Portal

 PC
User Score
9.1

Universal acclaim- based on 6390 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5,896 out of 6390
  2. Mixed: 369 out of 6390
  3. Negative: 125 out of 6390
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  1. AbstractWB
    Jan 15, 2014
    9
    Ah, Portal. A game of logic and puzzles. It's all about you, the portal gun and the levels. Nothing more. But, a bad thing of the game is that is VERY short. I think Portal 2 is bigger.
  2. Darth24
    Nov 4, 2015
    8
    Portal is a very unique, interesting and fun game that challenges you in many different ways and is one of the best puzzle game series of all time. The only real problem with this game is its short length, but to be fair it is pretty cheap to buy, so its not that big a deal, so I would still recommend this game to anyone looking for a new, unique and fun time.
  3. ItsMeInnit
    Jan 26, 2014
    10
    Challenging and puzzling but at the same time not painstakingly boring. If I had the option to change anything about this game, I don't think I would change anything, right down from the pacing to the level design.
  4. dyspeptic
    Sep 17, 2014
    8
    Last Played: May 2014

    PROS: + GLADOS is actually really funny + Looks good, even after 6 years CONS: - Really short and really easy - Neither revolutionary nor evolutionary REVIEW: If we are being honest, Portal is not a puzzle game, despite many claims to the contrary. It is a "puzzle-ish" game for people who like shooters. I liked that it was difficult to die, since it made it    Last Played: May 2014

    PROS: + GLADOS is actually really funny + Looks good, even after 6 years

    CONS: - Really short and really easy - Neither revolutionary nor evolutionary

    REVIEW: If we are being honest, Portal is not a puzzle game, despite many claims to the contrary. It is a "puzzle-ish" game for people who like shooters. I liked that it was difficult to die, since it made it easier to focus on finding solutions to the "puzzles", but even with easy deaths the hard part about this game isn't figuring out what to do, it is doing it with somewhat fiddly controls (played using an XBOX 360 controller). Still, if the game disappoints on puzzle satisfaction, it really delivers on dry humor. Your handler, GLADOS is very funny and when she sings the credits song you can't help but grin. The graphics are still shiny (some texture mapping looks bad, but doesn't detract too badly) even after 6 years, which is no small feat as games start to age. As others have said, the level of difficulty will probably see you finishing the base game in less than 3 hours, even if you get stuck-a disadvantage since it significantly boosts your $ cost per hour of entertainment. This also hurts a decision to buy because Portal introduced no really new elements to physics puzzlers nor did it do them especially better, it seems to owe its current popularity to previously high reviews (much like Angry Birds).

    Still, one of the best measures of a game is whether you'll remember it after you're done, and I have to say I will remember Portal. Just don't spend more than $5 on it.

    POST EDIT: I never expected to get a response to a review, but it seems some people don't agree that Portal may have been somewhat unoriginal in using a FPP on a puzzle game. Here's the thing: "Real Myst" (which implemented the developers original intention to allow a player to walk freely about the puzzle environments) was released in 2000 (i.e. much earlier than "Portal"), so you can't claim freedom of movement as revolutionary in a puzzle game (even if you did, there are zillions of node-based games I still consider to have done FPP puzzle first). Does slapping a "puzzle-gun" in your hands justify a "revolutionary" epithet? I think not.    … Expand
  5. ReviewScope
    Jan 19, 2015
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. ........................cake

    Pros:
    Cake
    Excellent level design
    Cake
    Humorous and perfect dialogue
    Cake
    Portal Mechanic is flawless
    CAKE
    Companion Cube
    CAKE!!!!!
    Still Alive
    CAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Cons:
    The cake is a lie :(

    A timeless c*ake*lassic*ake*

    10/10    … Expand
  6. Wolfestade
    May 5, 2014
    10
    Simply one of the most epic game of the past 10 years, only one defect,too short,maybe at your first play it can be hard ,but essentially the lack of longevity of the title is the only flaw, apart from that.
    this time the VALVE made ​​the point
  7. k_9
    Sep 24, 2014
    10
    Excellent game. Recommendable for gamers of all ages. Hilarious and full of fun. The only thing that I disliked is that it was too short! I also loved the ending song "Still Alive". 10/10 blindfold ;)
  8. PublicNuisance
    Apr 4, 2022
    9
    I give Portal a lot of praise because it manages to take a genre I don’t normally like, puzzle games, and make it highly enjoyable for me. Part of that is it’s humour, which is fantastic, but it also take’s what is a very basic concept and makes it complex without being annoying. At it’s core you make up to two portals, but it’s up to you to figure out where to put them and how to use themI give Portal a lot of praise because it manages to take a genre I don’t normally like, puzzle games, and make it highly enjoyable for me. Part of that is it’s humour, which is fantastic, but it also take’s what is a very basic concept and makes it complex without being annoying. At it’s core you make up to two portals, but it’s up to you to figure out where to put them and how to use them to get to the end of a room. What I loved most was that for most of Portal it was very logical, it didn’t feel cheap or trying to be overly difficult for no reason. While a few times I felt stumped for a bit I always was able to figure things out because the game wasn’t being cheap in any way. The voice acting for Glados was some of the best I have seen and really made what would have been a great game into a classic. The end credits still make me smile to this day. The graphics were decent for it’s time, neither mind blowing or an eye sore. They have a very clean look to them for much of the time until near the end where you get into the bowels of the facility. The clean looking rooms were nice although the more dingy parts later showed the age of the engine more. The game does a great job of dropping hints about the lore as well as tying it into the Valve universe with Half-Life.

    I played Portal on Linux. It never crashed and I didn’t notice any bugs. There are nine graphics settings; four AA settings; six AF settings; a v-sync toggle and an FOV slider that goes from 75-110. Alt-tab didn’t work. You can manually save whenever you want. Performance was fantastic which wasn’t shocking given the age of the game.

    Game Engine: Source
    Graphics API: OpenGL
    Disk Space Used: 3.88 GB

    Graphics Settings Used: 8xAA; 16x AF; 100 FOV; v-sync on; all settings at highest except blur off
    GPU Usage: 17-60 %
    VRAM Usage: 1009-1448 MB
    CPU Usage: 3-11 %
    RAM Usage: 3.1-4.2 GB
    Frame Rate: 132-144 FPS

    Portal is a game that many will enjoy and still holds up today. It was a lot of fun and combines great game play with voice acting and presentation. It also does a great job of not overdoing it and not overstaying it’s welcome. Anyone should at least try the demo to Portal. I finished it in two hours and thirty one minutes. I paid $49.99 CAD for it as part of the Orange Box years ago and it is easily worth it’s current price tag of $11.49 CAD.

    My Score: 9/10

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 22.0.0 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Garuda Soaring White-tailed-eagle | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 5.17.1-zen1-1-zen | AOC G2460P 1920*1080 @ 144hz    … Expand
  9. TaraDarveaux
    Jun 5, 2014
    10
    It's short and sweet. One of my favorite games. It's so much more than a creative puzzle game. The story is fantastic, so don't you dare play without the sound.
  10. Tomle1202
    Jun 14, 2022
    9
    Portal is a how a game should be made: with innovation and a hell lot of humor.
  11. carlosgtardon
    Jun 10, 2014
    10
    Uno de los juegos imprescindibles en cualquier colección. Una mecánica sencilla que lleva a niveles de emergencia y de resolución de problemas nunca vistos antes, además de ser muy divertido para experimentar locuras con las físicas.
  12. Twirkkhu
    Jun 11, 2014
    10
    This game gives me shivers every time I talk about it. It's so good! The mechanics in this game are amazing, and jumping in and out of portals just never gets old. Even though it's short, it clearly is a phenomenal game that will be remembered for years.
  13. TheMasiMan1
    Nov 19, 2015
    5
    Portal gets really hard, really fast. The first 10 to 20 levels are way too easy, and onward its way too challenging. The challenge kicks in way too fast. But as a port of the Orange Box, it is worth buying, but separetly, well... do you like really like challenges?
  14. jojopeterjohn
    Jun 15, 2014
    10
    This game is amazing. It's snappy and smart, And has a great concept! It's a very unique game, And I can (And have) played it over and over. Most definitely worth the $10!
  15. Ecresis
    Jun 25, 2014
    9
    Everything has already been said on that game. It's a genius idea, it's funny as hell, it's relaxing. I got it for free and bought Portal 2 at full price to thank the creators of this game. Short lifespan but really worth it !
  16. runner
    Jan 23, 2016
    9
    Portal!!
    After the game's got so much critical acclaim, seems like there's not much to add, only to ask myself how didn't I play it sooner.
    I would start then with a very short list of the things that DID bother me, First, well, the length of course. Nothing new here. I do believe it simply wasn't meant to be too long in the first place but more like a side content to The Orange Box    Portal!!
    After the game's got so much critical acclaim, seems like there's not much to add, only to ask myself how didn't I play it sooner.

    I would start then with a very short list of the things that DID bother me,
    First, well, the length of course. Nothing new here. I do believe it simply wasn't meant to be too long in the first place but more like a side content to The Orange Box back in the day, but still.
    Also, soundtrack was a little disappointing in my opinion.
    And, before completing the main game, I've seen that there are "challenges" and "advanced maps", and imagined that they would add more content to the game, but figured out later that these are merely a revisions of the original maps from the campaign.

    So, just let me confess here, that Portal didn't completely live up to my expectations. (~Hiding myself from possibly thrown objects~)
    As this game is so positively accepted I did expect something more.
    Being so short and the lack of additional content in the base game didn't help much.
    It was fun but ended too soon, and the story just felt... meeeh.
    And the challenges started to feel too crazy for me as soon as they started depending on trial and error or some luck, facts which I don't like!

    I did grow a lot fonder of Portal as I played through the developers commentary.
    Hearing their thoughts and the game-making process made me appreciate everything much more, somehow.
    I even liked better that "Still Alive" song which at first seemed bizarre and weird to me.

    Anyway, I'm not going to fully review this game and describe all of it's good aspects, because you probably know them already, and if not (!?) then you should experience it yourself, even by trying the demo.
    Just wanted to share my little story of falling in love with the game.

    Portal is without a doubt a very extraordinary puzzle game, brilliantly original, and I doubt we'll ever see any other game of the kind. Many other games tried to follow Portal's lead and so far I didn't encounter much success among these attempts.

    It goes constantly on sale, and it's actually worth the full price of 10$ as well.
    If you didn't already, it's time to play!    … Expand
  17. robomartion
    Oct 22, 2019
    9
    Never mind the fantastically innovative gameplay or the mind boggling puzzles that will keep you stuck for longer than you might care to admit, what makes Portal shine is its worldbuilding and its twisting and turning plot. Its a short experience but will stay with you for years to come.
  18. ShockyPie42
    Jul 18, 2014
    10
    One word perfect,this game was perfection in a nutshell,if you haven't got this game go out and get it straightaway it was fantastic,supercalifragilisticexpialadoshus if you will
  19. Ydun79
    Feb 11, 2019
    9
    This game is so much fun. Amazing gameplay and funny. It doesn't take too long and you are bound to want to play it again.
  20. smilzoboboz
    Oct 4, 2014
    10
    Just buy it, full stop.

    Great scenarios, great plot, great graphics, perfect bgm.
    Also, after you clear game story-line (which I have to say it's actually really short, like 3 hours) you have access to challenges and bonus maps to test yourself and it's awesome.

    I think this is my first 10/10, rarely fully enjoyed myself like with this one.
  21. soylinda21
    Aug 27, 2014
    9
    An extremely smart, witty game that is satisfying in every possible way. The puzzles are quite challenging, but you rarely get stuck because the solutions are intuitive. Loved the puzzles, loved the sinister A.I.'s deadpan humor, and absolutely adored the end song Still Alive.
  22. Marick
    Dec 28, 2014
    7
    Portal is a FPS type game appeared in 2007, developed by Valve and Nuclear Monkey Software. The game was published by Valve's online service (Steam) for the Retail and Electronic Arts.
    The game puts you in the place of Chell, to anyone dressings Science Labs. Chell is caused by an artificial intelligence named GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) to complete each puzzle,    Portal is a FPS type game appeared in 2007, developed by Valve and Nuclear Monkey Software. The game was published by Valve's online service (Steam) for the Retail and Electronic Arts.
    The game puts you in the place of Chell, to anyone dressings Science Labs. Chell is caused by an artificial intelligence named GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) to complete each puzzle, get a cake when finalizate.Jocul sit quite well in chapters, just as it is very short.    … Expand
  23. gloriouspotato
    Oct 3, 2014
    9
    Portal is one of those games you should start and finish in one sitting, so you can experience it all without interruption. It's a short game for sure, but for a puzzle game like this, a shorter length somehow feels appropriate so that it doesn't overstay its welcome.

    The puzzles were fairly standard during the earlier levels, and it wasn't until later where more complex thinking was    Portal is one of those games you should start and finish in one sitting, so you can experience it all without interruption. It's a short game for sure, but for a puzzle game like this, a shorter length somehow feels appropriate so that it doesn't overstay its welcome.

    The puzzles were fairly standard during the earlier levels, and it wasn't until later where more complex thinking was required. But for me, it's not the puzzles that make Portal good, but rather the whole atmosphere and setting of the game. I found myself not really looking forward to the puzzles as I was looking forward to the next piece of voice acting that would showcase Portal's brilliant dark humour. But dig a little deeper and you notice that behind the humorous facade, is a rather disturbing and sad story. Finding the Ratman dens adds a layer of suspense and the ambient soundtrack emphasises the sense of loneliness and isolation. None of this is explicitly told either, rather you're guided to make these conclusions by more subtle hints.

    I'm also impressed that the game successfully made me feel sorry for my Companion Cube, despite it being an inanimate object. Love the credits song too.

    Overall rating - 8.6/10    … Expand
  24. LighGaiden
    Oct 2, 2014
    10
    Portal as a start was just an experiment solely for the physics heavy portal mechanic that a small team in Valve got to work on, this meant that they didn't have a big budget and had to cut corners, which lead to what made the game so good. They had to cut all the unnecessary fat from it leaving us a short game where everything that was in it needed to be there making a short but great experience.
  25. headspacej
    Dec 20, 2016
    10
    There's not much to say about this one that hasn't already been said. And yes, I know I'm nearly a decade behind the times, but I finally got this in 2016 and loved it just as much now as I would have when it released. I generally hate first-person games, but this one hooked me hard and didn't let go, mostly through the writing, humour and ingenious puzzles. A masterpiece.
  26. NoofenLP
    Aug 25, 2014
    8
    Portal is a great game, that can frustrate you sometimes, and it is short. Once you trained, the game ends. I must recommend this to anybody. Without the frustration and the length, portal is a Perfect game.
  27. PlayGreatGame
    Sep 4, 2014
    10
    10/10 Just play it. you won't regret it. 150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150150
  28. thryce3
    Nov 28, 2022
    10
    One of the greatest of all time. Makes you laugh while it makes your brain hurt.
  29. honzah70
    Oct 11, 2014
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game have got all - great mechanics, g. story, g. soundtrack, g. graphics and g. community. Of course, it's made by Valve. Only bad thing is short story. And the cake is not a lie.… Expand
  30. Loughdough
    Sep 28, 2014
    8
    Amazing story with a great puzzle system. Portal features test chambers, with a very dark secret. You play as Chell, a test subject, with a grudge against the evil mastermind of the facility, GLaDOS.
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Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Best PC Game of 2007
2
#2 Most Discussed PC Game of 2007
9
#9 Most Shared PC Game of 2007

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. IGN
    82
    The idea behind Portal ends up being more brilliant than Portal itself. Regardless, we definitely had a lot of fun with what is there and appreciate the level of polish and thought that went into the presentation.
    Read full review
  2. PC Gamer UK
    92
    Portal is a magnificent puzzle game. The titillating wrongness of every solution and the wonky thinking required to get there make you feel like a space-folding genius, and yet you'll almost never get stuck.
    Read full review
  3. Eurogamer
    90
    One of the most interesting and delightful things Valve's ever done, but also one of its least fulfilling. If only we had our own portal gun to bridge the gap to the first infusion of new content, perhaps we could forget it.
    Read full review
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