Portal 2 is a first-person game that requires you to use your portal gun and your brain to solve puzzles. The portal gun can create two portals of different colors: blue and orange. You can enter one portal and exit from the other, preserving your momentum and direction. You can also use portals to transport objects, such as cubes, turrets, lasers, light bridges, gels, and funnels. You can only create portals on white surfaces; black surfaces are portal-proof.

The game will introduce you to various elements that will affect your gameplay, such as buttons, switches, panels, emancipation grills, excursion funnels, aerial faith plates, hard light bridges, laser fields, thermal discouragement beams, redirection cubes, weighted storage cubes, companion cubes, sentry turrets, defective turrets, propulsion gel, repulsion gel, conversion gel, and wheatley cores. You will have to use these elements in combination with your portals to overcome obstacles and reach the exit of each test chamber.