by Felicia DeInnocentiis | Staff Writer

Portal 2, the first-person platform, strategy video game, has just been released to its awaiting gaming public. It is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2007 release, Portal, in which the player had to use a device that generated wormhole-like portals in order to pass through obstacles and get to the next level. The game was a puzzling problem solver while the game’s narrator, GLaDOS, kept the players on edge.

“I felt so smart every time I finished a level,” junior Drea Quinones, an ever-devoted fan of the game series, said.

Portal 2 is a similar situation. After his defeat in the first game, GLaDOS, the computer boss who runs Aperture Laboratories, is back with a whole new series of levels and a desire to get revenge. As Chell, the main character, you wake up to find yourself in a post-apocalyptic Aperture Labs holding room where you are rescued by Whetely, a stupid yet well-meaning robot. From there, you try to escape from Aperture Labs once more. The scenery is exquisite and allows you to revisit past level platforms from the previous game. The levels have turned decrepit, but still recognizable enough to evoke a sense of nostalgia. After a series of unfortunate mishaps with Whetely, you end up reawakening and rebooting GLaDOS who, needless to say, has a serious grudge against you for killing her. Instead of killing you on the spot, she sends you to complete even more brutal levels, meanwhile taunting you with satirical humor about your weight and the absence of your parents.

Portal 2 is a brilliant sequel. It stays true to the story line and the key components that made its fan base fall in love with it originally, including the squeaky-voiced killer Turrets, the critical-analysis set-up of the levels, and the ever dubious GLaDOS who keeps her spine-chilling voice and ulterior motives. Portal 2 is entertaining, both as a sequel and as an introduction to other gamers that are unfamiliar.

SPOILER ALERT!

The cake is still a lie.