Was it all part of the test? (spoilers)

[Operational]

Spoilers for the ending.






Did we actually break out or was it just another part of the test?

Did the other participants kill GlaDOS and escape (before being rebuilt for the next participant)? If not where are they?

Was the puzzle ending due to it being a puzzle game or was it designed like a puzzle by Aperture Science?

 

[msleeper]

Yes we broke out.

No they didn't. They might have gotten far like we did (hence the paintings and "the cake is a lie" everywhere), but we are the only ones who killed GLaDOS.

Ending was a puzzle because it is a puzzle game.

 

[DESSTROYER]

IMO i believe it was just all a test. Why would they have put freaking walls that allowed you to portal out right at the flame pit? And better yet, why would there be markings all over the walls that tell you where to go? Had there been previous people that have gone through there? Of course not, they would of made it where you have no choice but to die in the flames. It's obvious they put all that there to see if they could live up to the challenge.

 

[xcellerate]

IMO i believe it was just all a test. Why would they have put freaking walls that allowed you to portal out right at the flame pit? And better yet, why would there be markings all over the walls that tell you where to go? Had there been previous people that have gone through there? Of course not, they would of made it where you have no choice but to die in the flames. It's obvious they put all that there to see if they could live up to the challenge.

except that we were supposed to be brain washed and robot like...but 'we' were different. If we had probably been "educated" by the computer, if the computer said to hold still and go into the flames, then we would have done so. I mean obviously the system they were using has worked before, otherwise they would all of a sudden have your platform get filled with a trillion volts. Surprise!

 

[TwwIX]

That's the beauty of the game.
The cake,the robotic arm and all the GLaDOS parts at the end suggest that it's part of the test.She will probably be rebuild and put another subject through the test.

 

[Mahalis]

I pretty much took it at face value. You're not supposed to escape - everything from the flame pit onwards is outside of test protocol.

What, by the way, was with the end scene? Cake, your companion cube, and a bajillion of GLaDOS's eye things, in a dark room. I can't imagine that scene being taken literally - GLaDOS gone = no control over the candle-pinching-out robot, for one thing - but there's no other context to take it in.

The cake,the robotic arm and all the GLaDOS parts at the end suggest that it's part of the test.She will probably be rebuild and put another subject through the test.

Interesting point. If it is literal rather than, say, allegorical, it means that things dropped into the incineration things don't actually get destroyed. And GLaDOS herself says that they'd rebuilt her - with the "morality module" - before.

Seems a hell of a huge explosion - ending with you lying in the rubble of the Aperture Science parking lot - to be redone for every test, though.

 

[Gray Fox]

I would think if people had escaped before they would have done something about it. Though they probably have been killed with neurotoxin and GlaDOS is more or less just ****ing around.

 

[Kitfox]

A friend mentioned that every time you walk through the aperture offices there is stuff everywhere that links it more firmly into the half-life universe but i never noticed anything.. gonna have to play again...

 

[frozenbacon]

IMO i believe it was just all a test. Why would they have put freaking walls that allowed you to portal out right at the flame pit? And better yet, why would there be markings all over the walls that tell you where to go? Had there been previous people that have gone through there? Of course not, they would of made it where you have no choice but to die in the flames. It's obvious they put all that there to see if they could live up to the challenge.

The other people that escaped could've escaped through other areas.

At any rate I think that part at the end was a part where you were supposed to suspend your disbelief. It would've been pretty boring if we had no choice but to die in the fire. Still, it would've been nice if they didn't make the solution so obvious.

 

[Ridge]

Well there is this:

 

[AJ Rimmer]

A friend mentioned that every time you walk through the aperture offices there is stuff everywhere that links it more firmly into the half-life universe but i never noticed anything.. gonna have to play again...

There are projector slide shows indicating that Aperture and Black Mesa were competing partners.

As for the test-question I don't know. I'd like to think it was all a test but it does seem a tad expensive to blow the whole thing up every test. Unless of course, "we" was the first person to complete it.

It could also be the entire test was never meant for us but for GLaDOS. The projector show seems to indicate that GLaDOS is their big project, not the portal gun. Maybe they wanted to see how long it would take for her to go bananas, or for how long she could survive, how she would react to constantly having to put people through these tests and killing them. There is a little red phone in the GLaDOS chamber meant as a warning system in case of GLaDOS becoming sentient. Which obviously didn't work.

 

[Ridge]

I still get chills every time I think about how the offices are just empty...doesnt seem right...

 

[pergamon]

Well there is this:

I think this is evidence that the facility must have been abandoned very recently. Those stupid projector bulbs don't last very long...

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I think this is evidence that the facility must have been abandoned very recently. Those stupid projector bulbs don't last very long...

They're not projector bulbs, they're Aperture Science Enlightenment Bulbuous-shaped Information Aides. And they run for years.

 

[Ridge]

Aperture cant do anything right...for all we know that projector couldve killed everybody in the room by first blinding them and then changing frames while they had hands stuck in it and it slowly mulched them!

For God's sake, they get like .8% of the Government Contracts they apply for...

 

[f1r3b4ll]

How do we know that pit was a fire pit ? It was just a red glow, perhaps all the cubes pieces get dumped in a pit ? or maybe the cake/robot arm/cube/GLAdOS pieces are a hallucination while your unconcious.

 

[Absinthe]

You know, I found a delicious sense of irony at the end with the cake. Almost like "Guess what? There WAS a cake for you! And everybody was there (in terms of those little robotic eyes). And you thought we were BS'ing you. Great work, schmuck."

 

[AJ Rimmer]

How do we know that pit was a fire pit ? It was just a red glow, perhaps all the cubes pieces get dumped in a pit ? or maybe the cake/robot arm/cube/GLAdOS pieces are a hallucination while your unconcious.

There is fire if you look down into it.

 

[hamburgerphil]

There is fire if you look down into it.

And if you jump in the pit, you die.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Yes we broke out.

No they didn't. They might have gotten far like we did (hence the paintings and "the cake is a lie" everywhere), but we are the only ones who killed GLaDOS.

I believe the same. I also think the tests were to see Glados and her competency at dealing with us (reasoning etc, which those little balls all had importance in controlling). We may have destroyed her but she's obviously a personality stored on a machine somewhere hence her little shin digging song at the end, having a little bit of a laugh at our expense!

I think the whole game for that purpose was a test arena, after the fire pit too. I mean none of it makes sense as a real place, as without the ASPHD it's impossible to navigate! Which also makes me derive that the AS facility were developing not only the ASPHD but Glados too as part of their research. I thoroughly enjoyed testing out their gadgets!

 

[msleeper]

I hadn't thought about that, that the part after the fire pit was testing GLaDOS, not us.

 

[Sulkdodds]

I think the whole game for that purpose was a test arena, after the fire pit too. I mean none of it makes sense as a real place, as without the ASPHD it's impossible to navigate!

Yeah, but only because we can't get through the doors - we don't have the keys, or GLaDOS controls some.

I don't think the behind-the-scenes bits are intended to be 'a test'.

 

[kilumanjaro]

Seems more like something else... from the website (www.aperturelaboratories.com) implications are that the test facility was set up by some secretive entity, then put under the control of GlaDOS v1.07, which was originally designed and programmed w/ the express purpose of testing subjects.

But GlaDOS reaches sentience, and ran out of test subjects, so "She" put the building on lock-down and started testing employees. Thats why electronic (computer controlled locks) wont open, but all the doors w/ manual handles work fine. Also explains run-down state of the machinery, since GlaDOS only has access to that which is inside the testing facility...

All speculation on my part, but it just fits better w/ the scenario laid out on the web-site. Check it out.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I believe the same. I also think the tests were to see Glados and her competency at dealing with us (reasoning etc, which those little balls all had importance in controlling). We may have destroyed her but she's obviously a personality stored on a machine somewhere hence her little shin digging song at the end, having a little bit of a laugh at our expense!

I think the whole game for that purpose was a test arena, after the fire pit too. I mean none of it makes sense as a real place, as without the ASPHD it's impossible to navigate! Which also makes me derive that the AS facility were developing not only the ASPHD but Glados too as part of their research. I thoroughly enjoyed testing out their gadgets!

Me, earlier:

It could also be the entire test was never meant for us but for GLaDOS. The projector show seems to indicate that GLaDOS is their big project, not the portal gun. Maybe they wanted to see how long it would take for her to go bananas, or for how long she could survive, how she would react to constantly having to put people through these tests and killing them. There is a little red phone in the GLaDOS chamber meant as a warning system in case of GLaDOS becoming sentient. Which obviously didn't work.

 

[Laff]

Me, earlier:

It could also be the entire test was never meant for us but for GLaDOS. The projector show seems to indicate that GLaDOS is their big project, not the portal gun. Maybe they wanted to see how long it would take for her to go bananas, or for how long she could survive, how she would react to constantly having to put people through these tests and killing them. There is a little red phone in the GLaDOS chamber meant as a warning system in case of GLaDOS becoming sentient. Which obviously didn't work.

Except they did contain her. They somehow took her out of wherever she was (somewhere where it's nice and sunny according to one of the ending scenes) and dropped her off in some canyon in the Arctic or the north pole or whatever. Perhaps they didn't shut her down completely because they felt they could salvage it. Then the 7 hour war hits, and bam, all attempts at retrieving GlaDOS and the Portal technology is dead. Until Freeman shows up that is...

 

[Ridge]

Iiiinteresting...

 

[McGooTheWise]

Kinda off topic, but did anyone notice that in the Background sound effects there were some sounds from Ravenholm, like some sort of howl, or engine of some kind off in the distance? I heard it, and i thought "OMG! ZOMBIES! D:"

And I think it's funny that that little website Valve made for us about portal a year ago gave us nothing as to the story behind the game. We thought we were onto something for a while. XD

As for the test, I think that GLaDOS just went overboard, we were the last "subject" left in the center, and we kicked it's ass. Pure and simple.

 

[PvtRyan]

Everyone forgot about this, or am I behind?

This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here:
HUGE SUCCESS.
It's hard to overstate
my satisfaction.

Apparently, GLaDOS didn't mind.

 

[JayseR]

The place looks like it must have been abandoned quite awhile ago, maybe around the same time as the incident at Black Mesa, everything there looks like it is rusting.

Unless that was all part of the test. This game seems to have a much deeper story to it than I originally anticipated.

If you go to the Aperture site and use the cjohnson login with the tier3 password, the time line indicates Black Mesa coming into view around 1986.
And since the projectors still show Black Mesa as competition, it might have been abandoned during or before the incident at Black Mesa. Or the time line in Portal is not concurrent with that of Half-Life. But, on the Aperture site, on the time line, it states:

1996 - After a decade spent bringing the disk operating parts of GLaDOS to a state of more or less basic functionality, work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component.

Several Years Later - The untested AI is activated for the first time as one of the planned activities on Aperture's first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work-day.

In many ways, the initial test goes well...

[END]

Maybe Aperture Science was abandoned later, perhaps wiped out by the Combine forcing them to flea to the Borealis ship. I'm doing too much speculating, I could probably go on about this for hours, it is a far more interesting story then I thought it would be, especially since it seems they are tying it into the Half-Life storyline.

 

[Ridge]

The fact is, the last scene in the game is outside, and everything looks fine and dandy...no post-Combine apoclypse scene there...

 

[Sulkdodds]

Considering you hardly see anything and it could be pre-combine but post-portal storms, I don't think that means much.

Apparently, GLaDOS didn't mind.

Problem is: 1. is it canon? 2. isn't GLaDOS completely mad?

 

[elitenetpc]

it was quite a strange experience. i for one dont know what the idea of all this is, but i did seem creepy.

 

[kupocake]

Isn't it supposed to be quite straight-forward? The test finishes at the point you evade the fire pit. You're supposed to submit there and then, and aperture staff take you away, only, they're all dead / otherwise gone and have been for years. Because of this, you leave the facility via your own route.

Though I have to admit, the cavernous appearance of the later sections was just weird.

 

[Ridge]

Notice the rediculously huge empty space that GlaDOS is in? It goes up to as far as you can see, and nothing around it...its very dark and murky there, as if it were underground....but where the hell could you be underground for that huge of an expanse?

 

[msleeper]

Notice the rediculously huge empty space that GlaDOS is in? It goes up to as far as you can see, and nothing around it...its very dark and murky there, as if it were underground....but where the hell could you be underground for that huge of an expanse?

You might ask the same question about some of the areas in Half-Life 1. It is underground in some undisclosed facility, somewhere on the planet.

 

[Zigrah]

The last part with the cake is misleading. It goes with the song and makes you wonder if she's still alive. All those replacement eyes, suddenly reactivating, in a room with a cake. I took it as more of a humorous thing then reality, the one truth is that there are no humans there waiting for you.

The game leaves a lot of unanswered questions in typical Half Life style. Who are you, how did you get put in that test chamber? Are you an employee? Some random poor victim?

If getting past the fire is not a test, then why is it so easy to do? Especially if you're not the first to do it. Would they not learn from the first person that someone could get out easy? Maybe Glados can't make physical changes to the environment, but how did she get you there?

If you weren't expected to get out, why are there gun turrets everywhere? To shoot the aperture science guys if they take too long a break?

Why is part of the building so pristine, and the rest is so run down? Especially parts in between the test chambers and GlaDOS.

If it wasn't for the way in which GlaDOS does explode and where you end up at the end, getting there seems like part of the test or too easy.

I really don't know. I would like to think it wasn't a test, but they leave enough room for doubt. That's what makes it so good.

 

[Ridge]

If getting past the fire is not a test, then why is it so easy to do? Especially if you're not the first to do it. Would they not learn from the first person that someone could get out easy? Maybe Glados can't make physical changes to the environment, but how did she get you there?

You were either supposed to die in the fire or get past it and wait for the employees to come get you...since there is nobody there, you have no choice but to continue on

If you weren't expected to get out, why are there gun turrets everywhere? To shoot the aperture science guys if they take too long a break?

Thats a good question..however, you see the arms depositing them...it could be some sort of security system incase something breaks in through the sewers...

Why is part of the building so pristine, and the rest is so run down? Especially parts in between the test chambers and GlaDOS.

Those are service tunnels...go into a service tunnel at your local sports arena...it wont be clean and pristine...

If it wasn't for the way in which GlaDOS does explode and where you end up at the end, getting there seems like part of the test or too easy.

I really don't know. I would like to think it wasn't a test, but they leave enough room for doubt. That's what makes it so good.

Exactly...you dont know if you survived her tests, or this was how it was planned to end...the shelves of glowing eyes would suggest that she can and does rebuild...

 

[Kon]

If Aperture Science is located at borealis, then it has been a while since anyone has visited GlaDOS.
GlaDOS probably has only a limited amount of test samples considering we don't see any others, and I think its possible we were the only one left minus the other person who tried to escape before us.
GlaDOS probably wants people to find it, but since nobody is visiting, it realizes that there are harsh conditions outside aperture laboratories restricting anyone from coming and going.
Seeing as thats the case, it is in GlaDOS's best interest to produce a sense of fear into you so that you can't trust GlaDOS and want to escape. By creating a condition where you are trying to be killed, if you succeed and escape, it makes it more likely that you'll survive outside aperture laboratories long enough to tell other people about the place which in effect would cause people to come find it.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I really don't think Borealis is big enough to contain GLaDOS. I also don't think the portal technology is what Eli says "Must not be used" at least not the kind of portal tech we saw in Portal. Cause that would mean all the mystery of Ep 3 is gone.

 

[WeeViL]

I am not so sure that the glowing eyes were spare parts. If you listen to GLaDOS she talks about your survival and finding out what happens when you die. She also mensions that she has your brain scanned and permanantly backed up.

What if the eyes represent the brain scans/personalities of all of the test subjects and you do indeed get some cake??