I think I know who we play as in Portal.

One possibility is that it's a corporation that existed before the portal storms, and was simply testing one of their prototype devices with an unwilling human test subject. It's silly to think of a company being able to develop something such as this, but similar technology was developed in Black Mesa. It's not too unreasonable to think that the private industry would be running parallel, although different programs.

Of course, the reason this probably isn't true is that it doesn't really tie into the HL storyline. It's just an irrelevant piece of backstory unless they ever plan to incorporate the portal gun into the main series (which they won't) or this guy breaks free and gets to use the gun in "real" situations as opposed to pre-made tests.
 
I cant help but think of the speech the Gman gave Adrian at the end of OP4. He said he respects people who survive against all odds. It seems Adrian would be the perfect person to test the portal gun.

The womans voice is mechanical like the voice in the tram in Halflife. It is a bit strange that the combine would have a company logo. Maybe they wanted some of the big business tax cuts?
 
This...doesn't make any sense. This kind of portal technology was NOT, NOT, available during or before Black Mesa. Let me emphasize the NOT.
Click to expand...
Thats so narrow minded! I could think of 100 things to explain this.

It just makes sence that this is Kleiner! I cant beleve Valve would let us play as a random bald guy, thats not how normal player characters look(nice looking hero type). I can only think of the fact that this is linked with a bald guy weve seen already; probably Kleiner.

Kleiner is the teleport/portal/gravity guy in the HL universe.

Also, why would Valve link 'portals' with the hl universe if we play with a random guy who we have never seen before? Its logic its linked with a character we have seen before. Atleast thats what I would do if I was Valve, and Kleiner would be the perfect guy in a game about portals.
 
Betelgeuze said:
Thats so narrow minded! I could think of 100 things to explain this.

It just makes sence that this is Kleiner! I cant beleve Valve would let us play as a random bald guy, thats not how normal player characters look(nice looking hero type). I can only think of the fact that this is linked with a bald guy weve seen already; probably Kleiner.

Kleiner is the teleport/portal/gravity guy in the HL universe.

Also, why would Valve link 'portals' with the hl universe if we play with a random guy who we have never seen before? Its logic its linked with a character we have seen before. Atleast thats what I would do if I was Valve, and Kleiner would be the perfect guy in a game about portals.
Click to expand...

I do belive that they designed gordon to not look like your average "hero"... Seeing as alot of FPS at the time used your typical "duke" charecter... Why not this... valve are known for doing the unexpected.
 
I knew someone was going to say that but theres a big difference between Gordon and a random bald guy!
 
True, but I still dont think its out of the question with valve...
 
I got the impression he was just some random guy.

"You are a graduate of Yale Univeristy and a science whizz. Unfortunately, you've recently fallen on hard times, and you're so grossly overqualified for the local Denny's that they pelted you with undercooked chips and drove you out when you asked for a job. Just as you feel you'll never find employment, you seen an ad in a newspaper: Apeture Science looking for test subjects!

What the hell, you think. It's good money. Little do you know just how dangerous the new job will be..."
 
Betelgeuze said:
Thats so narrow minded! I could think of 100 things to explain this.

It just makes sence that this is Kleiner! I cant beleve Valve would let us play as a random bald guy, thats not how normal player characters look(nice looking hero type). I can only think of the fact that this is linked with a bald guy weve seen already; probably Kleiner.

Kleiner is the teleport/portal/gravity guy in the HL universe.

Also, why would Valve link 'portals' with the hl universe if we play with a random guy who we have never seen before? Its logic its linked with a character we have seen before. Atleast thats what I would do if I was Valve, and Kleiner would be the perfect guy in a game about portals.
Click to expand...

I agree completly. The thing is, we know so little about kliener and his life compared to, say, Eli. This would be the perfect opportunity to give my favourite character some backstory.
 
Kleiner was in his early 50's during HL1. His hair was likely graying by that point. The character, by the ONE SCREENSHOT OF HIS SIDEVIEW, looks to be in his 30s. And why wouldn't Kleiner ever try recreating this kind of portal technology in the future? He's obviously a genius so I'm sure he could deduct what made the gun and try to recreate it. Shit, I could say it's Otis. That character had brown hair and was balding, it must be Otis :|. That's all you guys are saying. Just because the character's balding, it MUST be Kleiner.
 
I think it'll be a totally new character that hasn't been introduced yet.
 
I'd say some random character with no apparant history.

Maybe a nice train ride in the start going to your testing thing. Have it start similar to Half-Life. You don't really no where to go and your just walking around. Except rather than in Half-Life where something goes wrong...this one does not.
 
Well, Valve said they'd "reveal" his identity at a later date. If it was some random guy, they wouldn't really need to do that...
 
Also, I don't know if someone has already metioned this but the orange jumpsuit appears to have a portal logo on the back. So it may not be prison standard issue. It may be something else. Just a thought.
 
Well I always thought of this picture of Kleiner being more of an inside joke. Just because of that I wouldn't take this too seriously, but it could hold a few clues.

kleinergw3.png


His hair is clearly brown. We won't mention his face because it's just old kleiner with young people hair. I just used that as an example because his hair is brown in that picture.

kleiner2uc1.png


This picture you can see he has a nice full brown color to his hair too. Too bad he doesn't have the groovy side burns. One last comparison is that they both have the same hair line. So who really knows if it's Kleiner? It could just be another guy so we'll just have to wait and see.
 
Somehow, I don't see Kleiner as the kind of guy you would see bounding through portals and 'carrying out rather complex tasks while enduring the most intense pain', but hell, who knows. It's possible it's him.

I got the impression he was just some random guy.

"You are a graduate of Yale Univeristy and a science whizz. Unfortunately, you've recently fallen on hard times, and you're so grossly overqualified for the local Denny's that they pelted you with undercooked chips and drove you out when you asked for a job. Just as you feel you'll never find employment, you seen an ad in a newspaper: Apeture Science looking for test subjects!

What the hell, you think. It's good money. Little do you know just how dangerous the new job will be..."
Click to expand...

lawl
 
I just realized something.

Kliener wears glasses. He clearly needs them to see.

The man in portal however does not :|

Well I think we can wrap this one up :D
 
Nono, look, the picture of the portal guy is blurred. This is obviously because it's Kleiner not wearing his glasses.
 
:O Kliener doesn't see like normal human beings..he renders the world..in the source engine, motion blur and all :| But yeah no glasses = no kliener
 
He could be wearing contacts while testing. His glasses could fly off when portaling all over the place. Or perhaps, it was at a time when he didn't need glasses yet.
 
Well by the pictures the guy posted he's implying that there around the same time or close to each other :| I'd say thats around when he should be using glasses, the guy in portal seems to have LESS hair than the kliener in the magazine cover, so im going to assume it would be a bit ahead in time in which he would still need glasses :|
 
Adrik_Senturu said:
I just realized something.

Kliener wears glasses. He clearly needs them to see.

The man in portal however does not :|

Well I think we can wrap this one up :D
Click to expand...

Maybe back then he didn't need his specs. Perhaps his eyes got worse as he aged. Or he wore contacts :cheese:
 
Adrik_Senturu, Kliener seems to be far-sighted, so he wouldn't need to be reading fine print in this situation, and if it is him the age difference would probably mean better vision. Still, while the arguments are good, he is not the most likely candidate.

From what we know, the most likely candidate is Shepard, or second, a new character.

Reasons for Shepard:
- A SHPD Seems like a nice hint.

- He's the silent type like Gordon, seems more fitting for a player character.

- G-Man kept him in stasis because he saw potiential..

- Shepard is the only person to have experience using a portal gun. Who better to test a new experimental portal gun.

- Military training would be a plus for dangerous and physically intense testing.

- Bald Spot? We have no idea about Shepards age, and its unlikely that he was a ~20 yr old. People can start balding in their 30's, and certainly in their 40's.

- Adding more to the bald spot/age problem: The time between Black Mesa and HL2 is probably anywhere from 10 to 20+ years. While Gordon was kept in stasis, it might not have been as important to keep shepard in stasis the whole time; Shepard was already working for the government, and he was in the military for the excitement, he's a much more likely candidate for being taken out of stasis(And given "assignments") than Gordon. Not to mention his having military training would make him a good candidate for being taken out of stasis during/before the human/combine war between the two HL games. Gordon on the other hand is a less controllable and more unpredictable person, Gman couldn't take him out of stasis before the time was exactly right. So if by any number of reasons Shepard was taken out of stasis before Gordon, he would have had time to age and grow his bald spot.
 
Shepard was kept in stasis because he was a witness to events he was never planned to go on assignments therefore he should still be his current age and not be balding (unless he has had premature balding since OP4) I think it is Kleiner.
 
We can guess Shephard's age by his rank. Corporal was it?
 
Shepard's age is 22 years old, it says at the beginning of Op4.
I think it'll be a new character. I don't want to play as old ones.
And before anybody mentions Gordon's an "old character", remeber he's the main one.
 
I dont think Shephard was 'invented' by Valve, so I also dont think they are going to use him in a future game. I could be wrong.
 
Well, if it is kliener than wouldn't there be signs of greying along with the balding? :|
 
Adrik_Senturu said:
Well, if it is kliener than wouldn't there be signs of greying along with the balding? :|
Click to expand...


Not generally. People with the baldness gene tend to bald decades before their hair grays. Still, none of this really supports the idea that it is Kleiner in the trailer.


Theres no logic in this. You might as well say it was Father Grigory... after all he was bald too right?! :rolleyes:
 
A Big Fat CoW said:
Since it was announced, Portal has been the subject of much discussion. What's the setting? Is it just a tech demo? Is it related to Half-Life? Who do you play as? All of these questions have been asked (several, several times... often in the same thread :p), and few have been fully answered. Valve has trickled out very little information regarding this title, and so us fans have been mostly left in the dark. What little we do know, just raises more questions.

We know that it is set in the Half-Life universe.
- But then, when and where? Is it during Black Mesa? Is it during HL2? After? In-between somewhere? Is it a test by the Combine? Quite simply, how does it fit in?

We know that Valve has deliberately kept the identity of Portal's protagonist a secret. Evidence being this interview. Kim Swift says that Valve will be revealing his identity "at a later date", yet this answer was unsolicited, suggesting that it's to be kept a secret.
-But why? Do they want to surprise us? Most likely. Who could they surprise us with, then?

We know that the acronym for the teleport gun is ASHPD.
- Which is awfully reminiscent of "A. Shephard", who was the protagonist of HL: OpFor, which also employed a teleportation gun. Does this mean that we'll be playing as Shephard? If so, how did he break out of the G-Man's imprisonment? Why is he working for Aperture Science Labs? How do you explain the unsightly bald spot on the back of the player's head in this picture?


Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe I have our answer.

Do we play as Adrian Shephard? Of course not. No, but I think we will be playing as another already-established character in the Half-Life universe. One who has an even greater fondness for teleportation, and a much greater bald spot, than Shephard. Someone who's a scientist, a person that would make sense to be under the employ of Aperture Science. Someone who's been a part of Half-Life from the start.

Doctor Isaac Kleiner.

I have nothing further to say. :)
Click to expand...

Holy shit!!!!!

bigburpco said:
SAMON AGREES THIS THEORY IS OFFICIALLY DECLARED FEASIBLE.

woo.
Click to expand...


That's a big happening, like the rapture or an alien invasion.
 
A bald spot does not make this theory any more plausible than Shephard being the PC. It's interesting, but I won't hold my breath.

Besides, Kleiner does not seem like the kind of person who would do well in a dangerous, fast-acting environment while "enduring the most intense pain". He's a theoretical brainy guy, odd, effeminate, and more likely to have spent his younger days reading up on physics as opposed to working out. He's not a likely candidate to survive in Portal's hostile context.

So my guess is it's Shephard or an entirely new character.
 
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