diluted slightly compared to the first game, and making it longer would only amplify the effect. Portal was a small slice of awesome. Portal 2 is a crumbly personal-sized pie of cool.

Two big toes up. Highly recommended.

There's also this thing at the other side of the link. Slight spoilers if you haven't played the game, perhaps, if you care about that sort of thing and if the plot of Portal is something you play for. Also, it has music.