Portal Image
  • Summary: Portal is a new single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and offers gamers hours of unique gameplay. The game is designed to change the way players approach, manipulate, and surmise the possibilities in a given environment; similar to how Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun innovated new ways to leverage an object in any given situation. Players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuvering objects, and themselves, through space. [Valve] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. Just as Valve's Half-Life 2 is the moody loner to Halo 3's high-school quarterback, Portal is smarter, cooler, funnier, and more sinister than almost any game this year.
  2. Portal, tucked neatly alongside four other games, outshines them all and ensures itself a place in posterity.
  3. Portal can be bought separately or as part of the Orange Box package – Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 and 2, and Team Fortress 2 – but either way you get one of the best gaming experiences of the year.

See all 27 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 20 out of 649
  1. Mr.Finnigan
    10
    What I don't understand is why everyone giving a <7 rating complains about a lack of depth. DUH! Your character has no idea what's goint on! She woke up in a lab rat facility being told what to do by an AI unit. Even after the game's over, she's still passed out in the parking lot of Aperture. Also, it was included in the Orange Box because Aperture and Black Mesa are competitors (you can see it on some of the projectors if you peek through the windows after Testchamber 19). Very nice game, excellent concept. I'm replaying the game to try and get all of the acievements. Definite replay value, you know, tweak timings, find better ways to do stuff, etc. And it's fun to just play around with portals (like make the Companion Cube exist in two places at once XD). Expand
    • 3 of 3 users said yes
  2. GregP.
    6
    The game was innovative and interseting but way to short and too many simple levels toward the beginning of the game made it boring quickly.
    • 10 of 43 users said yes
  3. MichaelUrban
    4
    Very overrated. First of all, this game is unbelivably short. I kept waiting for all the training missions to end so i could play the game, but the training levels WERE the game. After that, there is just a long escape level which has barley any puzzles and is more about jumping and taking out turrets. The final boss was way too easy and the only thing motivating you to beat it was the timer. Their attempt to make the game funny and put in jokes just makes the game look worse. This game was meant to be an extra toy included in the orange box. Definatley not worth buying seperatley. Expand
    • 10 of 92 users said yes

See all 649 User Reviews