Portal 2

[janegray]

Five days ago, the videogame Company Valve released free Portal 2 downloadable content titled "Perpetual Testing Initiative." Basically, it's a free in-game map editor, which allows players to create and share maps with other player.

Everybody knows the "the cake is a lie" meme, but not everybody knows where it's from. Well, the answer is Portal.

The new maps reminded me that I really, really, really love the Portal games. So I've decided it's about time I shared my love for them by posting some scans from the comic "Lab Rat."

I love the art in this comic. The main character suffers from schizophrenia, and the art reflects his state of mind: when he is off his medication, it's all sketchy, but in flashbacks the pictures are clear.

16 pages out of a free 27-pages comic. At the end of this post you can find the link to the full comic.


WARNING: Lab Rat takes place between Portal and Portal 2, and as such is full of spoilers for the first game.

Of course, Portal is a 5-year-old game, so you might say that anybody who wanted to play it already has. But I got it 5 months ago, so I think it's always best to put spoiler warnings :P





Doug Rattmann, also known as "the Ratman," is the person who wrote all those "the cake is a lie" warnings in the first game. He is the only survivor (excluding the frozen test subjects) of GLaDOS's initial mass murder at the Aperture Science Enrichment Center; as GLaDOS locked the facility down, he couldn't escape, so he has been hiding from her and leaving clues for Chell, the playable character of the games.





Yes, that's a Companion Cube. When Rattmann is off his medication, he can hear the CC speak as if it was sentient. The CC actually gives him good advice.

Even so, Rattmann figures that he'll have better chances of survival if he has a clear head when the time comes to take out GLaDOS. So, he has saved the last of his medication until now.



Now, flashback time!



Back to the present, Chell has defeated GLaDOS!





This is where Portal ends, with Chell captured and dragged back to the facility.





Rattmann to the rescue!

I really love him. He has gone through a mass murder and spent a long time (months?) locked in a dark and cold prison, without his medication and with the sole company of an inanimate object, running away from a murderous AI and countless death-traps. Then, he finally, finally gets away and sees the sun, sweet freedom awaiting him... and he chooses to go back to save Chell!

He is not an action hero or anything. He has no military training, no equipment. But he is a genuinely kind guy, and he wants to help.







Flashback again! Right after GLaDOS' flooding of the Enrichment Center with neurotoxin.










You can read the conclusion, as well as all the pages I cut, here:

http://www.thinkwithportals.com/comic/#1

Comments

[stolisomancer]

If it'd help the tags any, I'm pretty sure Michael Avon Oeming does all the line art for the Valve comics.

For "Lab Rat" in particular, though, I don't know if he actually got David Mack in there to do some work or if he was just doing his best David Mack impression. That first page looks like something out of Kabuki.

[janegray]

I honestly have no clue.

But I (vaguely) thought it was a woman who drew Valve comics? At least, I heard that some official TF2 comics were drawn by an artist who got noticed by Valve for drawing Heavy/Medic fanart. I'm not sure if it's true or just a rumor.

[rainspirit]

"Never gives up. Ever."

I loved this series.

[janegray]

Yep, Chell is awesome :)

And I desperately cling to the hope that Rattmann could be rescued. I mean, we never actually see him die, do we? It's just implied. He could have survived after he got into the cryo-chamber. And...


*Spoilers for Portal 2 co-op*


...I think GLaDOS would have mentioned it if Rattmann had been one of the thousands frozen humans her two robots found and she later killed. So, what if Rattmann is still alive somewhere, frozen in a hidden chamber?

I really, really, really want a Portal 3 with Rattman as either main character or ally!

Much as I love Chell, she earned her freedom, and I think it would be pretty depressing if she were dragged back again. Let her enjoy her much-deserved happy ending, and get a new protagonist.

[damar148]

The other scientist was hilarious in his typical Aperture to everything.

"Just put your hand past all those gears to activate the machine, and preferably use the hand you would miss the least."

[janegray]

Hey, if he had even a twinkle of common sense, he wouldn't work for Aperture ;)

Cave Johnson: science isn't about why, it's about why not. You ask: why is so much of our science dangerous? I say: why not marry safe science if you love it so much. In fact, why not invent a special safety door that won't hit you in the butt on the way out, because you are fired.

[icon_uk]

Reminds me of the Doctor Who line sa he's trying to get his sonic screwdriver out of the gullet of a flying shark

The Doctor: You know, there's a real chance the way it's wedged in the doorway is keeping its mouth open.
Kazran: There is?
The Doctor: Just agree with me, 'cause I've only got two goes and then it's your turn.
Kazran: Two goes?
The Doctor: Two arms!

[glprime]

Major love for Portal.

It's one of my all-time favorites; fun concept with FPS-playform-puzzle solving, great world-building & storyline, and one of the most truly inspired HORROR games I've ever played (games that use jump scares and say "boo!" could learn something). Seriously, how messed up and torturous and just damn tragic everything is in Aperture really gets to you (and I fully believe Chell's last name is Johnson).

I was lucky enough when I decided to first do the co-op DLC to get a really good partner, and we had a fun couple of hours running through the maps all night, gelling as a duo like Atlas and P-Body, and then the payoff. It was great. I started downloading player made maps, and that was awesome, but a bit cumbersome at times. This new feature could make that fun again. I also like that the backstory opened up a whole new element with parallel-earth outsourcing.

[janegray]

Personally, I much prefer to believe that Chell is NOT Cave's daughter, just like I much prefer to believe that RED Spy is NOT BLU Scout's father.

For entirely subjective reasons, I LOATHE the "Luke, I am your father!" trope. I really can't stand it. IMO, it reinforces the idea that biological bonds are the only ones that truly matter :/

If Cave is Chell's father, that would make Caroline Chell's mother. And IMO the Chell-GLaDOS relationship would be immensely cheapened if it turned out that GLaDOS grew to care for Chell not out of respect for Chell's strength and determination and out of appreciation for their partnership, but just because they share the same blood.

[thatnickguy]

I'm pretty sure everybody and their dog knows where the "cake is a lie" meme came from.

[janegray]

I didn't, and neither did a couple of my friends.

We all had heard "the cake is a lie" a million times, but an out-of-context line can't tell you where it's from, and we never went out of our way to investigate its origin. So, until I got the game 5 months ago, we had no idea that the meme came from it.

[espanolbot]

As much as I love Portal and Portal 2... I'm honestly not sure if I'd want another sequel to be honest. I mean, if there was one I'd definately play it, but really the entire thing seems to have played out. Though that's just my opinion.

Can't get enough GLaDos though,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&src_vid=NyW78XIHjxg&annotation_id=annotation_135454&v=dE0zP5QNoRk

[janegray]

If it were any other company, I'd agree with you. But so far Valve has never disappointed me (well, almost... I'm annoyed that they have made the Strange Sapper so ridiculously difficult to obtain), if it's them I'm sure they could make Portal 3 a great game :)

[mrstatham]

Random note, but anyone who liked Portal 2's gorgeous design sense might like to know Dark Horse are publishing an 'Art of' volume for the game come this October.

[whitesycamore]

Glados is a little bit off about what a "culture bound" phenomenon is. She's right that the delusions of schizophrenia are heavily shaped by culture, but it's not a culture bound syndrome.

Now Koro, that's a culture bound syndrome.

Also, what's with Chell being all whitewashed and prettified? She's supposed to be an average, somewhat frazzled looking
latina.

[janegray]

I don't think GLaDOS is ignorant of that, she is just lying to manipulate Rattmann into giving up. She lies to her victims all the time. In co-op, she outright admits that she purposefully lied about Chell being fat in order to upset her.

[biod]

It's very possible Chell's appearence is due to Ratman's mental state or a bonus of the sleep pod.

Ratman

[jeyl]

When I watched someone play the original Portal game, the first thing that really fascinated me were Ratman's dens. I remember the player going through the clean, pristine rooms and pushing over turrets, and than he came across a small room with the word "HELP" written on the ground. When he looked up, a piece of wall was wedged open revealing what was behind it. A stark contrast didn't even begin to describe what I saw. Not only was Chell outside of the test chamber for the very first time, she found signs of life. Ratman was no where to be seen, but without a doubt he was there. And the music that played when you first walked into that room is still one of those things that tells you "You thought this was messed up? It just got a whole lot darker".

And the more dens you discover, the more you started to understand who this character was. And more importantly, find out that he's actually been helping you with the wall markings. He's a full fledged character who you don't even get to see! Is he dead? Is he still roaming around the facility? You never find out. You're only certain of one thing. He existed. And for a setting like Portal, it's like seeing a small flint of light in a pitch black room.

Which brings us to Portal 2. In the comic, Doug is shot in leg and is supposedly bleeding to death. The comic ends with him climbing into Chell's sleeping chamber as seen from the opening to the first game. In Portal 2 when Chell revisits the same room, the sleeping chamber is gone. Not only that, but Doug has also been nosing around the facility and making more dens... and the most interesting part? Recent dens. There is no way Doug could have done all of these dens in the shape the facility was in before the destruction of Glados.

And if you have a special sound/imaging device and find the radio signal and the easter egg commentary track, you'll find that Doug managed to get his wish. :)

Re: Ratman

[janegray]

Recent dens. There is no way Doug could have done all of these dens in the shape the facility was in before the destruction of Glados.

"All of these dens"? I only saw one, the one needed for an achievement in the room with the garbage. And I assumed it was an old one.

...I just got this feeling I missed something.

And if you have a special sound/imaging device and find the radio signal and the easter egg commentary track, you'll find that Doug managed to get his wish. :)

Wait, what? Please elaborate!

[kraesil]

Reading this and the comments.. well, you've gotten me curious. Could somebody tell me how to obtain Portal? I'm a bit too lazy to sort through Google search results.

[janegray]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/

(Normally I'd tell you to play the demo first... Just because a lot of people like something, it doesn't mean you'll like it too. But for the next four hours there is a sale that lets you buy the bundle with both Portal games at 66% discount, if you wait you'll lose the discount).

Get a Steam account (it's free), then buy the game with Paypal. The game will then appear in your game library (you can view it using the Steam client), and you can click on it to start the download and to play it.

[greenmask]

Thanks for the spoiler warning!

[janegray]

It was the least I could do :)

[eyz]

I'm a big Portal fan^^


Wheatley by *theEyZmaster on deviantART

[eyz]

stupid link didn't work... :(

[lb_lee]

Years late, but oh man, this is making me want to get and play Portal, even though rotating 3D shapes in my head is one of THE most difficult things for me to do!

[janegray]

I know what you mean. A friend of mine is utterly fascinated with the story and characters, but she gets sick to the point of feeling like vomiting after 15 minutes of gameplay >_>

Maybe you could watch a Playthrough or Let'sPlay? The first game is only two hours long. The second is about 12 hours long (and has a MUCH richer story).