Portal 2 has the very tough job of being the successor to one of the most surprising games of yesteryear, which became an instant classic through its simple yet fiendishly complex mechanics, characters and levels.
We've already talked about how Valve managed to
change up the old test labs from the Aperture science facility, so we'll now talk about one of the new characters introduced by the game: Wheatley.
Portal 2 starts off with players going back into the special test boots of
Chell, the heroine of the first game, who is woken from a stasis by Wheatley, one of the former personality spheres of GLaDOS, the main antagonist from the original game.
While the decision to introduce a whole new character caused a few eyebrows to raise, the sphere becomes endearing right from the first second you lay your first person view on him.
It's hard to describe just how close you become to Wheatley, partly because of spoilers and partly because it's a connection that is better felt than explained.
Props should most definitely go to Stephen Merchant, Wheatley's British voice actor, who many will remember from various comedy sketches with the more famous Ricky Gervais.
The actor nails each line with his trademark British humor, and reflects just how Wheatley doesn't know everything about Chell's predicament but has the best intentions at heart, trying to help her at every turn.
While he may be a robot, Wheatley, through his expressions and though Merchant's voice, manages to make himself instantly loveable, and can be a textbook example of how companions and non playable characters should be designed in all future games.
Wheatley's introduction to Portal 2 may seem a bit weird before you start up Portal 2, but he is yet another example of why Valve is so good at creating fictional universes filled with lifelike characters, no matter if they're actually live, like Half Life 2's Alix Vance, or just a small robot, like Wheatley.
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