What is the first game that comes to mind when someone mentions puzzle video games? Probably the answer is: Portal. Valve’s tale of a sarcastic robot who guides players through a series of test chambers with the trusty Portal rifle has become a classic of the genre. It has spawned a sequel, spin-off games, and full campaign mods. Also, the in-game dialogue, including the cryptic line “The pie is a lie” has become part of the pop culture Lexicon.
There are followers for every innovator. Portal has spawned its own kind of first and third person adventures. Some stick pretty close to the formula, while others put their own spin on it. Here are just a few examples.
6 Prey (2006) thought with portals for Portal
Okay, this game is a bit deceiving. It actually came out the year before Portal officially released. The game revolves around Tommy, a Cherokee man who longs to leave the reservation he has called home. He gets his wish when an alien ship kidnaps him, his grandfather and his girlfriend and then kills his grandfather. This puts Tommy in a fight for survival to save his girlfriend and escape.
One cannot be faulted for thinking that Human Head Studios’ Prey, not to be confused with the unrelated Arkane Studios game of the same title, looks very familiar. Tommy must navigate the craft using high-tech portals scattered throughout. There are even paths that allow players to run into walls and ceilings, making for dizzying firefights.
5 Breath of the Wild’s Sheikah must know GLaDOS
The Sheikah are a race of beings in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that existed at least 10,000 years before the events of the game. They created the advanced technology that Link and the champions would depend on to fight Calamity Ganon. They also created the more than 100 shrines scattered around Hyrule.
These shrines may have taken a page from the GLaDOS playbook. Each contains a unique set of challenges that require Link to use his Sheikah Slate, his combat skills and his wits. Some shrines require Link to create ice blocks on waterfalls to use as a platform. Others will have Link place spheres on a grid in a certain combination. However, the ones with the gyro controls are just annoying.
4 In Glitchspace, coding is the answer.
Glitchspace takes place in a world that looks like something outside Tron. Blocks and platforms must be manipulated to get to the doorway on the other side of each area.
The twist this game gives to the Portal-like structure is that elements in the game world have to be manipulated by “programming” them with nodes in a specific order. Through these nodes, platforms can be used as elevators, bridges or shields to block malicious data flows. They can also be configured to act as trampolines for bouncing over large chasms.
3 Magrunner: Dark Pulse has magnetism and. . . Cthulhu?
The Portal games are ultimately a story of runaway science. A sadistic robot tortures a human with dangerous theoretical physics tests that are more than likely fatal, all for the sake of science. Now add some Lovecraftian horror to that, and Magrunner: Dark Pulse is the result.
The central mechanism of this Portal-like is magnetism. Objects must be charged with equal or unequal polarities to move platforms, lift elevators, or catapult across chasms. As the experiments take place, something sinister is going on in the background that unleashes voracious creatures from another dimension and causes the protagonist of the game to have demonic visions. So it’s just another day at the office.
2 The Talos Principle: Do robots dream of Tetris pieces?
Suppose Asimov and Valve have a baby. Well that’s what you would get with The Talos principle. A lone robot wakes up on a mysterious island, only with the voice of the mysterious Elohim guiding him as he explores the game’s worlds and puzzles. During the robot’s journey, he will learn about the mysteries of what happened before through the terminals scattered around the island.
These challenges consist of navigating mazes to acquire pieces similar to Tetris blocks, which are needed to unlock parts of the game’s world. These puzzles can be a headache as solving them requires lowering barriers and navigating around dangerous robots and turrets.
1 Gateways can be the first Portal vania.
To take Portal and mix it with a side-scrolling Metroidvania, and that essentially creates Gateways. The game’s protagonist must navigate challenges in his lab, coordinated by a mysterious entity, to discover who is behind the chaos.
In terms of game, Gateways is a masterpiece. It takes critical thinking to solve every puzzle in the lab. As the game progresses, new gateway weapons are discovered, each with their own abilities, giving access to new areas of the lab. One weapon creates portals that can enlarge or shrink the protagonist, and another creates a portal that sends the scientist back in time to activate multiple switches at once.
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