Portal Reloaded

Portal Reloaded: Portals, Portals, and Even More Portals! 

Portal Reloaded introduces a new portal that can transport you, as the Rocky Horror Picture Show put it, “through space and, who knows, perhaps even time itself!”

Welcome Back to Aperture Laboratories

Portal Reloaded is technically not a new Portal game, but it’s close. It’s a community-made modification of Portal 2 by PORTANIS that adds a game’s worth of new content.

The mod was released on the 10th anniversary of Portal 2 as a celebration of the game. If you are a fan of the Portal series, it’s worth checking out - especially since it’s free-to-play! 

It’s Portal, Only in FOUR Dimensions!

Deep in the bowels of the Aperture Science building lies a long-forgotten project. As Test Subject [4-5-0-9], you are revived from cryosleep to become the plaything of a creepy AI. You’re equipped with the Triple Portal Gun, which can create a new type of portal. 

[Portal Reloaded] opens a portal 20 years into the future.

Specifically, it opens a portal 20 years into the future. You’ll need to manipulate time as well as space to complete the new puzzles.

Concept Rating: 5/5

It’s Still Portal 2

Portal Reloaded isn’t a new game, but a mod of Portal 2. It looks and sounds almost identical. The new time portal is green and rectangular, rather than round and red or blue, but that’s about the biggest difference. Plus, Portal 2 is a 10-year-old game.

The soundtrack is available for purchase and helps support the creator, PORTANIS.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. More Portal 2 is what we ordered, and it’s what we got. The innovation here is in the gameplay.

That said, there is new music, in a classic upbeat-yet-ominous Portal sound. The soundtrack is available for purchase and helps support the creator, PORTANIS. 

Graphics & Audio Rating: 3.5/5

Okay, So It’s More than Just Portal 2

Portal Reloaded adds new content in three connected ways: a new story, a new tool, and new puzzles. The importance of these is just what you expect from a Portal game.

The focus is on the new tool and puzzles...

The story is fun but minor. It may be a little disturbing at times, and darkly funny at others, but it’s a relatively small part of the game. It contains about 100 new lines of dialogue. (Although, in Portal style, it’s monologue!) The focus is on the new tool and puzzles - Portal Reloaded has much less story than bigger community projects like Portal Stories: Mel. 

The new tool is a spectacular addition to the game. Adding a third portal makes the possible puzzles far more complex. Since portals can still go through other portals, this opens up (so to speak) a lot of new possible combinations and adds a new (fourth) dimension to the game. 

Adding a third portal makes the possible puzzles far more complex.

In Portal games, every new tool means a new class of puzzles. You are, as usual, given an introduction and a bit of practice to see how it works before you’re turned loose to fend for yourself. Later puzzles often build on earlier ones. 

There are 25 new puzzles, and they’re good ones - overall, quite tough but ultimately fair. Whether you like them or not may depend on your tolerance for frustration, but they’re well-crafted. Creator Jannis Brinkmann explains that “the mod also wants to push its concepts to their limits and explore many new and interesting ways of puzzle-solving.”

Gameplay Rating: 4/5

Close Enough to Portal 3

If you like Portal or puzzle games in general, you really should check out Portal Reloaded. It’s full of challenging puzzles that give a great thrill of discovery when solved - and again, it’s free-to-play.

Portal is all about solving puzzles, and they don’t change. Once you’ve solved all the puzzles, you’ll probably need to give yourself a few months or years (depending on how good your memory is) to forget them before you play through them again.

**Note: you will need to own a copy of Portal 2 to play Portal Reloaded!**

Replay Value Rating: 3.5/5

TL;DR

Portal Reloaded is a Portal 2 free-to-play mod that introduces a third portal -- perfect for fans of the series.