Aperture Science is a secret weapons research organization in competition with Black Mesa. Chell is a test subject at the "Enrichment Center" facility who awakens to find an A.I. construct called GlaDOS requiring some tasks to be completed. They are testing the Aperture Handheld Portal Device (aka Portal Gun) which is able to create portals in space, allowing Chell to move from one point to another without actually crossing the distance. Chell is promised cake should she be able to overcome the obstacles and perform the necessary tests.

She has to use her new gun to fling, jump and fall her way through 19 puzzles. These include obstacles but also androids that fire at her. Although the game is played as a first-person shooter, a large amount of strategy and puzzle-solving is involved. After completing the game, two additional game modes become available: Challenge where the game needs to be completed in either as little time, as few footsteps or as few portals as possible. The other mode is Advanced, where levels are made harder through additional obstacles.

Portal is set in the Half-Life universe and it is considered the spiritual successor to Narbacular Drop, some of whose original developers worked on this game. The Windows game can be bought stand-alone, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions are only available in The Orange Box.

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Alternate Titles

"ポータル" -- Japanese spelling
"포털" -- Korean spelling

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform	Price
	Portal	Windows	$33.99
	Portal
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User Reviews

Fun but extremely overrated casual-type puzzle game	Ferragus (48)
perfect design, but the fun only lasts a few good hours	Pixelspeech (903)
A fun game, but way too short	Mae Spencer (5)
An exercise in how to tell a story without cutscenes	snuf (2399)
Interesting idea, but not much of a game.	Tom Hell (123)
I'm not sure why everyone likes this game, but I don't.	CKeen The Great (158)

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The Press Says

GamerDad	Oct 30, 2007		100
Common Sense Media	Apr 09, 2008		100
Tap-Repeatedly/Four Fat Chicks	Nov, 2007		100
Worth Playing	Nov 20, 2007	9.8 out of 10	98
Pelit	Nov, 2007	92 out of 100	92
GameSpy	Oct 10, 2007		90
PC Games (Germany)	Oct 10, 2007	89 out of 100	89
Gamigo	Oct 14, 2007	8.9 out of 10	89
Adventure Classic Gaming	Dec 15, 2012		80
Jeuxvideo.com	Oct 16, 2007	14 out of 20	70

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Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Free until May 25th, 2010! (on Steam)	14	Adzuken (339) May 22, 2010
Valve re-writes the ending.	2	Adzuken (339) Mar 05, 2010
Steam can't so I can't play	3	Foxhack (11889) Nov 19, 2009
Incorrectly grouped	5	Sciere (206030) Feb 17, 2009
The Device Has Been Modified	2	DJP Mom (11121) Jan 17, 2009
Portal and Steam	14	hydra9 (3855) Apr 29, 2008
Some glitch videos... if you want to look at 'em.	3	Pseudo_Intellectual (42234) Apr 15, 2008
2D Flash version of Portal	1	Pseudo_Intellectual (42234) Jan 27, 2008
Still Alive	15	St. Martyne (3562) Nov 07, 2007
Portal != Portal	4	Pseudo_Intellectual (42234) Oct 25, 2007

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Trivia

German version

In some German versions, the colour of blood was changed to grey.

GLaDOS

According to a boardroom projection in the game, GLaDOS stands for Generic Lifeform and Disk Operating System.

Awards

Eurogamer (UK)
- December 28, 2009 - Game of the Year 2007
Games for Windows Magazine
- March 2008 - #1 Game of the Year 2007 (PC Game Awards)
GameStar (Germany)
- March 28, 2008 - Most Innovative Game Mechanics in 2007

Information also contributed by jean-louis and LepricahnsGold.

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This entry was contributed by Kabushi (105226) and Dakota Bob (71)