Portal
Bought once, no purchases inside it, and over in an evening. The clean opposite case to a live-service game, useful as a baseline for what zero monetization pressure actually looks like.
The cost, in short
Pressure
000
To ending
003hrs
Scripted ending exists
How this rating was reached
Score of 0 because there is no purchase of any kind inside the game after the initial one-time price — nothing to pressure you into buying. 3 hours reflects the main story only, per HowLongToBeat's aggregated player-submitted completion times; players tackling optional challenge chambers report closer to five hours. estimatedCostToProgress is left blank deliberately, not because it's unknown: there is nothing to progress toward beyond the purchase price itself, so the field does not apply.
The monetization, in full
There isn't any. Portal is a one-time purchase with no in-app purchases, no expansions sold separately at the time of its original release, and no ongoing service to pay into. Once you own it, everything in the game is yours.
The ending is real and reachable
The main story runs to a definite conclusion — credits roll, the story is over. Players report roughly three hours to reach that ending on a first playthrough, with completionists spending closer to five hours if they replay chambers or chase the game's optional challenges.
Why this game is on the site at all
Most of what we rate is free-to-play, because that's where the interesting monetization questions are. Portal is here as a reference point: a monetization pressure score of zero should mean something concrete, and this is what a real zero looks like.
Sources
- 01Portal — main story completion timeHowLongToBeat (independent, player-submitted completion times) ·
Full method behind these ratings: see our methodology.
Ratings are editorial judgments based on the sources cited above. They are not a guarantee of current pricing or mechanics, which can change after publication — check the source directly before making a purchase decision.