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Portal pc Game Reviews
Portal
Critic Score
Metascore: 90 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.6 out of 10
based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 1476 votes
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Rate this game

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]

PUBLISHER: Valve Software
DEVELOPER: Valve Software - Nuclear Monkey
GENRE(S): First-Person Shooter
PLAYERS: 1
ESRB RATING: T (Teen)
RELEASE DATE: October 9, 2007

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
The Onion (A.V. Club)
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.
Read Full Review
100
Armchair Empire
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.
Read Full Review
100
Four Fat Chicks
This will be remembered as a supremely important game, and a sublimely good one. Portal calls for a special kind of nonlinear thinking, creating a world around its puzzles. It features outstanding art direction, writing, and voice acting and an experience so tightly tuned that this couldn't be anything but a Valve game.
Read Full Review
100
Four Fat Chicks
Portal, tucked neatly alongside four other games, outshines them all and ensures itself a place in posterity.
Read Full Review
95
GamerNode
From beginning to end, it's hard to find something not to like about Portal. Everything from the gameplay to the presentation are top-notch.
Read Full Review
94
AtomicGamer
Putting Portal into the Orange Box package was a great idea on Valve's part.
Read Full Review
94
YouGamers
One of the best single-player experiences of the year.
Read Full Review
92
PC Gamer UK
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.
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91
Gaming Nexus
It may be the least hyped part of the Orange Box but Portal is a strong addition to the lineup and really stands out on its own.
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91
Computer Games Online RO
Portal is a sum of contradictions: it’s an FPS game with no weapons, no human characters, no complex scenery, but one that uses a simple and incredibly fun concept, with a well thought-of story and accessible to people of all ages (given they have minimal notions of moving the character around with the mouse and keyboard).
Read Full Review
91
2404.org
I was completely impressed with Portal. It’s a great game that’s innovative, fun, and contains a humorous storyline. My only real complaint was that it was too short, and I want more.
Read Full Review
90
Cheat Code Central
It's a hilarious game that offers a completely unique first-person experience and forces players to use their brains rather than their blasters.
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90
GameSpot
With delightfully unique gameplay and fantastically witty writing, Portal is a huge success.
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90
Adventure Gamers
For anyone with even a modicum of action gaming ability, then, deciding to pick the game up should be a no-brainer.
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90
Play (Poland)
The idea stolen shamelessly from Prey, masterful implementation and... you won’t know when these three hours have passed. Zipping through portals and placing them on the fly (literally) makes for loads of fun, and the authors spice up the play with quite a story that’s not immediately visible and all the more enjoyable when discovered. [Dec 2007]
90
Thunderbolt
One of the most inventive, original, and down right entertaining games you’ll play this year.
Read Full Review
90
GameCritics
So Portal does its job within the Orange Box compilation, taking a brilliant left-field idea and successfully merging it with Valve's universe over an entertaining few hours of gaming.
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90
EuroGamer
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
90
1UP
The more intricate the rat maze, the more necessary the reward -- part of Portal's sinister genius lies in the cheese-crumb trail it leaves. Puzzle solving is an end in itself, and the game's Skinner boxes (note that, like the computer intelligence pulling our strings, Valve remotely tracks player progress, indirectly seeing what stumps us) are supremely entertaining to crack in on-again-off-again sessions.
Read Full Review
90
GameSpy
Ine of the most unique, funny and satisfying games of 2007, and we can't wait until Valve produces more of it.
Read Full Review
90
GameDaily
Skilled players will portal their way through the nineteen levels in just a few hours, but this little puzzle game / tech demo provides plenty of entertainment and makes a great addition to The Orange Box.
Read Full Review
90
VideoGamer
The simple ideas are often the best, and Portal, quite simply, is one of the best ideas for a game we've ever seen. It's fantastically realised, brilliantly executed, and had me wrapped around its computerised finger for two-and-a-half unforgettable hours.
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89
PC Zone UK
It may be short, but it's a wonderful learning experience, forcing you to rethink rather base concepts of the first-person genre. [Dec 2007, p.68]
89
The New York Times
It is remarkable how many clever things one can do with portals.
Read Full Review
85
PALGN
Portal is a compact game that manages to punch well above its weight.
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85
PTGamers
Portal is really good. It’s an excellent appetizer for the likely future of the series, be it on a more intricate sequel, additional contents (that are already a certainty), or even the integration of the idea on Half-Life.
Read Full Review
82
IGN
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
80
AceGamez
By anyone's reckoning Portal isn't a long game, weighing in at around the three to four hour mark. Those of you who do see this game from start to end though are in for a very special experience.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this game is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 1476 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dave R gave it a10:
Great game. Good puzzles, funny running commentary. I loved the computer taunting you once you go "off-course".

Marius G. gave it a10:
Best game Valve has ever made! lets just hope A sequel is coming.

Tom G. gave it a10:
Short, but a damn fun game from beginning to end. If you don't think your PC can run it, you need 256MB of RAM instead of 512. I ran the game at low detail and the levels load within eight seconds.

Curt P. gave it a10:
Too short, but awesome gameplay.

Chuck S. gave it a10:
Outstanding. This game makes you think and the humor adds to the fun. Highly recommended!

Sean M. gave it a10:
This game was great from start to finish and had a sense of humor that I understood. MC Escher approves!!

Jubal B. gave it a10:
Immediately after Portal's release, I played it all the way through five times before I played anything else. It's actually that good. And the ending song cracks me up. This game and its developers certainly deserve all the awards they gathered from Portal.

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