Characters

The Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center is a lonely place, and this is compounded by the fact that you have no idea who you are, why you’re there, or how long you’ve been in suspended animation. You’re not completely alone, though; GLaDOS, an artificial intelligence whose positronic brain has gone kaput, is there to keep you company. The only problem is that it’s sometimes hard to tell if “she” is trying to help you get out, or do you in completely.

Chell

Through some unfortunate stroke of luck, this young woman has found herself trapped in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. She has no idea why she’s there, nor how long her “brief detention in the relaxation vault” has lasted. Her only guide is a clearly damaged and/or deranged artificial intelligence named GLaDOS, who is intent on putting her through a battery of tests seemingly designed to shatter our notions of space and geometry.

Your character’s identity remains a mystery throughout the game, but if you play close attention to GLaDOS’s nutty ramblings, you can pick up a couple of clues. For instance, in a moment of screwy programming, GLaDOS reminds listeners that the “Aperture Science Bring-Your-Daughter-to-Work Day is the perfect time to have her tested.” Given that Chell is a grown woman at the outset of the game, she’s probably been under for a while if she was indeed captured during said program. At one point, GLaDOS also calls her a “bitter, unlikable loner whosepassing shall not be mourned.” Given the context in which she says that, however, you would hardly call her unbiased.

Those things attached to her legs, by the way, are cybernetic knee enhancements. Considering how often Chell is called upon to fall from high distances, they’re a definite necessity in her line of “work.”

GLaDOS

GLaDOS, an acronym for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operation System, is the deranged artificial intelligence that has taken control of the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. How “she” arrived at this position is unknown, but it probably has something to do with the deadly neurotoxin that she mentions when the protagonist finally meets her “face”-to-face. Some of her programming, though, still appears to be functioning as normal, as evidenced by how helpful she could be when guiding her test subject through the Enrichment Center’s multitude of chambers.

In GLaDOS’ scrambled silicon brain, mankind’s highest ambition is to acquire “cake.” As such, she periodically reminds the protagonist that successful completion of her tests will result in a cake, baked just for her, to commemorate her triumph. A solid incentive most definitely, but it quickly becomes evident that GLaDOS’s notion of “cake” may differ from our own; in other words, will the protagonist be the recipient of a delicious, freshly-baked cake, or simply one item in a long list of ingredients? Here’s a hint: The only way to safely dispose of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is to incinerate it. And cakes require high temperatures to bake.