Portal 2

Overview

Portal 2 is a 2011 first-person puzzle-platform game developed by Valve for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The retail versions and the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were distributed by Electronic Arts. A Nintendo Switch port came out in June 2022 as part of the Portal: Companion Collection.

Like the original Portal, you solve puzzles by placing portals and moving through them. Portal 2 adds excursion funnels, lasers, light bridges and paint-like gels that change how you move or let you put portals on any surface. In the single-player campaign you play Chell, who moves through the run-down Aperture Science Enrichment Center while the supercomputer GLaDOS (Ellen McLain) rebuilds it. New characters are the robot Wheatley (Stephen Merchant) and Aperture's founder Cave Johnson (J. K. Simmons).

There is also a co-op campaign in which two players are the robots Atlas and P-Body, both voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. It can be played split screen on one console or on separate machines, and PS3, Windows and OS X players could play together. Each campaign runs about six hours, and the game has developer commentary. Jonathan Coulton and the National wrote songs for it, and Mike Morasky composed the music.

Valve announced the game in March 2010 and first planned a late 2010 release. It was delayed to February 2011, then to April, with the retail release on April 20, 2011 in North America and April 22 in Europe and Australia. The PS3 version surprised the industry, because Gabe Newell had criticised the console after The Orange Box. It was the first PS3 game to support part of Steamworks, and a PS3 copy could be linked to a Steam account to unlock the PC version at no extra cost.

Valve patched in PlayStation Move support in November 2012 under the name Portal 2 In Motion, and a free co-op add-on followed in June 2013. The free Peer Review DLC, with a new co-op campaign and challenge modes, came out on October 4, 2011. PlayStation cross-play was discontinued in 2016.

Portal 2 received critical acclaim for its gameplay, pacing, dark humour, writing and acting, and is often named among the best games ever made. Metacritic gives it 95 out of 100. Valve said it had shipped more than 4 million copies by May 2012, with the PC version selling more than the console versions.

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Puzzle-platform, First-person

Developer

Valve

Publisher

Electronic Arts (PS3 retail)

Series

Portal

Engine

Source

Composers

Mike Morasky

Producers

Gabe Newell

Directors

Joshua Weier

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

2 (split screen co-op)

Online multiplayer

2 (co-op)

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Trophies

Trophies51

Platinum possibleYes

Platinum

1

Gold

3

Silver

5

Bronze

42

Total

51

Points

1350

Platinum without online

No

Online note

About 20 trophies are co-op. Professor Portal (gold) needs the co-op Calibration Course finished online with an invited friend who has never played.

Missable trophies

• Preservation of Mass: take the Companion Cube out before it is destroyed at the elevator
• Good Listener, Scanned Alone and No Hard Feelings each have a short window in their chapter
• Hidden items: Door Prize, Portrait of a Lady, Final Transmission, Ship Overboard

• Portal 2 Platinum Trophy Collected all other Portal 2 trophies Platinum 4.63% of players
• Wake Up Call Survive the manual override Bronze 89.63% of players
• You Monster Reunite with GLaDOS Bronze 84.29% of players
• Undiscouraged Complete the first Thermal Discouragement Beam test Bronze 82.69% of players
• Bridge Over Troubling Water Complete the first Hard-Light Surfaces test Bronze 74.48% of players
• SaBOTour Make a break for it Bronze 67.43% of players
• Stalemate Associate Press the button! Bronze 66.58% of players
• Tater Tote Carry science forward Bronze 61.45% of players
• Vertically Unchallenged Master the Repulsion Gel Bronze 63.69% of players
• Stranger Than Friction Master the Propulsion Gel Bronze 59.81% of players
• White Out Complete the first Conversion Gel test Bronze 58.52% of players
• Tunnel of Funnel Master the Excursion Funnel Bronze 54.7% of players
• Dual Pit Experiment Do the same test twice Bronze 56.96% of players
• The Part Where He Kills You This is that part Bronze 53.7% of players
• Lunacy That just happened Gold 53.37% of players
• Drop Box Place a cube on a button without touching the cube Silver 39.43% of players
• Overclocker Complete Test Chamber 10 in 70 seconds Silver 15.36% of players
• Pit Boss Show that pit who's boss Bronze 21.03% of players
• Preservation of Mass Break the rules in Test Chamber 07 Bronze 37.37% of players
• Pturretdactyl Use an Aerial Faith Plate to launch a turret Bronze 22.59% of players
• Final Transmission Find the hidden signal in one of the Rat Man's dens Bronze 19.81% of players
• Good Listener Take GLaDOS' escape advice Bronze 47.85% of players
• Scanned Alone Stand in a defective turret detector Bronze 57.64% of players
• No Hard Feelings Save a turret from redemption Bronze 46.01% of players
• Schrodinger's Catch Catch a blue-painted box before it touches the ground Bronze 17.84% of players
• Ship Overboard Discover the missing experiment Bronze 23.62% of players
• Door Prize Examine all the vitrified test chamber doors Bronze 19.86% of players
• Portrait of a Lady Find a hidden portrait Bronze 25.69% of players
• You Made Your Point Refuse to solve the first test in Chapter 8 Bronze 22.59% of players
• Smash TV Break 11 test chamber monitors Bronze 12.92% of players
• High Five Celebrate your cooperative calibration success Bronze 66.09% of players
• Team Building Complete all test chambers in the Team Building co-op course Bronze 55.26% of players
• Confidence Building Complete all test chambers in the Mass and Velocity co-op course Bronze 42.14% of players
• Bridge Building Complete all test chambers in the Hard-Light Surfaces co-op course Bronze 31.14% of players
• Obstacle Building Complete all test chambers in the Excursion Funnels co-op course Bronze 25.68% of players
• You Saved Science Complete all test chambers in all courses of co-op Gold 21.61% of players
• Iron Grip Never lose a cube in Chamber 6 of the Mass and Velocity co-op course Bronze 8.88% of players
• Gesticul-8 Perform all 8 gestures of your own volition in co-op Bronze 27.72% of players
• Can't Touch This Dance in front of a turret blocked by a hard light bridge in co-op Bronze 18.37% of players
• Empty Gesture Drop your co-op partner in goo while they are gesturing by removing the bridge under them Bronze 11.93% of players
• Party of Three Find the hidden companion cube in co-op test chamber Bronze 9.26% of players
• Narbacular Drop Place a portal under your co-op partner while they are gesturing Silver 16.01% of players
• Professor Portal After completing co-op, complete Calibration Course online with a friend who hasn't played before Gold Needs online 6.28% of players
• Air Show Perform 2 aerial gestures before touching the ground in co-op Bronze 27.59% of players
• Portal Conservation Society Complete Chamber 3 in the Hard-Light Surfaces co-op course using only 5 total portal placements Bronze 7.61% of players
• Four Ring Circus Enter 4 different portals without touching the ground in co-op Bronze 11.27% of players
• Triple Crown Solve 3 co-op chambers in the Mass and Velocity course in under 60 seconds each Bronze 6.73% of players
• Still Alive Complete Course 4 with neither you nor your co-op partner dying Bronze 5.62% of players
• Asking for Trouble Taunt GLaDOS in front of a camera in each of the five co-op courses Bronze 14.19% of players
• Rock Portal Scissors Win 3 co-op games of rock-paper-scissors in a row Silver 22.14% of players
• Friends List With Benefits While playing co-op, hug 3 different people on your friends list Silver Needs online 5.73% of players

Space and patches

Space neededAbout 8 GB

Update patch01.04

These are the patches Sony still hosts for this disc ID. The game's real history can be longer.

DLC

Peer Review, a free co-op campaign, was released for every platform. The PS3 version also got the free Portal 2 In Motion content for PlayStation Move.

Items

Name	Date	Adds	Obtainable today	Price
Peer Review	2011-10-04	A new co-op campaign and challenge modes for single player and co-op	yes	free
Portal 2 In Motion		PlayStation Move support and extra content, released as a patch in November 2012		free
Portal 2 In Motion co-op add-on		A free co-op add-on for the In Motion content, added in June 2013		free

Playable today

Online

Online servers runningNo

PlayStation cross-play with Windows and OS X was discontinued in 2016. The game links to Steam for its online features.

Services

Service	Status
PlayStation cross-play with Steam (Windows, OS X)	ended

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	PS3	95	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Eurogamer	10	10
Edge	9	10
Famitsu	37	40

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Joshua Weier
Producer	Gabe Newell
Composer	Mike Morasky

Cast

Character	Actor
GLaDOS and Caroline	Ellen McLain
Wheatley	Stephen Merchant
Cave Johnson	J. K. Simmons
Atlas and P-Body	Dee Bradley Baker

Notes for collectors

• The PS3 version was the first PS3 game to use part of Steamworks, and a PS3 copy could be linked to a Steam account to get the Windows and Mac game free.
• Portal 2 came out a few days before the PlayStation Network outage of April 2011.
• Two trophies, Professor Portal and Friends List With Benefits, need online co-op with friends. The other co-op trophies can be done in split screen.
• Peer Review and Portal 2 In Motion (PlayStation Move) are both free.
• The European and North American discs list the same three patches, but the sizes of 01.03 and 01.04 are swapped between the two regions.

Credits

Region

US

Time to beat

about 8.5 hours