001 Portal

It is pretty safe to say that the majority of gamers are aware, on some level or another, of Portal. Immediately, an aware gamer will start thinking of GLaDOS, the portal gun, a series of puzzling platformer levels, and even the song in the ending credits, "Still Alive." Yet with all of these memorable bits and pieces, a casual player will not dig deeper into what makes this particular game memorable and successful. In an attempt to guide some further thinking, I argue that the success of this game stems from the basics.

At its core, Portal is a platformer game but shines differently from a Mario or Sonic game because of its star mechanic, the Portal Gun. This unique and well designed tool defines the way a player solves the problems presented to them. As a player, you are told that everything can be solved (with the exception of one puzzle, but GLaDOS is lying, I swear) with this gun. Creative and liberal use of it will lead to your success, but you are not quite sure how to use it yet.

Now because the designers of Portal engineered their game to revolve around this solitary tool, the depth of the game had to be found elsewhere. That depth is found in the creative level design, the well-presented learning curve, and the overall theme of the game. The levels are fantastically designed. With a difficulty curve that makes sense, the designers deliberately progressed the player through levels that were fun, challenging, and instructive. In fact, almost the entire game is instructive; the player does not stop learning new tricks or mechanics until the final boss is nearly reached. And throughout this deliberate journey, the player is fully immersed in the overall presentation of the game. The sleek visual design, the intriguing voice over the intercom, the challenging levels, the futuristic feel, and even the enemy turrets all captivate the player. Because of this captivation, Portal is arguably one of the best examples of video game design.