Portal and Portal 2, does it matter which one to play first?

[Tsune]

Awesome replies everyone and thank you all for your input! They both just finished downloading so, I'm off to start on the first one.

Be well and best of luck to you all!

[Bathory]

Absolutely 1 then 2.

That's like watching the 2nd movie of a trilogy then watching then first. You're thrust into the story with any real understanding.

Sure they can be independent of one another, but you'll have a better appreciation for the 2nd one if you go in order

[Powerogue]

in terms of story, portal 1 first would be most coherent, they are technically in order.

it's also a good start to a lot of the mechanics that get harder in the second game, as the second one has a (slightly) steeper learning curve.

edit: good luck Tsune, one thing I'll say about portal 2: take it slow and smooth, a lot of the dialogue gets missed if you rush past before they're finished speaking. also some blatant disregard of common sense yields unique dialogue.
big bad: wait come back! I've decided I'm not going to kill you if you come back
*you stroll backwards back into the deathtrap*
big bad: oh, you came back, didn't really plan for that, uhh...

[Elementium]

Honestly you could probably read up on the story of the first if you HAD to skip it...

But you wouldn't want to because Portal 1 is EPIC.

[Paranitis]

Even though the OP has already begun the first one by now, and while I would also agree with doing 1 then 2, another reason people didn't really mention is LENGTH of the games.

Portal 1 was more of an afterthought add-in for Half-Life 2, and was just kind of a fun side thing to mess around with, so the game length isn't very big, since it wasn't the primary focus.

After they saw the success (by way of reviews, since I don't think you could just buy it in standalone, though I could be wrong), they created a second one to expand upon the first.

So I'd go with 1 first because:

1) Portal 2 continues the story of Portal 1.
2) Portal 1 is soooooo much shorter than Portal 2.

If you did P2 then P1, you'd be disappointed based on how long or short it would be to beat P1.