Having completed Portal 2 in co-op, I thought I should really play the single player too. I’d remembered the overarching plot from my first playthrough, and the end boss fight (including how to beat it), but almost none of the puzzles and areas were familiar. Or rather, were but in a fuzzy sort of “this looks like something I have a very vague recollection of” in terms of graphics more than anything.
So as with Portal, it was a nearly new experience and it still holds up well today. The new additions over the first game such as the bouncy gel and slidey gel are fun, but I seem to remember that those bits of the game, specifically in the Cave Johnson areas, made up a much larger proportion of the game than it turns out they do. As in, I was sure they took up at least 90% rather than the 20%-ish they actually do. Memory, eh? It isn’t how it used to be.
Cave Johnson is great, by the way. His audio recordings and descent into old man lunacy as they progress are hilarious. As is the rest of the dialogue, actually, with Wheatley being excellent and Potato-GLaDOS an excellent alternative to the unhinged normal-GLaDOS.
Portal 2 may not be as fondly remembered as Portal but it is still fantastic. If only Valve knew how to count to 3, eh?
