Portal

First-person physics puzzle platformer built around space-bending portals

Valve · Released Oct 10, 2007

Action

Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive; 99% of 199K
Recent reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive; 97% of 1,113 in 30 days
Playing now: 245; peak 24h 387
Steam Deck: Verified
Last update: 1 year ago; Jun 27, 2025

Free demo available, 4 playing it now: get the demo.

Metacritic: 90/100 (critic reviews)

What is Portal?

A single-player, first-person puzzle platformer set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories. You cross puzzle environments by placing linked portals and using them to move yourself and objects through space.

For you if...

+you enjoy spatial puzzles built around momentum and portals
+you like dark comedy and mysterious science-fiction settings
+you prefer short, focused single-player campaigns

Not for you if...

−you want a long or consistently difficult campaign
−you dislike first-person platforming and momentum-based movement

What players say

99% of 199,333 reviews are positive · 97% of 1,113 in the last 30 days

Players praise the portal mechanic, clean puzzle design, and dark humor, especially GLaDOS's dialogue. Recent complaints mention crashes, failure to launch, and doubled audio. Some completionists also report frustrating achievements and inconsistent object physics.

Screenshots and trailer

Portal system requirements

As published by the developer.

Minimum

1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8.1 level Graphics Card (Requires support for SSE), Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

PC version details

DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.

DRM: None declared on Steam
Controller: Full controller support
Platforms: Windows, Linux
Achievements: 15
Steam features: Family Sharing

Steam Deck: Verified

All functionality is accessible with the default controller configuration
Shows Steam Deck controller icons
In-game text is legible on Steam Deck
Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck

Multiplayer and co-op

Single-player

Languages

Full audio: English, French, German, Russian, Spanish - Spain, Traditional Chinese. Text only: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, Korean, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese - Brazil, Romanian, Spanish - Latin America, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian.