Quote from Ruien on February 26, 2012, 1:36 am

Every person is different. I like maps with puzzles which:

1. Exercise your brain. This is mandatory.
2. Don't require meticulous execution.
3. Don't have "gimmicky" elements (like unlabeled buttons) which increase difficulty "artificially".

This post is intended to be a list of maps with direct links for convenience, similar in style and function as the Community Roundups except that my preferences seem to differ (most maps are simply too easy to be interesting, no matter how good they look). This is not a collection of the hardest maps (just look up Jonatan's maps if you want that). It's a collection of the ones I personally found the most fun to play.

I will update this list over time as I play more maps.
If you'd like to recommend a map which fits in with these, please PM me (rather than bumping this topic).

Maps ordered by preference. Difficulty in curly braces: {0} to {9}

• {6} Heavens Gate (marKiu) - Beauty and elegance. Puzzle design that shines. A perfect 10.
• {6} Engineer (Ruien) - My map. Designed to be ideal in terms of logical puzzle element use, playtime, and easy execution.
• {6} Psicodelia (CaRLyMx) - Bold, well-designed, and intelligent puzzle with a personal touch.
• {3} Momentum (neco) - Solid, smart, creative map which went through many iterations of playtesting.
• {2} Edifice (Omnicoder) - Gorgeous map of three chambers designed by an innovator and mapping legend.
• {2} Retrospective (Omnicoder) - Overlook the meme pandering and you have a quality map here. Return of Combine Ball!
• {3} Wavelet (Mr. Happy) - One of the oldest well-designed laser puzzles, and atmosphere is good too.
• {2} Heavy_Reuse (hexparrot) - Conversion gel map with multiple non-trivial solutions. Use one cube only.
• {8} Encode (grayarea) - Small but difficult map whose elegance is only really understood after you've solved it.
• {8} Devil's Tower (jonatan) - A technical masterpiece of geometry. Execution is tough though.
• {2} PMK 6 (mazk1985) - First laser puzzle map to innovate a puzzle element used in later maps by others.
• {5} NYS-5 (Nyskrte) - Excellent series by Nyskrte. Tends a bit too much toward execution near the end.
• {4} Vendetta (shawy89) - Interesting map that innovates three puzzle elements.
• {1} Fun with Fizzlers (Nezzy) - Quote: "A map done right. It plays as good as it looks." Could be harder but fun anyway.
• {0} Cube, Buttons and One Portal (lpfreaky90) - A great puzzle concept. The Mono-portalgun still has a lot to offer.
• {3} Conversion Diversion (Groxkiller585) - One of the only maps to use conversion gel right.
• {3} Your Choice (silic) - Good use of fizzlers.
• {1} Seems Familiar (Gig) - A couple of essential puzzle elements that should have been in the main game.
• {0} Outside The Box (Gig) - Two unique puzzle elements in this tiny map.
• {3} Withdrawal Symptoms (silic) - Pretty good series with some innovations. Gets better as you proceed.
• {4} After Math (chimera201) - Includes a creative laser puzzle and an ending you should not miss.
• {1} Patent Pending (ebola) - Fun and beautiful series but lacking in difficulty. It's still worth playing once.

Notes:

- Use the VPK mod:

Basic Mod for .vpk files by KennKong.
GCFscape (for use with the above)

And then make the "portal2portal 2portal2_dlc9" directory. I drop all custom content in here, even maps which are just stand-alone .bsp files; this makes it easy to keep the custom content separate. You can even drop full mods in here and they (mostly) work.

- "Map pack" conglomerations of maps made by other people are not available for the same reason that linux programs don't typically bundle their dependencies: first, you need permission, and second, they all get updates and bug fixes. So, I am providing links instead.

- No co-op maps at this time. For work-related reasons, I often need to pause for hours, or save and come back later.