Portal is a physics-based puzzle-platform game in which you play as Chell, a test subject for Aperture Sciences. It is never 100% clear what exactly they are testing, as you are equipped both with "long fall boots", which basically explain away all those other times in games when you jump of a building and basically survive, and a portal gun. The portal gun opens a portal, but in order to be able to walk through it you need to open a second. Basically, you walk through one portal and out of the other. The gameplay gradually introduces other nifty "test" products - such as repulsion gel which you can bounce off, Propulsion gel, which causes you to run very quickly over it, and others, adding complexity to the puzzles throughout the game.
I have only played the second of the two games, but being a logic fiend, thoroughly enjoyed it. However, whilst still trying to figure out exactly what to do (I was given no explanation at all, either by the game or by my maniacally grinning boyfriend), I got a bit freaked out when, through one of the portals I saw some strange woman with odd shoes on in it. At this point, aforementioned boyfriend finally piped up and informed me that I was in fact seeing myself (obviously, not literally myself, but rather the myself of the first person perspective - I wouldn't be caught dead wearing those shoes....not least because they basically eliminate the chance of it happening in the first place). So I was a bit shocked but pleased that I was playing a female character. Realistically though, if I hadn't noticed "myself" through the portal, there is never any real indication that you are in fact a woman.
Throughout the games, there is a computer following your every move, and she is called GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System). Throughout the first Portal she encourages you and and instructs you throughout each test. However, as the game continues, it becomes apparent that she holds little to no regard for the safety and wellbeing of the test subjects and is deceptive in her manner. Basically, for all intents and purposes, she's a bitch.
As with most games, you need to destroy GLaDOS in order to "win" the game - in this case, knock yourself unconscious midst the rubble and get dragged back to the facility, to make way Portal TWO! YAY!
Now, one of the best things about the game, in my opinion, other than its challenging yet enjoyable gameplay is the script. It is darkly amusing and progresses the plot without anything other than test chambers really actually happening.
GLaDOS has got some of the most sarcastic, loaded comments of all, all of which are thoroughly amusing. However, I began to wonder, would the bitchy dynamic even work if Chell was a man? I doubt it. Firstly, is it a deliberate deception on the developers' part to keep potentially male player sin the dark about your chracters gender? By placing you in first person persepective, it is much easier to forget that you are no longer a big butch man, but a slender dark haired woman (GLaDOS puts it rather brilliantly: "You dangerous, mute lunatic."). There are no sound effects from your character, no dialogue, nothing other than the odd accidental glimpse at yourself through a portal to see what or who you are. However, the fact that she does in fact have a name, and a unique rather than generic design indicates to me that Chell and not Mike was really rather deliberate.
If I imagine Chell as a man, then I personally believe that practically all of GLaDOS's remarks would make far less of an impact. If I imagine both as male characters, then the light, humourous tones in the insults would perhaps get lost under the physical threat of danger, and probably take away from GLaDOS's psychotic personality. So, on one hand the female to female dynamic works beautifully and keeps the tone both light yet incredibly menacing (Credit is due here to the absolutely brilliant voice acting of Ellen McLain).
On the the other though, if I really wanted to (I don't but I'm playing devil's advocate here) I could take issue with the fact that the insults are pretty juvenile and centred almost exclusively around Chell's weight and the way she looks: Here is a list of some of my favourites:
- "hmm...this plate must not be calibrated for someone of your...generous...ness. I'll add a few zeroes to the maximum weight"
- "You seem to have defeated its load bearing capacity. Well done. I'll just lower the ceiling. You look great by the way, very healthy"
- "Most people emerge from suspension terribly undernourished. I want to congratulate you on beating the odds and somehow managing to pack on a few pounds"
- "If I'd have known you'd let yourself get captured this easily I would've just dangled a turkey leg on a rope from the ceiling"
So, on the one hand, I'm a bit like "Why not call her stupid? Why reduce her to what she looks like and not any other part of her personality?" (In hindsight, the last of that list sort of hints at GLaDOS overestimating Chell's intelligence), but really, these comments are designed specifically to be a bit pointless. The fact that Chell does not respond in the game lends to the notion that she is unaffected by them, and GLaDOS is childishly trying to get a rise out of her. Also, the fact that Chell is repeatedly successful in completing the increasingly difficult logic puzzles in the chambers is testament to her superior intelligence (there is also a little easter egg where there are potato plants left over from a "Bring Your Daughter to Work" day, and one is clearly freakishly more successful than the others. If you look closely, the name "Chell" is written on the board behind the frankenpotato). However, as mentioned before, if Chell had been a man, these comments would go from being humourously amusing to completely stupid. The only time GLaDOS makes a remark which may get a rise out of a man in the same way you would expect as from a woman is the following, and it's just generally mean:
- "Don't let that horrible person thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, Science has now validated your birth mother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep"
The fact of the matter is GLaDOs is basically your frenemy - that bitchy friend that you don't really like but you have to put up with, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. But as most men (I would imagine) don't really have frenemies - either because they don't put up with it or because all of their bitchery is done physically, less covertly, and may I say with far less style - The developers use the introduction of Chell to GLaDOS to take that sly bitchiness that is so readily attached to women and made it work hilariously to their advantage.
Listen to some of her best lines here (I promise you won't regret it)
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