Portal 2 is getting a prequel nearly 13 years later, as a fan mod adding brand-new story content gears up for release at the start of 2024.
Portal: Revolution is a fan-made prequel campaign for Portal 2 from Second Face Software which stars all-new characters, such as a companion sphere named Stirling in a story set before the events of the main storyline. The game will task players with reverting the Aperture Science testing station to its former state before the events of Portal led to its complete destruction and provides a slew of new gameplay mechanics, which fans can get a glimpse of in the project's newest trailer.
Officially approved by Valve for release on the Steam storefront, Portal: Revolution reportedly offers 40 new testing chambers for players to solve in a fully-voiced campaign that adds to the game's existing canon. According to the developers, the game picks up where the base game left off. It introduces various new mechanics that are slowly shown to the player over the course of the story.
This is a similar form of progression to the original Portal 2, which starts off with simple, quick levels before ramping up the complexity of each chamber as time goes on until players are expected to launch portals with split-second timing and navigate complex mazes to progress past each stage. Stefan Heinz, a lead developer on the game, has promised that this fast-paced gameplay is not as prominent in Revolution, with most puzzles revolving around logic rather than speed or maneuverability.
Heinz and the rest of the development team built the entire game in the Portal 2 Community Edition engine, an officially released off-shoot of Valve's Source engine, which the developer used for the majority of its games. Using the engine, the developers were able to add various new mechanics and gameplay elements to the pre-existing content, expanding on the elements that made the game so popular in the first place.
Of course, playing the game requires owning the original Portal 2 on Steam, though given its status as the highest-rated game of all time on the platform and its age, players who do not already own it can pick it up for under $20, as it is on sale frequently. The game is currently set to release on Jan. 5, 2024, for players who own Portal 2.
Source: YouTube