Play Order (Release = Chronological)Recommended
0 / 2 playedRelease order. Two games, one continuous story.
- 1 Portal Released inside The Orange Box (October 2007), then standalone (April 2008). The Still Alive edition (XBLA, October 2008) adds challenge levels to this same game.
- 2 Portal 2 Full sequel with a separate co-op campaign starring the ATLAS and P-Body robots. Read the Lab Rat comic (2011) first. Latest story entry.
About Portal
Portal is Valve's puzzle series about Chell, a test subject trapped in Aperture Science and tormented by the AI GLaDOS. The portal gun links two flat surfaces, and momentum carries through, so falling into one portal can fling Chell across a chamber. Both games are short, roughly 3 to 8 hours each.
This play order follows release order: Portal, then Portal 2. The story continues directly, and Portal 2 assumes knowledge of the first game's ending. New players should start with Portal (2007); it is short and teaches every skill the sequel needs.
Good to know
Portal: Still Alive (Xbox Live Arcade, October 2008) is the first game plus extra challenge levels, not a sequel. Read the free Portal 2: Lab Rat comic (2011) between the games; it explains how Chell returns to testing. The Portal 2 co-op campaign (ATLAS and P-Body robots) is a separate story set after the single player and can be played any time after finishing it. Portal: Companion Collection (Switch, June 28, 2022) and Portal with RTX (PC, December 8, 2022) repackage the same games. Writer Erik Wolpaw and actor Ellen McLain have publicly asked for Portal 3, but Valve has announced nothing, and the J.J. Abrams film has sat in script stages since 2013.
