I first played Portal in middle school and my mind was blown on just a conceptual level. It felt so familiar to some other games I played, but the ideas were so fresh and challenged me in a way that I didn't even know a game could. The puzzles were well designed and the portal gun allowed you to be fairly abstract in your solutions.

Now it's been 8 years, and I've replayed this game over and over again, optimizing each chamber. The game is no longer about thinking through the puzzles for me, it's about moving quickly and effectively with a super cool portal gun. I think the fact that so many people continue to play Portal is just a testament to how well the game was designed.

On a first run, the focus is all on the puzzles and seeing how you can adapt to new challenges. But after that first run is done, the game essentially becomes this movement sandbox where people experiment with all kinds of momentum and portal tricks and b-hopping. There's plenty of challenges to try and techniques to learn. It's really great to see how well Valve nailed it when launching the Portal series.

I think in pretty much every category Portal 2 beats out Portal as the better game. But Portal was designed as this really concise and neat package, and I find myself coming back to it even more than Portal 2. It's story is absolutely more barebones and it's world isn't as fleshed out as Portal 2's world, but I really like how quickly things get going in Portal. There's something really valuable in the pick up and play feel of Portal.

This game is a classic. Portal is definitely worth your time. It's really easy to get into and doesn't take too long to fully play through.