Portal ▶ Trailer
Portal screenshot 1Portal screenshot 2
ActionPuzzlePuzzle PlatformerFirst-Person3D PlatformerSingleplayer

228 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 516

Peak in the last 7 days: 699

Portal Steam store

Game description

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 will offer gamers hours of unique gameplay.

Basic info

DeveloperValve
PublisherValve
PlatformsWindows · Linux
Steam DeckVerified
Release dateOct 10, 2007
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP
Processor1.7 GHz Processor
Memory512 MB
GraphicsDirectX® 8.1 level Graphics Card (Requires support for SSE)
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 397 reviews from the past 1 year

93.9/ 100
Top 5%

Steam rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (99%)

Metacritic: 90 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 13, 2026)

Players enjoy Portal in 127 reviews, and it ranks 31st of 1447 among the games we analyzed at 93.9.

👍 Strengths

Gameplay ranks 22nd of 1396. 63 reviews praise the depth of its puzzle design, the most upvoted saying the portal gun keeps finding new ways to surprise, and 38 say the difficulty rises gradually and stays fair. Story & World ranks 162nd of 1096, and players say it is worth playing for its story, puzzles and ideas, with lore details that build intrigue. Pricing & Fairness ranks 173rd of 1399 and Tech & Support 237th of 1399.

👎 Where it falls short

Content Volume ranks 926th of 1351, and 65 reviews note it is short once you know what you are doing. 33 find the least steps challenges stupidly hard and dependent on physics. A few mention motion sickness in 3D, and some find achievements that require glitch like techniques. Visuals & Sound ranks 469th of 1249.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“mandatory gaming experience for puzzle enthusiasts” · 127 reviews
“short game if you know what you're doing” · 65 reviews
“portal gun mechanic finds new ways to surprise with clever puzzle design” · 63 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 64% of reviews · Top 5% of the games we've analyzed

Strategy +4.31 · Depth of builds, tactics, and meaningful choices
Positive “portal gun mechanic finds new ways to surprise with clever puzzle design” · 63 reviews

Progression 2% · Difficulty 37% · Onboarding 15% · Freedom 1% · Controls & feel 7%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 51% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Story +3.55 · Plot, quests, writing, and the ending
Positive “must play for story, puzzles, and ideas” · 38 reviews
Negative “story lacks explanation and feels incoherent” · 2 reviews

Characters 21% · World 28%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 44% of reviews · Bottom 40% of the games we've analyzed

Volume -0.94 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Negative “short game if you know what you're doing” · 65 reviews

Variety 4% · Replayability 9%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 31% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

Audio +3.54 · Music, sound effects, and voice acting
Positive “replays soundtrack repeatedly, enters trance state from music” · 5 reviews
Negative “official Russian localization breaks immersion with broken timing and poor voice acting” · 2 reviews

Visuals 17%

Playing with others, the community and servers

Not enough data — only 1% of reviews mention this.

Playing together +3.50 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals

Community 0% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 5% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing +0.10 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Positive “absolutely worth picking up for how little it costs on sale” · 2 reviews

Anti-cheat 0% · Balance 0% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 6% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Performance +0.11 · Frame rate, optimization, and loading times
Positive “runs incredibly well on practically any device” · 2 reviews
Negative “слишком головокружительно, вынужден отказаться” · 1 review

Stability 3% · Developer support 0%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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