Valve’s puzzle masterpiece that perfected the portal gun, gave us Stephen Merchant as an idiotic AI, and proved comedy writing in games could rival Pixar films.
Now You’re Thinking With Portals
Released April 19, 2011, Portal 2 expanded the original’s minimalist puzzle chambers into sprawling co-op adventure. GLaDOS (returning villain), Wheatley (bumbling sphere), and Cave Johnson (recorded CEO messages) delivered the funniest video game script ever written.
12+ million copies sold. 95 Metacritic. Perfect review scores from every major outlet.
Combustible Lemons
Cave Johnson’s rant—“I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!”—became instant classic. JK Simmons’ performance earned BAFTA nomination.
“The part where he kills you”: Wheatley’s chapter title, self-aware humor peak.
Co-Op Campaign: Two-player mode with 4 portals total created mind-bending spatial puzzles. Communication required.
Speedrunning Legacy
Portal 2’s momentum-based physics enabled incredible skips. Any% category reached sub-1 hour. Glitches like Save Load Exploit, Reportal, and ABH (Accelerated Back Hopping) pushed boundaries.
The game’s workshop (Steam) hosted 500,000+ user-created test chambers.
The hashtag represents Valve’s golden age—before they stopped making games.