Portal

Portal is one of those games that everybody should give a try. It has such a range of amazing elements to it that everybody can take a little something away from their experience, even if they are just watching someone else play. The story is minimal, but hints about what is truly going on are scattered everywhere, and they open up a whole new understanding of the player's situation. That story gets fleshed out even further in the sequel, and it can get extremely intense! Aside from story aspects, the controls are fluid and the system of portals is extremely intelligent and well executed, with the level design complementing multiple strategies, without being simplistic.

Portal takes a look at Half-Life 2's groundwork, and then flips it on its head to create something fantastic and worth every replay; as well as canonically expanding the Half-Life universe into something completely unanticipated and unprecedented at the time. Although Portal ends up being a pretty quick playthrough, it truly is worth it every time.
The game can be found on Steam here (as of 12/24/2016): http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/
The game can be found for Xbox 360 here (as of 12/24/2016): http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Portal-Still-Alive/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410960

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