Florien
2023
Excellent game, and despite the controls being nominally built for a gamepad, the keyboard too works very well. The combat is interesting, as while most non-boss enemies are fairly easy, (with maybe one exception), nearly every enemy gets more dangerous in groups and thus most of the combat becomes figuring out how to break groups up by using the environment so you can quickly eliminate individual enemies, which is an unusual but fun idea.
2016
It's a serviceable farm game, but I feel like it could be a lot better. I'm not sure what's missing that I can't really consistently enjoy it, but there's something there.
2011
While more technically impressive than its predecessor, and having multiple fun characters (Glados talks a lot more here, most of her popular characterization comes from this game, whereas in the first game she was really kind of uninteresting) the good story and characters are marred by a series of terrible puzzles in the underground sections and a love of making people do long walks and hunt for tiny, distant patches of portalable surfaces. Partly this is done to allow time for the extensive dialogue, but at times it feels like long walks for the sake of bloated environmental storytelling about the rise and fall of Aperture. Ultimately this means that it's not actually an improvement on its predecessor, just a very different game that's reaches the same overall quality through very different means.
2007
Solid and simple mechanically, and fairly good puzzles, barring the big room with the grimy death water and the high-up button on level 17. It's remarkably basic and has relatively little story compared to its successor, it's obvious no one expected this to be as big as it became.
2022
It's really good, it's so good that it's hard to believe that these games came out of a series that had, generously, one good game and one okay game before this point.
2012
It's the begining of many mechanics from the reboot that would become good, but the linear gameplay does kind of undermine the problem solving element. It's still functional though.
2006
It's a little janky, but this game is thoroughly playable! It only took four games. It's also storywise the beginning of realizing what best to do with a monotone bald guy clone assassin with a obvious tattoo who wears disguises (put him in a bird costume)
2004
This is probably the first one actually worth playing briefly, because it's the first one that consistently works. However, the story takes itself far too seriously and also most levels are too poorly lit to see what's going on.
The main improvement on the first game is you can reverse now. Otherwise, the game isn't very good.
2000
For the start of such a good series, this game is almost unfathomably bad. The controls in particular are really janky and you can easily get stuck behind things because you can't reverse, but the mechanics aren't great either.
2018
It's got many of the same issues as its predecessor, but they've also made several quests no longer busywork but relatively unique, and allow you to listen to the propaganda radio even after clearing an area which is great, and the different versions of the propaganda radio in different regions is a cool choice. However, the game mistakes enemy spam for difficulty at times, leading to the game being extremely easy except when it's being ridiculously unfair. As a result, you'll end up clearing regions really quickly but struggling on quests. (The collection quests in particular are very much busywork.) Also it's weird how the televangelist character uses catholic imagery when this is set in distinctly protestant Montana but that's a nitpick.
2014
The core gameplay loop is fine, but the game does have an issue with glitched locations not registering on the map, there's the routine busywork, and the story isn't that interesting.
2008
It's a fairly interesting puzzle game in principle, but the solutions are often tedious and finicky rather than actually difficult.
This one is really interesting in how its set up, though many mechanics are kind of opaque (in particular, it's not made clear that you can create new trade goods, nor that if you deliver enough to ports without them (in most cases) they will start carrying that good too.) However, it is still very good despite occasional opacity.
This is the odd one of the tradewinds series, in that it's about land trade, and trading for money isn't actually that effective generally without extensive time investment, and pack animals and soldiers are disconnected entirely and have interesting behaviors and tradeoffs. However, while this does make sandbox play kind of dull, it adds significantly to the story mode, so it balances out.