Valve make GLaDOS ‘more human’

29 Mar, 2011

There are a few little things in the world that make my heart go all warm and sunny like freshly buttered toast- like a fresh cup of hot tea or a kitten doing something goofy. Portal is another one of these things, and with just less than a month to go until the release of Portal 2, it is fairly safe to say that like many others in the fan community we are devouring even the tiniest piece of new with huge enthusiasm, especially when it comes in the form of interviews with the creative minds behind the upcoming title.

Anyone following the promotional campaign of amusing Aperture Science trailers as of late will know that Portal guns are the perfect way to show you care on Valentines day, Portal can be used in conjucture with an aggressive recruitment process to weed out the weak- and humans are not to be trusted (AI’s on the other hand will only flood community centres with deadly neurotoxin to show they care, of course). In an interview with Portal 2 writers Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek they talk of how GLadOS is to become more human in this installment. So if we are to follow the Aperture Science values manifesto, it seems we have even less of a reason to believe in our trusted friend in science.

In the interview originally conducted for IGN, the brains behind the story in Portal 2 talk of how in order to keep things fresh, they believed it was best to tweak GLaDOS’s personality so that the player may find themselves having to negotiate with their nemesis and work around her from a much more organic school of thought. Even details such as her robotic voice have been slightly downplayed to add to this evolution of character, which Chet Faliszek says was an entirely necessary developement.

“Well you did kill her at the end of Portal. GLadOS goes from this impersonal institutional voice in Portal 1, to at the end, she’s become much more human and she’s negotiating with you, but also hostile at points, and much more human-sounding. We didn’t want to just do the same arc again, as we figured no-one was gonna buy that.”

Fans had previously queried the different sounding voice from GLadOS when early teasers for the game started to arrive in Summer 2010, taking note of the less synthesised sound, but what was passed off as a slight error in the promotional material is clear to be a very deliberate alteration.

A full transcript of the interview can be found over at Funambulism, and contains some very interesting insights into the production of Portal 2 from the writing to some chatter about the voice actors- in other words, if you’re a fan check it out!

So how do you feel about the changes being made to the formula in Portal 2? Join us later in April for our first impressions and full review of Valve’s Portal 2.

Source: CVG