Portal 3 Speculation

And in regards to that Portal 3/Half Life 3 idea: Oh god no. The Portal one seems good, but a little off, while the Half-Life one.... No. Just... No.

I skimmed over the HL 3 bit because I'm only halfway through HL 2 myself, but I stopped for the extended flashback. It was amusing, but probably not a reveal that should go into a real game.

The next Half-life game would involve that Aperture ship that got lost in a teleportation accident, right?

That's the going theory.

Now I'm thinking the two titles need their respective Threes to grow the relationship separately. Slightly reconcile the tones: bring some dark humor to Half-Life 3, raise the horror in Portal 3. Maybe alien monsters in Aperture facilities and Black Mesa AI units among the resistance. Both of them end in a place where they can lead into...

HALF-PORTAL: All 4 One: a two-player cooperative campaign where one player is Gordon and one is Chell. G La DOS and Alyx are their respective Voices on the Radio, and banter a lot. Gordon and Chell both have Gravity Guns and single-portal devices. Chell has the Orange Portal Gun, Gordon has the Blue (this is a stupid device to justify the Half-Portal name). The two heroes must unite to take the Borealis back from the Combine, battling Aperture AIs the Combine hacked and puzzling through tests of Aperture Science Translocation Platforms.

Then again, I've only played half of HL 2 and about an hour into the original Half-Life, so I probably don't really "get" Half-Life and this is all becoming some badly misinformed fanfiction.

They should rather do Left 4 Half Portress Strike 2: Defense of the Ancients.

Assuming there is a Half-Life game set at least partially on The Borealis, at least some of the aspects of Portal would have to be present.

Such as the humor. Maybe a few of the puzzle elements. Probably not the portals themselves, and Gla DOS, Chell, Wheatley and the other main characters of the Portals games aren't likely to make an appearance.

...Recordings of Cave Johnson are actually extremely likely.

If you just throw the humor into the Half-Life world without any other changes, the dissonance would actually be pretty creepy.

Imagine if the Borealis was in ruins and overrun by the Combine, but still playing recordings of Cave.

edited 12th Sep '12 11:55:05 AM by TParadox

Portal's humour is already pretty dark, especially in the first game. Some of the things Cave says would fit right into the Half-Life universe with its less comedic tone. He replaces people's blood with peanut water and splices others with praying mantis DNA!

Peanut water? Haven't heard that one. I've heard him talk about bombarding test subjects with radiation designed to turn blood into gasoline.

My personal theory:

Chell is actually in a simulation of the outside, and it is yet another test, as Glados has made realistic environments for her to use. This would develop lots of new puzzle elements. (WARNING: Some of the following ideas are inspired by ideas made by other people. If you recognize the idea don't call me unoriginal.) One idea is the Shadow Cube, a cube that can only be moved by moving an actual cube, since the Shadow Cube is a shadow. There would also be the addition of a third portal: A portal that can let you go to the past. The portal would sort of freeze time, or lock time, in a position, so it would go to the time you, as an example, stepped on a button. One last puzzle idea is the Precipitate Gel, a gel that turns any other liquid solid. this can help you get past gaps. To get rid of the gel bridge, just shoot a laser at it!

About the plot: Chell finds out she is still in Aperture, just higher up, revealing Aperture Science to be lower than she thought. Glados would probably act sorry for the surprise, maybe even thinking "the scientists said it was mandatory". Glados, throughout the tests, would start degrading into insanity, as the plot revolves around you disobeying her. Eventually you would find a secret lab room, with many pictures in it- of Cave Johnson. In this room there would be voice recordings of him, in his "Voice Diary". Glados racts with surprise from this, but hears something that makes her stop rambling: A tape of not Cave, but someone sounding similar to Doug Rattman talking about Cave being uploaded into a core. It wouldn't be a voice diary: it would just be a recording of the downloading, and discussion of Cave Johnson being downloaded into WHEATLEY!

After that, Glados would take Chell up an elevator back to the Digital Outside, and plans on getting Wheatley out of space with a magnet. She makes more tests for you, and after, the outside digital world fizzes out to reveal just a bunch of panels. After it undigitalizes, you find a stairway up to the surface. You find the surface to be wrecked up from Half-Life's aliens, but still good enough to be livable. You also see what Glados is doing: she has a giant magnet on Aperture's roof, attracting Wheatley, Space Core, Fact Core, Curiosity Core, Rage Core, and Rick the Adventure Core to her. A giant claw grabs them, causing LOUD commotion. When they come out, they have full bodies. Glados says now that she knows who Wheatley really is, she can't just ignore him as if he was not important. She tells Chell and the robots to go and make a "heroic team of some sort" so that Glados can not be bothered with tests. She then says "I don't need you anymore, I am serious this time. This was the test. You can do anything you want with your portal gun and your team. Just try not to kill me." Chell and the robots would go out and leave the facility. But, it would reveal that P-Body and Atlas were planning something against Chell AND Glados, maybe the world... leading to the next NEXT game.

This idea is too big to be ignored!!!

No it isn't. I like the idea of having to use the Portal gun to kill combine forces and zombies. Ant Lion Guardian charges you, hits a portal, and flies off a cliff, anyone?

Portal Kombat would be a cool addition to the series.

Or possibly not, given that it was originally intended as an aspect of the original Portal, but was dropped because playtesting had determined that it's not nearly as fun as it sounds.

Well it's indirect combat. We're too used to being able to take on someone outright instead of having to think through how to neutralize them.

Not all of Portal Kombat necessarily means "Finish him!"

So somebody's working for NASA now.

edited 28th Feb '14 10:37:55 AM by unnoun

I just came across that the other day. I like how she's clearly a Polaroid camera painted white.

Portal Kombat is what happens in co-op when you get bored beating your head against the puzzle and decide it's more fun to screw over your partner.

edited 28th Feb '14 11:01:34 AM by TParadox

Valve has announced somewhat of a sequel of Portal, via Bridge Constructor.

I've created a new thread for it here.

edited 6th Dec '17 2:36:21 PM by Redmess

I think the bigger news is that Valve is making a game. Lego Dimensions licensed Portal from them a few years ago.

The Ars article mentioned that, too.