First Details Of Portal 2 Emerge

Game Informer's April issue had the first details of the highly anticipated sequel to the ground breaking game Portal, by developer Valve. So here they are, for all of your viewing pleasure, the first real and most interesting details of Portal 2.

Portal 2 is set hundreds of years after the original game and sees the return of nasty GlaDOS and female protagonist/test subject, Chell. There's also two-player co-op planned with a pair of humanoid robots controlled by each player. They like to hold hands.

• Portal was a 'trial game' apparently. Size and assets were specifically kept minimal as Valve had no idea it would be as popular as it turned out to be.
  


• Portal was a 'test bed', Portal 2 is a 'full game'.
  


• Portal 2 takes place hundreds of years after the original and so the Aperture Science complex has overgrown and almost looks like a jungle.
  


• GlaDOS returns as the antagonist.
  


• Chell returns as the hero, and we play as her once again.
  


• Those personality orbs you may recall from the last Portal have sectioned off parts of the Aperture labs as their territory and are concerned about the decaying state of the complex.
  


• The original Portal gun thankfully remains unchanged, so will still be the same sleek, crisp white lump of tech we're used to.
  


• There's a new 'paint' mechanic wherein certain liquid substances can be used to cause a reaction. For instance, the demo showed an orange substance on the floor that propelled Chell upwards. Using portals you can chuck these 'paints' through to other areas of the level for puzzle solving.
  


• New reflection cubes will enable you to reflect laser beams for some puzzles.
  


• Physics will now be an integral part of portal puzzle solving. A vent that sucks air in can be combined with a portal to 'suck' from a different location is cited as an example.
  


• The co-op campaign has you play as two bipedal robots that like to hold hands. Fruity.
  


• Co-op will also have a splitscreen option and will reportedly utilise picture-in-picture online to allow you to easily communicate with the other player and combine efforts for puzzle solving. Nice.

Some great news to start getting excited if I do say so myself. Really looking forward to this game and hearing some more news come E3 if not sooner.