Portal Stories: VR
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| Portal Stories: VR | |
|---|---|
| |
| Information | |
| VR/AR | VR |
| Developer | Prism Studios (Prism Game Studios Ltd.) |
| Publisher | Prism Studios (Prism Game Studios Ltd.) |
| Platform | SteamVR |
| Device | HTC Vive |
| Operating System | Windows |
| Type | Full Game |
| Genre | Adventure, VR, Puzzle |
| Input Device | Tracked motion controllers |
| Play Area | Standing, Room-Scale |
| Game Mode | Single Player |
| Language | English |
| Review | Very Positive |
| Release Date | May 16, 2016 |
| Price | Free (requires Portal 2 in the player's Steam library) |
| App Store | Steam |
| Infobox Updated | 09/15/2016 |
Portal Stories: VR is a free, single-player VR puzzle game set in the Portal universe of Valve, made for the HTC Vive and room-scale SteamVR play. It was developed by Prism Studios (registered on Steam as Prism Game Studios Ltd.), the fan team behind the Portal 2 modification Portal Stories: Mel, and was released on Steam on 16 May 2016.[1][2] The game has ten puzzles built around two new tools, the Aperture Science Instant Teleportation Device and the Aperture Science Apparatus Retrieval Tool, and runs on Unreal Engine 4.[1]
Despite its name, the game has no portals: players move with a teleportation device and handle objects with a second tool.[3] It is an unofficial, fan-made work that Valve did not develop or endorse. After Valve raised concerns about the name, Prism Studios kept the title and listed the game on Steam as a Portal 2 mod, so players must own Portal 2 on Steam to play it, although Portal 2 does not need to be installed.[4]
Description
The developer's Steam store page describes the game as follows:
Portal Stories: VR is a brand new mini story set in the Portal Universe. It features 10 brand new puzzles, specifically designed to work using the 360 degrees room scale that SteamVR offers. Inside Aperture, you'll be able to use the new "Aperture Science Instant Teleportation Device" and the "Aperture Science Apparatus Retrieval Tool" to solve the new tests.
Powered by Unreal Engine 4, Portal Stories: VR gives the Aperture Science facility a whole fresh look. With new models, textures, particles and more!
An HTC Vive Headset is required in order to play.[1]
Gameplay
The player is placed in an Aperture Science virtual reality experiment and works through ten test chambers that make up the "Aperture Science VR Training".[4][5] Prism Studios designed the game for SteamVR motion controls and 360-degree room-scale tracking.[4] Each hand holds a different tool:
| Tool | Function |
|---|---|
| Aperture Science Instant Teleportation Device | The player points it at a location and pulls the trigger to teleport there; the controller gives a short vibration after each jump.[5] |
| Aperture Science Apparatus Retrieval Tool | The player points it at an object and holds the trigger to pull the object toward them; releasing the trigger drops it. Road to VR compared it with the gravity gun from Half-Life 2. The player cannot teleport while holding an object with this tool.[5] |
The chambers reuse familiar Portal test elements, including large red buttons, cubes, lasers, turrets and emancipation grids, alongside additions suited to VR.[5] Puzzles involve tasks such as holding a lens cube overhead to redirect a laser beam and ducking behind walls to avoid turret fire.[5] Road to VR noted that teleportation replaces analog-stick movement and also stands in for the role portals played in the earlier games as a way of crossing the test chambers.[5] UploadVR described the final two levels as the ones that combine all of the mechanics (moving cubes, deactivating force fields, teleporting and redirecting lasers) into larger puzzles.[3]
The game is short. Road to VR put its length at about 30 minutes, and UploadVR at about 20 to 45 minutes depending on the player's experience with puzzle games and VR.[5][3]
Features
Development
Prism Studios first released Portal Stories: Mel, a free modification for Portal 2, on Steam on 25 June 2015.[6] The studio later described itself as a small company based in Northern Ireland and said Portal Stories: Mel had been downloaded by more than one million unique users.[7] The Steam store page describes Portal Stories: VR as building on the foundations of Portal Stories: Mel and states that it was created by the same team of fans. The page adds that the team is not related to Valve, that Valve did not develop the game and does not endorse it, and that the team claims no ownership of the Portal intellectual property.[1]
The team built the game in Unreal Engine 4 with new models, textures and particle effects.[1] Prism Studios had aimed to release it alongside the consumer launch of the HTC Vive on 5 April 2016.[8] In March 2016, Digital Trends reported that the game would be released for free in early April, when the Vive began shipping, and that it would require an HTC Vive.[9] On 2 April 2016 the studio postponed the release, saying the game could not be finished at the quality it wanted in time and needed more polish.[8]
Name dispute with Valve
On 26 April 2016, Prism Studios announced that Valve had told it of issues with the name Portal Stories: VR and had asked for the name to be changed, delaying the release again.[10] According to the studio, Valve's concern was that some people had mistaken the game for an official Valve release. After discussions, the two sides agreed that the game would keep its name and be tagged on Steam as a Portal 2 mod, in line with the store page of Portal Stories: Mel. As a result, players need a copy of Portal 2 in their Steam library, but do not need it installed.[4][10] UploadVR attributed the mod listing to the licensing difficulties of distributing a game based on a property the developer does not own, and noted that the game is not actually a modification of Portal 2.[3]
Release
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2 April 2016 | Release postponed for further polish; the team had aimed to launch alongside the HTC Vive on 5 April[8] |
| 26 April 2016 | Valve asks for a name change; release delayed again[10] |
| 7 May 2016 | Name kept, game tagged as a Portal 2 mod; release date announced as Tuesday, 17 May 2016[4] |
| 16 May 2016 | Released free on Steam for Windows; HTC Vive required[2][1] |
The game was released on Steam on 16 May 2016, a day earlier than the date the team had announced.[2][4] UploadVR's weekly HTC Vive release list gave the price as free for owners of Portal 2.[11] On release day the developers hosted an AMA ("ask me anything") session on Reddit to answer questions about the game and its development.[12] The Steam store page lists the game as "VR Only", supporting English with full audio, and states that it requires an HTC Vive; the game is available only for Windows.[1]
System requirements
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10/Windows 8.1/Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit |
| Processor | Intel i5-4590 | Intel i5-4590 |
| Memory | 4 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD R9 390 | NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD R9 390 |
| DirectX | Version 11 | Version 11 |
| Storage | 6 GB available space | 6 GB available space |
| Additional notes | Requires HTC Vive | Requires HTC Vive |
Source: Steam store page.[1]
Reception
In its review, UploadVR called the game "absolutely worth a download for all fans of the Portal franchise". The reviewer praised the voice acting and the game's polish, which he judged better than most paid VR experiences on Steam at the time, but found the ten puzzles easy (the hardest took him about five minutes) and wrote that it ended just as what seemed to be the "main game" was about to start.[3]
Road to VR found the game well polished and said it felt like a Valve creation. Its reviewer found it easier to manipulate objects accurately with tracked hands than with a gamepad or keyboard and mouse, and named hiding from turrets as the highlight. The review criticized the low difficulty and argued that removing portals took away much of the series' creative problem-solving, while acknowledging that portal travel and gel-based bouncing could be nauseating in VR. It concluded that the game was worth picking up as a free mod, especially for dedicated Portal fans.[5]
As of 9 October 2026, the Steam store rates user reviews of the game as "Very Positive".[1] Metacritic lists no critic reviews and no Metascore for the game.[13]
Later work by Prism Studios
In August 2016 Prism Studios announced that it had moved from mod team to independent studio and was working on a new VR first-person puzzle game, The YR-Initiative (earlier called DR01D), in which the player directs robot companions to solve puzzles.[14] On 11 October 2018 the studio released The Captives: Plot of the Demiurge on Steam, a fantasy game with Souls-like combat that it described as its first commercial game.[7]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Portal Stories: VR on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/446750/Portal_Stories_VR/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Portal Stories: VR - OUT NOW!!!". Steam. Prism Studios. 2016-05-16. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/446750/view/255955126826703812. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 David Jagneaux (2016-05-16). "Portal Stories: VR is Like a Brief Field Trip to Aperture Labs for HTC Vive". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/portal-stories-vr-vive-aperture-labs/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Portal Stories: VR releasing May 17th!". Steam. Prism Studios. 2016-05-07. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/446750/view/255954571294511127. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 "'Portal Stories: VR' Brings 10 Made-for-VR Puzzles to the World of Aperture Science". Road to VR. 2016-05-19. https://www.roadtovr.com/portal-stories-vr-brings-10-made-for-vr-puzzles-to-the-world-of-aperture-science/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ "Portal Stories: Mel on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/317400/Portal_Stories_Mel/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Out now- The Captives: Plot of the Demiurge!". Steam. Prism Studios. 2018-10-11. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/446750/view/3594328263086139676. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "We're postponing the release of Portal Stories: VR". Steam. Prism Studios. 2016-04-02. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/446750/view/260454846487776709. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ Jon Martindale (2016-03-17). "Portal Stories: Mel gives virtual reality headset owners their first taste of Portal in VR". Digital Trends. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/portal-stories-vr-launch/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Important Announcement!". Steam. Prism Studios. 2016-04-26. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/446750/view/255953140191326805. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ David Jagneaux (2016-05-20). "New HTC Vive Releases for the Week of 05/15/16". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/new-htc-vive-releases-week-051516/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ "We're hosting an AMA!". Steam. Prism Studios. 2016-05-16. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/446750/view/255955126826284964. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ "Portal Stories: VR Reviews". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/portal-stories-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ "The future of Prism Studios and our next game!". Steam. Prism Studios. 2016-08-18. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/446750/view/252586225973491962. Retrieved 2026-10-09.