Portal 2
Portal 2 is a 2011 puzzle-platform game developed by Valve for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The digital PC version is distributed online by Valve's Steam service, while all retail editions were distributed by Electronic Arts. A port for the Nintendo Switch was included as part of Portal: Companion Collection.
Portal 2
Valve
Joshua Weier
- Jeremy Bennett
- Randy Lundeen
Like the original Portal (2007), players solve puzzles by placing portals and teleporting between them. Portal 2 adds features including tractor beams, lasers, light bridges, and paint-like gels that alter player movement or allow portals to be placed on any surface. In the single-player campaign, players control Chell, who navigates the dilapidated Aperture Science Enrichment Center during its reconstruction by the supercomputer GLaDOS (Ellen McLain); new characters include robot Wheatley (Stephen Merchant) and Aperture founder Cave Johnson (J. K. Simmons). In the new cooperative mode, players solve puzzles together as robots Atlas and P-Body (both voiced by Dee Bradley Baker). Jonathan Coulton and the National produced songs for the game.
Valve announced Portal 2 in March 2010, and promoted it with alternate reality games including the Potato Sack, a collaboration with several independent game developers. After release, Valve released downloadable content and a simplified map editor to allow players to create and share levels.
Portal 2 received critical acclaim for its gameplay, balanced learning curve, pacing, dark humor, writing, and acting. Like its predecessor, it has been described as one of the greatest video games ever made by numerous publications and critics.
Release[edit]
Announcement[edit]
In January 2008, Valve spokesman Doug Lombardi told Eurogamer, "There'll be more Portal, for sure",[104] and Portal designer Kim Swift confirmed that work on Portal 2 would begin the following month.[105] Swift said that a multiplayer mode in Portal was "technically possible",[106] but that it was "less fun than you'd think."[107]
Portal 2 was officially announced on March 5, 2010, via Game Informer. Events during the preceding week foreshadowed the announcement. On March 1, Valve released a patch for Portal that included a new achievement, "Transmission Received", requiring the player to manipulate in-game radios. This revealed new sound effects that became part of an alternate reality game (ARG).[108] Some of the new effects were of Morse code strings that suggested GLaDOS was rebooting, while others could be decoded as SSTV images from grainy Aperture Science videos. The images included hints to a BBS phone number that, when accessed, provided a large number of ASCII-based images relating to Portal and segments of Aperture Science documents.[109] Many of these ASCII pictures were later published in the Game Informer reveal of the title.[2] New ASCII images continued to appear on the BBS after the official announcement. Background on the ARG is embedded in additional SSTV images found in a hidden room in Portal 2.[110] Valve's Adam Foster came up with the idea for the ARG, tying it to the Game Informer reveal, and he provided his own home phone line to run the BBS software on, as Valve's offices at the time were too modern to support the protocol. Foster estimates the ARG cost less than $100 to run.[111][112]
Use in education[edit]
Teach with Portals[edit]
Valve announced "Teach with Portals" and "Steam for Schools" in June 2012, initiatives that offered Portal 2 and Portal 2 Puzzle Maker for education. The educational version was free but only contained the single-player campaign and Puzzle Maker, and was only available for "Steam for Schools" users.[167]
Several critics wrote that Portal 2 excels in teaching the player to solve puzzles; in a review for the New York Times, Seth Schiesel wrote, "Somewhere out there an innovative, dynamic high school physics teacher will use Portal 2 as the linchpin of an entire series of lessons and will immediately become the most important science teacher those lucky students have ever had."[168] Mathematics and science teachers wrote e-mails to Valve to tell them how they had included Portal in their classroom lessons as part of a project to promote the "gamification of learning".[169] Portal developers Joshua Weier and Yasser Malaika led a team within Valve to explore ways of using Portal 2 for education.[169] This led to the development of Puzzle Maker, a level editor for Portal 2 players, built from the professional tools used to develop the game.[169] Weier and Malaika did not want to design curricula themselves, but wanted to provide educators with tools for creating lesson plans. Hammer, the only tool freely available before the release of the built-in level editor in 2012, was difficult for educators to learn and understand. To address this, Valve gave Puzzle Maker an easy-to-learn interface and the ability to share puzzles and lesson plans. The tools were developed with a mathematics teacher and her students.[155][169] This formed the basis of a new "Steam for Schools" initiative launched in June 2012, under which educators could acquire Portal 2 and the Puzzle Maker software free of charge for classroom use through its "Teach with Portals" program.[170] In November 2012, Valve estimated that over 2,500 educators were using the "Teach with Portals" software within their lesson plans.[169]
Research[edit]
In 2016, a study demonstrated that the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker can be used as a measure of fluid intelligence, similar to the Bochumer Matrices Test (BOMAT).[171] Referred to as the Portal 2 Test Battery, the participants of the study completed a series of test chambers that progressively became harder.[171]
Some studies have been conducted to determine if video games can have a significant impact on cognitive and non-cognitive skills.[172][173] Through multiple pretests and post tests, a 2014 study has shown that Portal 2 can improve problem solving skills, spatial skills, and persistence for a designated task.[172] The participants of this study did not need to have previous gaming experience.[172] Another study done in 2017 found that commercial video games, like Portal 2, can also increase communication, adaptability and resourcefulness.[173]
Hardware support[edit]
Razer Hydra[edit]
Sixense developed a version of Portal 2 to support the Razer Hydra motion controller for PC that allows enhanced control of some game elements.[174] Ten extra single-player levels are available as downloadable content for this version.[175] Writer Chet Faliszek said Sixense developers spent nine months to a year in-house at Valve preparing the native version.[176] A limited edition of the Razer Hydra comes bundled with a copy of Portal 2 for PC.[177]
PlayStation 3[edit]
The announcement that Portal 2 would be available on PlayStation 3 came as a surprise to the industry because Gabe Newell had criticized that console in the past, citing difficulties in the port of The Orange Box.[178] The move toward the PlayStation 3 was a result of growing frustration with Microsoft's policies for Xbox 360 content, including the difficulty of releasing patches and new content. Newell saw Sony's publication model as more open, allowing Steam-like features to be used on the console.[11] Portal 2 was the first PlayStation 3 game to support a subset of features from Steamworks, including automatic updates, downloadable content, and community support.[179] The game supports cross-platform play between the PlayStation 3, Windows, and OS X versions.[180]
The Steam overlay shows the player's friends on both Steam and the PlayStation Network, with achievements rewarded for both Steam and PlayStation Network Trophies.[181] Players can unlock the game on Steam for Windows and OS X for no additional charge.[180][181] The integration of Steamworks on the PlayStation 3 allows Valve to collect data about problems that arise after shipping and push appropriate updates.[5] Valve has stated they do not plan on integrating other PlayStation 3 features, such as 3D television or PlayStation Move support.[182][183] In June 2012, Valve announced that the PlayStation 3 version would be patched later that year to include support for the PlayStation Move motion controller, and to add the additional content that was previously provided with the Hydra, under the name Portal 2 In Motion.[184] The patch was released in early November 2012.[185] A free co-op add-on for the Portal 2 In Motion content was added in June 2013.[186] Valve said that despite additional support for PlayStation 3 over Xbox 360, the core game is the same on both platforms.[187]
SteamOS and Linux[edit]
As of February 2014, SteamOS, Valve's own Linux-based operating system, supports Portal 2 and its predecessor, as do most modern Debian-based Linux distributions on its services via the Steam client. Released as a Beta in early 2014 for Linux distributions, it holds all of the same traits as the other versions, retaining cross-platform play, split screen and fully native controller support.[1]