14 DAY TRIAL // Portal 2 is nearing its launch date and the team at Valve that is working on the puzzle filled action game says that one of their aims for the sequel is to offer players more information about main character Chell and allow them to develop a better understanding of her.
[ADMARk=1]Speaking to Eurogamer, Erik Wolpaw, who is a writer and designer working on Portal 2, said, “In the beginning, when we were first designing it, and even for the first couple of iterations, the idea was Chell had her story, she got out, let’s just let her be.”
Initially, the developers tested the idea of putting in a whole new player character, but the results were not especially encouraging, despite the fact that testers did not seem bothered by the fact that their character was a blank slate.
He added, “What bothered them was when GLaDOS woke up and didn’t recognize them as the person who done these things to her.”
Both Wolpaw and fellow Valve public face Chet Faliszek agree that in some ways Chell is a female version of the silent protagonist Gordon Freeman, the man that powers the Half Life franchise.
But the duo says that the attitudes of the two characters are very different and that their silences tell different stories about their feelings, with Freeman determined to do what needs to be done to complete his mission and Chell annoyed at the ridiculous and dangerous situation that GlaDOS puts her in.
The writers also say that Chell can definitely talk when she wants to, but that she is keeping silent in order to give the intelligence behind the test facility the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of her.
Portal 2 will be launched on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 and will be available on April 18 in the United States and at the end of that week in Europe.