Portal game review: the first-person puzzle classic

Portal is a first-person puzzle game developed by Valve and released in 2007. The player controls a test subject moving through a series of empty test chambers inside a research facility. The only tool is a device that opens two linked portals on flat surfaces: step into one and you come out of the other. With this single idea, the game builds puzzles about movement, momentum and timing. A calm but unsettling computer voice guides, and later misleads, the player, which gives the short adventure a memorable dark humour. Portal is often used as an example of a game that teaches its rules through level design instead of long instructions. Its sequel, Portal 2, expanded the ideas and added a cooperative mode.

How to play Portal

You see the world from the eyes of your character and move with standard first-person controls. The portal device fires two kinds of portal, usually shown in blue and orange. Place one on a wall, floor or ceiling, place the second somewhere else, and anything that enters one appears at the other. Not every surface accepts portals, so part of each puzzle is finding the right places. Each chamber has an exit, and to reach it you may need to carry cubes onto buttons, redirect energy balls into sockets, or avoid turrets and dangerous liquids. Momentum is kept through a portal: if you fall a long way into a portal on the floor, you shoot out of the other one with the same speed. Learning to use this to fly across wide gaps is the heart of the game. Chambers grow more complex as new elements are introduced one at a time.

Tips for new players

• When you are stuck, look up: ceilings and high walls often accept portals.
• Use falling speed. A high drop into a floor portal gives a long jump out of a wall portal.
• Read the room before acting; every chamber shows the parts you need.
• Cubes can block turret fire and hold buttons, so keep them close.