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Portal 2 came as a bit of a shock to PlayStation 3 owners; many were expecting a weak 3rd party port , and some were even expecting the game to skip PS3 altogether. Then at E3 2010, Gabe Newell came out with the shock announcement that not only was Portal 2 headed to PS3 directly from developer Valve, but that it would have Steam integration and would be the definitive console version of the game. That’s a pretty big claim, especially considering that Valve had never developed a PlayStation 3 game before. Then again, this is Valve we’re talking about – and Valve know how to make unbelievably brilliant games.

If you don’t know the history behind the Portal (and Half-Life) games, it can be summed up as follows: Half-Life revolutionised the FPS genre (and gaming in general), Half-Life 2 cemented this. Half-Life 2 has had two sequel expansions (Episode 1 and Episode 2, with a third supposedly in development) and the original Portal game was a kind of spin-off, set in the same universe as, and with brief references to,  Half-Life 2. Portal was originally released as part of the ‘Orange Box’, a compilation of new and old Valve games, including Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Half-Life 2 Episode 2, and Portal itself. As part of a compilation (and actually a kind of remake of a free game called Narbacular Drop), Portal was never marketed as a full retail release, and was noticeably shorter than many other FPS games (including the Half-Life games) as a result. The strange thing is, it became just as acclaimed and loved as the Half-Life episodes, and so a sequel was inevitably put into production.

The basic premise behind Portal 2 is essentially the same as the original game; you get from point A to point B via a series of portals that you create yourself with a portal gun (though you can call it the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device if you really want to). Found a big chasm you can’t jump across? Simply fire a portal opening behind you, and another on the other side of the chasm, and just walk through! If you’ve never played any of the Portal games then you’ll find the basic mechanics a lot of fun to play around with. Your momentum is conserved as you move through a portal, so if you fall from a great height into a portal on the floor and come out of a portal on the wall, you will fly across the room with the same energy that you would have built up had you simply fallen vertically. Obviously gravity has its say on matters, and you’ll arc downwards as you go forward, but it’s one of many techniques that you’ll find invaluable as you work your way through the game.

It’s difficult to sum up the actual gameplay of Portal 2 without spending the entire review writing about it. Unlike most other FPS games, it’s not really the plot, set pieces or the sense of exploration that make Portal 2 fun to play (though those are all virtually flawless aspects of the game): it’s the basic mechanics of the game that make Portal 2 a delight to play, and that makes for a delightful change from ‘standard’ FPS games. There are no weapons of any sort, apart from your portal gun. To progress through the game you need to solve puzzles in various test chambers, each of which requires you to find an exit door, and also find your way through the back-end of an enormous industrial-style complex. There are enemies like turret guns, and you’ll need to think laterally to take them out without getting yourself into the firing line. There are also deep pits, acid pools, big crushing spikes and other similar environmental traps, all of which you’ll need to avoid if you are to succeed.

If you’ve played the first Portal game you’ll be used to all the fundamentals of Portal 2 already, but there are some significant changes. Firstly, Portal 2 is a much bigger game, probaly about three times the length of the original. You have some great test chambers to work through, but later on the game moves onto different kinds of puzzles, as well as sections outside of the test chambers where you’ll need to navigate through the facility to get to your next goal. It’s a really good mixture of styles, though the middle section does drag on slightly longer than necessary.

Secondly, Portal 2 adds some very cool new mechanics that allow you to play around in a whole host of new ways. If the puzzles in Portal were like a game of draughts, then Portal 2 is like a game of chess. There are physics-bending liquids, light walls, gravity beams, and different combinations of ideas you can make out of those. There is something really cool about the first time you transport a batch of liquid through a gravity beam and then watch it move along like those big droplets of Klingon blood in Star Trek VI. It’s a real joy to experiment with all the tools at your disposal and eventually stumble upon the answer to a puzzle, often without realising you on the right path all along. Where Portal 2′s puzzles really succeed is the way they are so logical. Every time you get stuck, it seems like you’re facing an impossible, unfair puzzle. Then, with enough lateral thinking and experimentation, you finally grasp the answer as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Visually, Portal 2 is excellent. The art design often belies the depth and quality of the graphics on offer, and it’s only when you encounter something aside from laboratory walls and plants that you realise how good it really looks. There’s one section in particular where the light sources start flying around, creating a whole mass of realtime shadows that move and behave perfectly. The physics engine is obviously one area where Portal 2 couldn’t afford to drop the ball, and it certainly doesn’t. Everything feels the right weight, and moves at the right speed. Similarly, the sound effects fit perfectly with the visuals and almost convince you that you are actually firing real boxes into a portal 400 metres across the room and then catching them yourself.

If all of this sounds incredible, then there’s one extra surprise that tops everything off like a perfectly plum cherry on top of a GLaDOS cake: the humour. Portal 2 is a really funny game. The inclusion of Stephen Merchant as an AI character called Wheatley is a fantastic idea, and whoever wrote his script somehow managed to get everything just right. There really are times when you will laugh out loud, which is something very rare in a high profile game these days. That’s not to say Merchant is the only star however, as the other characters are all brilliant and serve to bring the necessary level of variety to the game.

In addition to the single player mode, Portal 2 also features a fairly lengthy co-op campaign. While not as long as the single player mode, the co-op adds a nice layer of replayability to the game and can be played split screen or over the PSN. It’s a completely separate campaign set after the single player story, but the two stories are very lightly linked together and are set within the same environment. The co-op gameplay is very much like the single player mode, but with the twist that you each have a portal gun (each still firing two portals at a time). You’ll have to think even bigger to get through some of these puzzles, as you not only have to consider where you can put your portals but also where you can put portals for each other. Although the single player campaign is big enough to justify the cost of Portal 2 as a full retail game, adding a co-op mode beefs up Portal 2 to the level of almost any major AAA release of the current generation.

Portal 2 features a great set of Trophies that, unless you’re willing to use a walkthrough for the first time you play through (which would be a huge mistake!), will require one more playthrough of most of the levels. Once you’ve finished the game you can start a new one from any chapter in the game, which is a great way to enhance the replayability, as you may want to play through just one section, rather than the whole game right from the start. You’ve also got all the co-op Trophies to consider, which will add yet another layer of challenge to the game.

Overall, Portal 2 is one of the best games released this year. It’s not perfect – one of the middle stages definitely drags on a bit too long – but it’s very close. The graphics and music are fantastic, and the gameplay and voice acting are among the best you’ll find in any current generation game. If you’ve absolutely no head for puzzles then Portal 2 may not be for you, but for everyone else, you simply must play Portal 2 as soon as you can.