Portal Games in Order

Aside from featuring some of the greatest puzzle platformers ever created, the Portal series is known for its mysterious lore, which is connected to the much larger Half-Life universe.

The series itself got started in 2007 with the first game’s release and is still receiving spin-offs as recently as 2018, with rumors of a Portal movie and possibly a third numbered entry in the works.

In this list, we’ll cover the series in its entirety, listing all Portal games in order of release date and provide a brief overview of their roles in shaping one of Valve’s most iconic franchises.

In the event Valve ever does release a new Portal game, we’ll update this list to reflect the new timeline, so make sure to check back in the future!

Related:Best Games Like Portal

Main Series

The original Portal was included with The Orange Box bundle for PC and console, though it has been since ported to other systems as a standalone game.

It features a series of puzzles with solutions that require the player to teleport simple objects and even themselves using “the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device.”

You play as a woman named Chell who’s tasked with completing each puzzle in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center using the portal gun, with the promise of cake at the end.

Upon release, the game was praised for its originality, unique gameplay design, and hilariously dark antagonist, GLaDOS, a rogue AI that taunts the player throughout the game.

A year later, a standalone version of the game titled Portal: Still Alive was released for Xbox 360 as a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game.

Still Alive includes all content from the original, as well as 14 additional challenges spread across existing levels in the game and new ones based on a flash version of Portal made by developer We, Create Stuff.  

It also added 9 new Xbox Achievements, such as “Is Anyone There?” which requires you to complete the game without ever taking a single bullet.

There was a four-year gap between the original Portal and Portal 2, during which time Valve was able to come up with a host of new features to include with the sequel.

The gameplay was essentially the same but benefitted from the addition of tractor beams, lasers, light bridges, and movement-altering paint gels that allowed for new puzzle designs.

Portal 2 includes both a single-player campaign with Chell as the main character, and a cooperative mode starring portal gun-donning robots Atlas and P-Body.                                                                       

Like Portal, the game was a massive success for Valve and became critically acclaimed for its gameplay, writing, and cast performance, with many citing it as one of the greatest video games of all time.

Spin-off Games

There have been a handful of spin-off games based on the Portal series, with the first being the virtual reality title The Lab.

It was designed to showcase emerging VR technology at the time and includes a series of eight short demos based on different aspects of VR capabilities.  

Included were Slingshot, Longbow, Xortex, Postcards, Human Medical Scan, Solar System, Robot Repair, and Secret Shop.

The Lab was praised for its gameplay variety and presentation and is often credited for setting a new standard for VR games at the time.

In 2017, Valve licensed Portal to Headup Games and ClockStone Software for Bridge Constructor Portal, a 2.5D puzzle game based on ClockStone’s Bridge Constructor series.

In it, players are tasked with creating bridges from a limited number of parts and bypassing various obstacles and challenges along the way.

Bridge Constructor Portal features numerous elements and references to the Portal series, from the portals themselves to GLaDOS serving as the game’s narrator.

It was fairly well-received, with most praise directed at its simple yet fulfilling puzzle gameplay but was also criticized for not utilizing its source material further.

Valve later partnered with Canadian studio Cloudhead Games to create another room-scale VR Portal experience titled Aperture Hand Lab.

It served as a tech demo for the Valve Index (also supports HTC Vive) and shows off the device’s impressive hand, knuckle, and finger-tracking technology.

Gameplay has you completing a series of tests led by the same personality cores that appear in The Lab,

While Aperture Hand Lab was definitely not the Portal 3 fans had been anticipating, it was well received and is considered one of the best physics-based VR experiences.