Portal

Portal is a first-person puzzle adventure game set in the Aperture Science Laboratory. The main character Chell becomes a tester of a new weapon that creates passages between two points in space. The test chambers are numbered, and a short comment from the observer is given for each passage. GLaDOS does not stop talking for a minute: the robot tells you where to go, comments on your successes and promises you a pie. The voice echoes across the walls of the laboratory, and the clues are mixed with ridicule and promises, so you shouldn’t trust them completely. The world of the laboratory looks deserted, but behind the glass and in the walls the presence of observers is felt. The mechanics are simple and elegant: two portals connect the surfaces, you can walk through them yourself or pass an object and a beam. Gradually, buttons, cubes, lasers and platforms are added to this, and tasks require increasingly non-trivial solutions. Some solutions require speed: platforms move and lasers turn on on a schedule. The game is completed in a matter of hours, but each room leaves the feeling of an invented challenge rather than a test of patience. Individual levels have become so famous that phrases and motifs from them have lived in Internet culture for many years. The co-op expansion provided separate challenges for two, with their own jokes and challenges. Small details like inscriptions on walls have long become part of folklore. For players who enjoy short but truly inventive puzzles, this lab is a must-see.