4.5/5 ★ – Jackdh1990's review of Portal.

***REPLAY*** Strangely this is the first time a game I've previously played has appeared on this list. I first played Portal many years before as a dodgy copy on my laptop after my housemate insisted I try it. A list of the best puzzle games all all time that doesn't feature Portal near the top is a list that can't be taken seriously. Truth be told though, portal functions unlike most puzzle games, in that it owes quite a bit of it's DNA to both the platformer and FPS genres. It's a hybrid that at the time was revolutionary, and even though it's pushing 20 years old at this point, there are still very few games that come close to it (other than of course Portal 2, and the recent indie gem Neon White also springs to mind). Of course, what helps this is the genuinely mind-bending nature of the Portal gun: just how many games do you honestly play that have you scratching you head at how something is even technically possible? It might as well be magic. If the game was just a succession of excellent puzzle-platforming rooms, it would still be a classic. But this is Valve we're talking about here; and Portal takes things so much further, story-wise, than can be guessed at from the opening of the game. Having the nature of the puzzles baked into the narrative of the game in a way that makes sense, and using this framing device to break the conventions of the game later on is one of the reasons Portal is legendary. It's also SO funny. GLaDoS is still, years later, one of the best video game characters ever created. I would rate Portal 1 over 2 just slightly, simply because of the extreme focus on display here with the story it wants to tell, but both are incredible and everyone should play them. 9.5/10 Played on Switch Originally played on PC 30/6/22