Exploring Portal Mods That Reinvent The Game

2 years ago

Thanks to Valve's welcoming approach to its modding communities, its already successful titles like Portal 2 have been made even more popular through the dozens of unique mods that completely rework the game. Between a fan base with endless creativity and passion for their favorite games and Valve openly embracing mods on Steam, it's not surprising that the modding communities surrounding games like Portal 2 have thrived. The result is a breadth of different mods that range from improved graphics with Portal 2: Desolation to practically new games in their own right, complete with new mechanics, puzzles, and more. As many fans of Portal know, its design can be scaled down into several core components, such as the straightforward mechanics leading to head-scratching test chambers, its recognizable aesthetic, or even its own lore. Yet Portal 2 mods have found ways of going further beyond these core concepts, creating games that give fans a fresh perspective on the series, with new mechanics, interesting twists on traditional puzzles, and experimenting with visuals. In each instance, Portal 2's mods take these core concepts and build upon them, reinventing the game in innovative ways.

🔴Aperture Tag: The Paint Gun Testing Initiative

Arguably, Aperture Tag: The Paint Gun Testing Initiative is an ideal example of a Portal mod that could be a spin-off, able to stand on its own while loosely connecting to the series. Doing away with the familiar Portal Gun, players are instead given a Paint Gun that shoots both Repulsion and Velocity Gels. Not only does this open up brand-new possibilities for puzzles, but it scratches that itch players had from Portal 2 that drove them to cover every surface in Portal 2's gels. The mod focuses more on gameplay and design than story, but it demonstrates fresh potential under the Aperture banner for future Valve games.

🔴Dilapidation

While Aperture Tag could be a spin-off, Dilapidation could be a contender for a prologue to Portal 2 were it not for Wheatley. Dilapidation is true to Portal form in its puzzles and mechanics, except it further incorporates Aperture's visual decay and disrepair seen early on in Portal 2. The story follows Chell as she tries to again escape the rundown facility, with the gameplay accompanied by an excellent atmosphere built through music, visuals, and level design. From malfunctioning elevators and collapsing structures, it better captures Aperture's ruin than Portal 2 itself, and there's even a "sequel" called Reconstruction that is currently being worked on by the same developer.

🔴Eidolon

A stark contrast to the functional, cubic design of Portal, Eidolon is a significant departure from other mods. At its core, the mod serves to completely rework Portal's geometry from hard angles to smooth curves, swapping industrial aesthetic for futurism reminiscent of Mirror's Edge's own style. Were it not for the lifted mechanics of portals, lasers, or such like, players could likely believe that it was an entirely different game. However, per the developer, the mod was more an exploration and experimentation in Portal's formula as it challenged how level design could direct a player, provide cues to solutions, and not detract from the overall experience.

🔴Memories

While Portal 2's Perpetual Testing Initiative let players finally design their own test chambers, Memories is possibly the better showcase of what fans would have achieved if given the creative freedom for level design. The mod was an episodic-style game that had players visiting distinctive areas in every chapter, each with its own theme, visuals, gimmicks, and more, all completed with a branching storyline. Though it retains the core mechanics of Portal, Memories offers a smorgasbord of different styles and experiences, ranging from forests and levels set in outer space to unique mechanics like controllable platforms and fire hazards.

🔴Portal Reloaded

One of Portal 2's more popular mods, Portal Reloaded introduces time travel to the Portal formula and opens up possibilities with this different dimension in level design. The player's Portal Gun can now shoot three portals: the two traditional orange and blue portals with a new third green portal. This new portal allows the player to step through time, switching between two time periods several decades apart. Complete with its own story that takes advantage of its time travel and alludes to the events of Portal, the mod provides an easy-to-understand yet difficult-to-master take on Portal's level design.

🔴Portal Stories: Mel

Another popular Portal 2 mod and likely the most well-known, Portal Stories: Mel is a well-developed, engaging story set prior to the events of Portal 2. It follows Mel, a German Olympic athlete recruited during Aperture's heyday who is woken up from stasis after GLaDOS's end in Portal. As Mel traverses the collapsing Aperture facility, they're confronted by an emergency security system AEGIS that was accidentally activated and mistakenly attempts to eliminate her. Like Dilapidation, Portal Stories: Mel could serve as a standalone prologue to Portal 2, taking over from the Rattman comic as a gaming alternative to bridge the gap between Portal and Portal 2.

🔴Thinking with Time Machine

Though it's another mod that introduces time travel to Portal's game design, Thinking with Time Machine is instead a blend between Portal 2's design and time control mechanics like those in Braid. Revisiting Chell right after the events of Portal 2, the mod lets players record their actions and create a duplicate in order to solve "co-op" test chambers solo. Its story doesn't significantly expand on Portal 2, as its ending is akin to the "just a dream" trope and circles back to Portal 2's ending, but in terms of creativity Thinking with Time Machine gives a new dimension to puzzle-solving and seems like it could be DLC.

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