Throughout the esteemed publisher’s stint as one of the biggest names in video games, Valve has always been very accepting of its vast modding community. From publishing Gmod as a full-fledged release to giving mods a dedicated home on Steam in the form of theSteam Workshop, eager players manufacturing new content for the publisher’s biggest games are always welcomed by the company.
In turn, the publisher’s games are usually home to some hugely inventive community-created projects, as is evidenced by an impressive new mod pack developed forPortal 2.DubbedPortal Reloaded,the project looks to switch up the notorious puzzle-based gameplay ofValve’s addictive platformer series, adding a third portal which allows the player to switch between two distinct time periods.
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Shown off in a new trailer,Portal Reloadedlooks wonderfully ambitious, seeing the player navigate through 25 fresh test labs while wielding three portals. The circular orange and blue portals work just as they did in the original game, allowing players to move from one space to another instantaneously. The new rectangular green portal, however, fires them into a far-flung future, where overgrown vines cover the walls and the architecture is much less stable than before. It’s a smart shake-up to the gameplay ofPortal 2,with the new dimension allowing for a fresh batch of intricate puzzles that are sure to leave players stumped.
The gameplay in the trailer showcases exactly how mind-bending the addition of a third portal is to levels, as the player weaves between numerous portals at once on their mission to reach the end of the chamber. Alongside this welcome new addition to gameplay, the mod will also feature a custom story, with the description revealing that players assume the role of a new test subject awoken by a mysterious AI. The tale takes place in the depths of the Aperture Science facility, away from the battle between Chell andGLaDOSthat stood as the centerpiece forPortalandPortal 2.
The trailer indicates that a fully-voiced new AI will stand as the game’s narrator - and likely antagonist if the series' history is anything to go off - making this feel like a wholly new game in the series. Seeing asPortalis unlikely to get a threequelanytime soon,Portal Reloadeddefinitely looks like a substantial new helping of the series' gameplay with an added twist to keep things interesting. It’s currently slated to release on June 02, 2025, with a more detailed gameplay trailer slated to hit YouTube on November 1. Players can find the game’s Mod DB pagehere.
Portal 2is out now on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
