10 Video Game Sequels That Made The Original Even Better

6. Portal 2

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Valve

One of the most perfect sequels to a game ever made, Portal 2 improves the retrospective viewing of the original by answering pretty much every question left lingering at the end of Portal 1.

Where did Aperture Science, let alone GLADoS, even come from? How long has protagonist Chell been stuck there? Portal dedicates an entire section of the game to answering both former questions in one fell swoop, all while staying coy about the exact timeline (it's definitely been a while).

What is all this testing even for? SCIENCE!

Portal didn't need a sequel, because all the questions that were actually important to the story were answered in that first game. But it's astounding how much Valve was able to wring out of those scant remaining dangling plot threads.

Both games stand perfectly fine on their own. But together? They become one of the all-time great science fiction comedies ever made. And considering Portal started off as a side experiment you got in the Orange Box bundle with Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life's, that's quite the achievement.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?