Portal

Portal

This uber cool and funny first-person, puzzle-platform video game by Valve Corporation, featuring Ellen McLain as the voice behind GLaDOS

(Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), makes you wonder and laugh at the same time as the fictional artificially intelligent computer

system GLaDOS talks to you through your ‘tests’. However, the main, silent protagonist Chell, is actually kind of trapped by GLaDOS and all

obstacles are intentionally set up to kill Chell, also by GLaDOS. It is worth to mention, that back in 2007 when the very first game came out,

it was acclaimed as one of the most original games of 2007 and this solely derives from its unique combination of villainy and humor that we

have in GLaDOS. And in 2011, when Portal 2 came out it was praised for being one of the greatest video games of all times. Also GLaDOS

recieved names such as: “The Greatest Video Game Villain Of All Time”, “The Best Insane Computer In Video Games” and a

“digital version of the most passive-aggressive girlfriend ever”.

One interesting thing is that one of the many inspirations to the game developers (Kim Swifts’ team) was, the Doctor Who series in regard to spaces

bigger on the inside (feature possessed by the Doctors’ TARDIS- Time And Relative Dimension In Space) as well as traveling between spaces.

The program music in this game was composed by Kelly Bailey and Mike Morasky which is mostly dark and mysterious in order to match the

ambients and moods of every in-game environment. However, in the credits, there is a song titled “Still Alive” written by Jonathan Coulton and

sung by Ellen McLain (GLaDOS). The lyrics of the song is so funny, weird and yet entertaining that its simply crazy how someone can write

something like that, what imagination does it take for it. It refers to the fact that even in the end,

GLaDOS is still alive as her “happy” core wasn’t disabled.

Written by: Adrian Dimitrijeski

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