Much like Gordon Freeman in the Half-Life series, Portal 2's protagonist, Chell, is silent, and Valve did that with a purpose. It's not for a canonical reason -- or if it is, Valve isn't saying why yet -- but instead because it better serves the game's comedy for her to never utter a word.
"We always assumed she could talk and simply just chooses not to, what with these robots all being dicks," said writer Erik Wolpaw at the New York University Game Center yesterday, according to Kotaku. "She's not giving them the satisfaction of saying anything."
"There's also this thing, with comedy -- this is sort of reductive -- there are sort of two different patterns," Wolpaw continued. "There's the straight man in a world gone mad. And the other one is: You're a crazy person in a sort of straight world. Portal is definitely the world gone mad with a straight man. And the straight man is you... Because you have to write in the margins in the game, time is kind of at a premium. The fact that there's already this established thing where you can have a silent protagonist, that saves us a lot of time."
Some fans might wish she'd say a word now and again but Wolpaw doesn't think most people are actually bothered by her quietness. Even if she did talk, it might not work as well as the stuff we hear coming from the mouths of J.K. Simmons, Stephen Merchant, and Ellen McLain. "You may want Chell, you may want to know her back story and hear her say things, but I guarantee if she had to say her straight man lines, at the expense of half of the other dialogue, it would suck," Wolpaw explained.
Throughout the game, a few hints about Chell's background are dropped, but given their nature, it's hard to be sure of what's real and what GLaDOS is mocking her about. Perhaps we'll learn more if Valve ever decides to produce Portal 3.
online games pc game reviews pc games download pc games list pc games strategy
No comments:
Post a Comment