Taken on its own, this effect is cool, but not that impressive. Present Aperture Science is all clean and gleaming and new, while future Aperture Science is dirty and crumbling and overgrown. Specifically, it lets you travel between the present and future versions of the exact same space, with a twenty-year gap between them. Whereas those portals are for moving instantly through space, this new, green portal lets you step seamlessly through time. This Portal works differently from the blue and orange portals already featured in the game. But it makes one major addition to Portal’s mechanics, adding a third portal you can place in the world. Taking place within the cavernous confines of Aperture Science, it features the same test-chamber structure and wry, lightly sadistic humour of the two official games. Portal Reload is a standalone Portal campaign. Then I played Portal Reloaded, which has made me fall in love with Portal’s puzzling in a whole new way, and made me realised that Valve barely scratched the surface of Portal’s puzzling potential. They don’t have that same “wow” factor you get when you walk through one of Portal’s portals for the first time, gasping as you instantaneously transition from one point in space to another.īut I also thought this wasn’t a fair criticism of Portal 2, because I didn’t believe it possible to rekindle that moment of astonishment. But these are fairly minor iterations upon the same concept. Sure, it adds extra puzzle elements like lasers, light-bridges, and various environment-affecting fluids. While I genuinely believe Portal 2 is a fantastic game, my one criticism of it is that it doesn’t bring anything fundamentally new to Portal’s puzzling concept. It is as good a sequel as you could possibly hope for to one of the most original and ingenious games ever made. I waxed lyrical how it’s possibly the best comedy game ever made, how cleverly it introduces new elements to Portal’s spatial conundrums, and how wonderfully it expands upon Aperture Science as a place. A couple of months back, I slathered my love for Portal 2 all over bit-tech.

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