Portal

Portal is a first-person puzzle-platformer revolving around the portal gun, a device that places connected portals within the environment. The player’s objective, as instructed by a snarky AI named GLaDOS, is to perform tests by passing through chambers in a dystopian lab. One orange and one blue portal allow the player and certain objects to teleport from one to the other when placed on white surfaces. At the time of its release, Portal pioneered the genre of test chambers in first-person view.

After waking up in an Aperture Science Enrichment Center cell, the player is guided to the first puzzle chamber. Beginning with only a button that opens a door and a cube that can be moved, the game slowly introduces more mechanics. These include many obstacles, such as lasers, seemingly sentient gun turrets, and barriers that destroy portals and cubes when passed through. Players must figure out how to use the placement and physics of the portals to their advantage. For example, using the momentum conserved while passing through portals can help players jump farther. Timing is also a factor that the player must keep in mind, which may require a fair amount of trial and error. Due to all of these factors, there are often many ways to solve a single puzzle chamber.

In addition to spatial visualization and sequencing logic skills, platforming is necessary to progress through the game. Although there’s no fall damage—thanks to the unique boots that Chell, the main character, wears—the player can still be killed by other hazards. Jumping through portals and avoiding obstacles may require precise placement or timing, but the platforming itself is fairly simple. With the world-bending portal mechanic, it can be disorienting at times.

Despite its dystopian sci-fi setting, the tone of Portal is comedic. GLaDOS, the only character in the game besides Chell, often taunts the player with the promise of cake and a companion that takes the form of a storage cube with a heart on it. The robotic, singsongy voice of GLaDOS makes her dialogue’s tone somehow both condescending and charming. With each chamber, the dark, humorous narrative is unravelled through GLaDOS’ dialogue and environmental storytelling. With its witty writing and complex world, players may find themselves invested in the story even as the credits roll.

This description was written by Cay Macres and edited by Oriane Tury.