Por(t)al 2

... the game that taught us that infinitely running through the same wall never gets old

... or that a thin layer of goo is quite bouncy

... or that dropping your friend through a portal to make him/her fall into a few inches of water and short circuit (die) is slightly entertaining

I present you Portal 2!  

Two robots (in the coop play) with the ability to open accessible portals awaken in a beautifully created, futuristic, post apocalyptic type world with a psychotic, manipulative, sarcastic, training controller robot named GLaDOS. She (the voice is robotic but a woman's so...) she has devised countless levels of puzzles in a massive facility that it seems was originally used to test humans. She is now using it to test you. 

The game is challenging and fun, giving you a sense of accomplishment as you weave your way through a maze of puzzles. Each new level becomes harder or at least different than the last. In some levels you'll have try again and again to make the perfect jump or recall the buttons you pressed to test them in a different order. 

To move through the puzzles, and sometimes to make them just a little more difficult, there are glowing, blue, hologram walkways, anti-gravity vortexes, slime that makes you slide really fast, goo that makes you jump higher, lasers, machine gun fire, and contraptions similar to a catapult that will throw you great distances. 

The physics of the game are fantastic and mind boggling at the same time. You fire a portal at the wall and one at the floor and as you move through the wall to the floor you feel slight vertigo as your view and gravity reasserts itself in the game. How the programmers were able to comprehend the physics of the scenario and how the world and robots would react to the changes is amazing and definitely something to be applauded.

I found Coop to be a great addition to the game. Sometimes two brains were better than one and the extra set of portals made things much more interesting. I'm all for coop games and it was fun to play with my buddy and also my sister. 

The interaction between the two robots is also a comical, novel feature of the game. You can hug, smack each other, tell a joke, and even play rock, paper, scissors.

It is an amazing game to play and it is frustrating at times. It is a win that you have to earn. 

I know its in the past by a few years but definitely give it a rent or buy it used, I'm sure you can find a cheap copy somewhere. 

Worth it,

M.