
This is despite few concrete changes to the way the game is played. Limited multiplayer and post-campaign options diminish replayability slightly, but in almost every way Portal 2 is just as amusing and exhilarating as its predecessor. But what the company has done overall is develop a sequel that stands up proudly to the original, employing the characteristics that made it a distinctive success without dulling their memory. With Portal 2 ($49.99 for PC, $59.99 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), Valve has left intact the first quality, expanded and elaborated on the second, and addressed the third, if perhaps not substantially. Valve Software's 2007 game Portal was noteworthy for its witty and acerbic dialogue, creativity in blending the previously incompatible brain-teasing-puzzle-game and first-person-shooter genres, and relative shortness.


