Wednesday 18 May 2011

GLaDOS - Plot in Portal

Portal

In Portal, she is the main character's (known as Chell) only link with the situation she is placed in; at the game's start, GLaDOS introduces Chell to the game's Enrichment Center and the physics of the portal gun. In later stages of the center, GLaDOS admits to having lied to Chell about her progress, as part of a supposed 'test protocol. GLaDOS slowly becomes more sinister, and Chell's trust in GLaDOS is tested when the AI directs Chell into a testing area populated with live-fire turrets, a course designed for military androids. The AI claims that the regular test chamber is unavailable due to "mandatory scheduled maintenance".GLaDOS uses the lure of cake and grief counseling to encourage Chell to continue, but at the final testing area, as Chell prepares to receive the supposed cake, GLaDOS attempts to incinerate Chell in a fire pit. Once Chell escapes, GLaDOS attempts to reconcile with Chell, claiming the pit was a final test.

Chell then travels through the bowels of the Enrichment Center, battling natural hazards and further
turrets until she reaches GLaDOS's chamber, where the final battle occurs. In this encounter Chell dislodges special Personality core (each also voiced by McLain, with the exception of the final core, which is voiced in a guttural fashion by Mike Patton) and incinerates them. During the battle, it is revealed that before the events of Portal, GLaDOS released a neurotoxin into the Enrichment Center, so the scientists installed a morality core to stop GLaDOS flooding the Enrichment Center. Also, GlaDOS references Half-Life 2, stating that she is "the only thing standing between us and them." Once the last personality core is incinerated, a portal malfunction occurs in GLaDOS' chamber, launching Chell to the surface while apparently destroying GLaDOS. Originally the game ended with a fade to black leaving Chell on the surface. This ending was however replaced in a later patch to the game to a new one in which an unconscious Chell is dragged away by the party escort robot (a character referenced earlier in the game). However, the final scene shows a room filled with more personality cores that begin to light up and a robotic hand (presumably GLaDOS's) puts out a candle on a cake.

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