Preview: Portal 2 (#e3)

The Chocolate Lemon team had a chance to sit down in a closed door environment with a Valve representative to learn about their sequel to their surprise smash hit, Portal. Nothing was playable, with most of what was shown being a demonstration of the new additions to the gameplay, as well as story progression and scenery changes. Here’s a laundry list of what you can expect from this puzzling sequel:

- Expect to play as a new character.

- Valve devs are working with what worked for everyone, and adding upon it, without needlessly complicating anything in terms of visuals or gameplay additions and gimmicks.

- Fans wanted more surprises in their experience, from gameplay to audio quips and everything in-between, and Valve will oblige.

- Wheatley will be a new personality you’ll run to. He’s been trying to escape for as long as you have been attempting the same.

- Your surroundings will not always be a predominance of cold, colorless walls and bland, simplistic details around you, as you’ll see a more grittier world, as well as some moss and other greenery sprinkled around certain places.

- There will be two player co-op gameplay featured in Portal 2, with its own unique set of maps for you and a friend to run through. Having two players with two portal guns will provide for some unique and memorable moments.

Valve will also be introducing a handful of new gameplay elements into the equation, which will challenge the player in ways you never thought possible in regards to the Portal series. Below is a brief description of each of the new gameplay elements in Portal 2:

Tractor Beam:

These beams will slowly pull you and other miscellaneous objects such as companion cubes and turrets, towards the other end of the beam. Players can manipulate the direction of the bean by utilizing their portal gun and providing an alternate path that will work in your favor.

Aerial Faith Plate:

50 ton pressure plates that will launch you or other items with a speed and force unseen previously.

Thermal Discouragement Beam:

Beams of red rays that are deadly to the touch, which can be directed towards another direction by moving your companion cube into its path. Using this will allow you to destroy any opposition that may lay in wait around a corner and out of your field of view. Can use a portal where the beam is hitting and transport that beam to a totally different direction, taking out even the farthest of obstructions.

Pneumatic Diversity Vent:

Think “giant super powered vacuum of death” and you’ll get the gist of it. You can use your portals to aim where and what you want to suck up and remove from your path.

Repulsion Gel:

Using this blue gel-like substance will allow you to bounce across the screen, or even bounce from wall to wall, like a rubber ball. Your portal gun can chance where the gushing faucet will spew this bouncy blue matter, allowing you to bounce up to previously unreachable areas.

Propulsion Gel:

This red gel-like substance will allow you to skid across any surface it has coated, increasing your acceleration and overall speeds the longer you slide across it. This will allow you to cross giant caps, or skid through a path of instant death before it catches you. As with the Repulsion Gel, you can manipulate where the gel gets poured onto by using your portal gun.

The video Valve presented gave us just a tiny glimpse into what we can expect to play when portal 2 is finally completed. Unfortunately, we’ll all have to wait until sometime in 2011 to port ourselves back into the Portal universe. Look for Portal 2 on the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC and Mac platforms when it’s all said and done. We will provide more content to this story as we receive it.

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