Portal

[Flux]

What can I say?
It's Portal. I got my hands on this game over the Steam Winter Sale, and I love it. It's a beautiful puzzle-platformer that really makes you think. It makes you think so much, that I haven't thought of how to beat it yet.
"Portal has been called one of the most innovative games of the decade. A hybrid of FPS style and a new genre of spatial brain teasers, Portal offers hours of totally unique gameplay. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals, maneuvering objects, and moving themselves through space in ways that used to be impossible." -Valve
Hmm. That was rather brief, like the game time. There is a sequel Portal 2, but I think I should beat the first game before I say any more. Does anybody else have any experience with this title?
Now you're thinking with portals

[Buster's Uncle]

I heard a rumor that the cake is a lie - and it turned out the Portal player I heard it from was a liar who'd been posing as a chick for ten years...

[Geo]

I went knee-deep into this game. Stopped playing when the levels became too complicated/acrobatic  for my taste.

[gwillybj]

One of my stepsons played through Portal 2 a few times and loved it every time. It was difficult enough to get him agitated but interesting enough to keep him engaged.

[Buster's Uncle]

Note for Portal fans: last night I added Portal Cake to the Café section of the Shop (so you can have it showing in your postbit if you like).  It is, indeed, a lie.

[benschwab]

I loved the games.  I would spend quite a bit of money for portal 3.  I've always liked puzzles like this in a variety of formats and the puzzles are enough to purchase the game but the story is even better for me, especially in 2.  The psychology of the characters is complex and engaging and the dialogue is entertaining.  Exploring the world of Aperture Laboratories was the most enjoyable aspect of the games for me.

I don't know how usual my interpretation of the game is, I've never had an opportunity to talk about it with other people.  I accept that Portal and Half-Life are in the same universe.  I haven't played any of the Half-Life games (I tend to shy away from violence like first person shooters) but I have read some about the universe.  My understanding of Portal is that the events aren't literally what happened.  Bellow is what I chose to understand how things happened.

(click to show/hide)

Prior to the Omega event there was a technology development company in Michigan called Aperture Labratories.   The Department of Defense was their biggest customer and they specialized in imaging though they had other products like an automated gun turret that had excellent target differentiation and acquisition abilities as their most profitable product.  The company was founded in WWII by Cal Johnson who eventually married his long time secretary Caroline.  They had one child, Chell, in the 1970's.  Mr. Johnson died of cancer in the 1980's and Caroline followed in the 1990's leaving the company to their only survivor.

A couple of years before the Omaga project, Aperture Laboratories, hired a man, Doug Raymond, who had an undergraduate physics degree from Michigan State University as a lab technician.    This was quite unremarkable.  Mr. Raymond suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia that was controlled quite well with medication.  Mr. Raymond spent most of his time working on a project that was a gun that was to shoot a camera onto a far surface.  The idea was that soldiers could use it to get a better view of things from a distance.  The camera projectile had to land on a vertical surface and attach itself, send images a short distance by radio, and be controllable so that it can pan to get a different view.  Prototypes were being built but it wasn't yet ready for deployment.  The camera could attach itself to concrete surfaces but metal surfaces were proving to be quite difficult for example.

Another project Mr. Raymond was aware of was GLADoS or General Light Advanced DiagnOstic System.  It was software that used machine learning to analyze photographs.  If the software could be developed, it could scan thousands of images for specific elements.

Mr. Raymond had met Chell, who knew all of her employees, and developed romantic interest in her.  He blamed Mr. Johnson for abandoning her as a child but was exposed to talk about how Caroline ran the place and cared for her daughter et cetera. 

When the Omega event happened, life for everybody changed.  Aperture Laboratories had some laboratories in an old salt mine in rural Michigan where they conducted classified research.  This became a shelter for Aperture Laboratories personnel and members of the public.  The crisis after the Omega event also hampered medical infrastructure and Mr. Raymond would have to go without medication.

Chell Johnson, while having difficulty adjusting to running Aperture Laboratories, found her stride in managing the shelter.  It's residents were fond of her and she was of them and did a good job serving their needs as much as possible.  She delegated the research operations to a Dr. Wheatly who lacked in social graces but was a good scientist.  Mr. Raymond had a low opinion of Dr. Wheatly's competence due to personal difficulties in dealing with him as a supervisor.  A good portion of the profit from this military research went to support the community.

As Mr. Raymond went longer without adequate treatment, he became more removed from reality.  He developed a narrative to fit his personal feelings and paranoia.  At some level he was aware of what he was doing.  The longer he went without treatment, the more divorced from reality his narrative became.  He became unable to work, of course, but was treated lovingly with care and compassion in the shelter.  Chell Johnson would talk with him and found his stories quite entertaining.  Despite the hardships her parents deaths had caused her, Ms. Johnson has a high opinion of them and loved them but understood the mind of Mr. Raymond and didn't take offense.

The game chronicles the stories that Mr. Raymond contrived.

I quite enjoy the interpretation I came up with.  I doubt it is original.

I made a treatment of a plot for a Portal 3 game.  I like it.

(click to show/hide)

   The game opens as Chell is being briefed by the Half-Life Resistance outside of the surface entrance to Aperture Science.  The Resistance has acquired a special weapon (Wheatley) to use against GLaDOS to secure the release of Aperture’s hostages.  Chell is in a Resistance uniform (though is usually only seen through a portal) and Wheatley is brought out to accompany her.  Wheatley is strapped to Chell’s back and she is brought to a broken window in an office building to secure entry.

   She must travel through an above world office building to find an empty elevator shaft that she can drop down to get below the surface.  As she navigates the office complex which has deteriorated and GLaDOS has always neglected, she is trained on the use of portals and some other game elements through puzzle like levels.  Power is intermittent, there are spilled gels and leaking gel pipes, there are thermal discouragement beams and redirection cubes, turrets, unlock door buttons, and other elements.  During these puzzles, Wheatley and Chell’s commander are talking to her.

   Once Chell reaches to main facility she navigates back passages and challenges.  The place is in good working order.  Chell is given an opportunity to enter into a testing cube and when she does Atlas and P-Body are in the middle of a test with GLaDOS monitoring.  The robots stop and look at Chell with GLaDOS following.  Atlas and P-Body disassemble and the testing cube deactivates.  This begins a monolog which turns into a dialog between GLaDOS and Wheatley with Chell’s commander joining for a trialog.  Chell’s commander threatens GLaDOS with reintroducing Wheatley into her programing and this helps get GLaDOS to agree to enter negotiations.  GLaDOS suggests that while they negotiate Chell test some more.  Chell’s commander agrees.

   The testing cube reactivates and this begins a new round of testing for Chell.   This should have some or all of the old elements with new elements.  Possible new elements are magnetic walls (Walls to which Chell’s boots are attracted.  These non-portal surfaces allow Chell to walk on walls and ceilings though at half speed.  Chell can walk off of these walls or jump off with predictable consequences), metal boxes for the magnetic walls (will stick to these walls but none others including metal walls), fans to redirect flying objects or levitate them, prism tetrahedrons which split a thermal discouragement beam or hard light bridge into two (one enters two leave), and portal mirrors.  Wheatley and GLaDOS talk to Chell throughout these levels (Chell’s commander is busy with negotiations and is human thus is unavailable).

   After the last test Chell is informed that the negotiations have failed and that GLaDOS has developed a defense specifically for Wheatley.  She was just pumping the humans for information.  Chell is cut off from her commander and GLaDOS tries to quickly dispose of Chell but there is, of course, an opportunity for Chell to escape.  Chell runs and wanders through the facility before finding herself in a computer mainframe development lab.  This has numerous slots open for personality spheres as well as a switch to connect to the facility mainframe.  Doing so prematurely will alert GLaDOS who will discover Chell and terminate her.

   There should be warning poster that too many personalities active at once will overload the mainframe and to NOT attempt this.  Outside of the room should be access to numerous Personality Sphere Containment Puzzles through easy portaling.  Each Personality Sphere Containment Puzzle should have a personality sphere in it that Chell can obtain and return to the development lab by completing the puzzle.  Different personality spheres could have complementary puzzles when relevant and possible such as the paranoia sphere in nested non-leathal traps, the adventure sphere in a turret heavy puzzle, the sarcasm sphere in a hall of mirrors, the fitness sphere in a faith plate heavy puzzle, the sonic sphere in a propulsion gel heavy puzzle, and the demon sphere in a puzzle that is on fire.

   As Chell returns to the mainframe development lab with each sphere, she can put them on the floor or attach them to a personality sphere integration port (or dispose of them requiring a repeat of a test or taking them into another puzzle if she chooses for some reason).  The spheres will talk like normal while rolling around on the ground or sticking out of the wall.  If possible it may be nice to even have groups of them enter into a conversation or simulated conversation.

   Once enough spheres have been retrieved (a number mentioned on the poster) they can all be put on ports and then Chell can connect the lab to the facility mainframe causing GLaDOS much pain.  Chell’s commander comes back and a hole in the floor opens through which Chell can portal.  Chell’s commander gives Chell instructions to find the Smelly Human Storage Facility.

   The search for the smelly human storage facility requires Chell to search beneath the Aperture Laboratories Facility.  During this Chell can communicate with her commander (who has a video feed from Chell as well) and a 1980’s Cave Johnson is on the loudspeaker.  Chell is getting close (by the signs) when GLaDOS springs a trap for her.

   GLaDOS was able to defeat the bad personality overload and has decided to kill Chell again.  Chell must navigate through a series of killing rooms by doing enough damage to each room to activate an exit for that room.  These levels should be timed through use of Deadly Neurotoxin.  Chell’s commander cheers Chell on while GLaDOS roots for the home team.  After completing the last death room Chell exits into an aviary.  At this point GLaDOS gives up is anxious to prevent Chell from harming her birds.  GLaDOS agrees to wake all of the humans and to set them free.

   A portal appears in the wall of the GLaDOS Legionary Aviary of Doom (GLaD) through which P-Body exits.  GLaDOS, who is visible on a monitor worn by P-Body, instructs Chell to follow P-Body and when she does she finds Atlas at work at a control panel in front of the Smelly Human Storage Facility.  The game cuts to credits.

[vonbach]

I got most of the way through that game until my saved game tanked and I was thrown back hours of progress.
After that I didn't bother.