Perfect 10: Puzzle Games and Shooters

In my previous two posts, I looked at games which I would rate at 10/10: RPGs and adventure games, and strategy games and simulations. In this final post of the series, I'll look at puzzle games and shooters.

Portal (Puzzle, 2007)

The basic mechanic of Portal is very straightforward: use your portal gun to open a blue portal and an orange portal that are linked together - anything entering one portal emerges from the other retaining its momentum. But from such a simple mechanic emerges so much variety and head-scratching. The campaign is framed by a minimalist but memorable story, and the campaign levels never becoming overly complex. The campaign is a bit on the short side, but Portal's challenge maps and advanced chambers make up for it.

Portal is currently the only game I own on both PC and Xbox; it really is just such a seminal title in computer gaming. The sequel (reviewed earlier this year) is a worthy successor, but play the original first.

(Available from Steam or consider buying the bundle which includes both Portal and Portal 2)

As for shooters... none so far (and I'm not holding my breath for one).