Core Hub Era
The Core Hub Era was a period of Portal 2's development that demonstrated Valve's second attempt at creating a follow-up to Portal. This period is characterized by the Core Hub, a hub world that allowed for the player to progress through the game's six testing courses in any order.[1]
Summary
The Core Hub Era began in January 2009 and displays Valve's earliest efforts to write a story for Portal 2 that took place after the events of Portal. Though Valve had succeeded in creating a large number of new features and test chambers for Portal 2 during the Experimental Era, the writers still had no solid foundations for the game's story. That was until they were inspired to base the game around the personality cores and their interactions with the player.
In the versions of Portal 2 that were conceived during the early periods of this era, Chell did not return in the role of the player character as the writers believed that her story was self-contained and had been completed in Portal. Instead, the player character at this point was Mel. However, Mel ended up being replaced by Chell after playtesters disliked that GLaDOS did not recognize or remember them.
After the team behind Tag: The Power of Paint joined Valve in the summer of 2009 to implement their paint mechanics, the flaws of Portal 2 started to become apparent. The game at this point had six different testing tracks that made it challenging to maintain a reasonable difficulty curve, relied heavily on the nearly indistinguishable personality cores, and had no settings other than the destroyed test chambers. For these reasons, Valve decided to abandon the Core Hub and rework Portal 2's story.
Aftermath
While the Core Hub was scrapped in favor of a more linear experience, the idea of the game centering around the personality cores survived much longer and persisted into the Multi-Core Era. The idea of a hub world was reworked into Portal 2's co-op campaign, albeit without the nonlinear aspect.
Gameplay
During the Core Hub Era, Portal 2 had six testing courses that were each related to a different game mechanic (e.g., lasers, slowfields, and aerial faith plates). As part of the nonlinear element that made this era unique, the testing courses could be completed in any order.
Slowfields and Bullet Time
Slowfields, also known as Aperture Science Self Esteem Fields, were experimented with during this time. Passing through a slowfield would slow time, giving the player extra time to place portals and react to puzzles that would normally require quick reflexes. A folder named portal_slowfield exists in retail Portal 2's vscripts folder and contains scripts related to slowfields.
A similar mechanic known as bullet time was also tested and actually might have been an earlier version of the slowfields. Josh Weier explained that bullet time could be activated by pressing a button (presumably on the keyboard) and that the feature was scrapped due to not fitting in with the rest of the game.[2]
Story
"You have breached the central core of the Aperture Science Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. Pre-Apocalypse, this would have been an act of criminal trespass and an opportunity for you to go to prison. As it is, however, this is a rare opportunity for you to become an honorary Aperture Scientist. Do you see a power object? The Enrichment Center invites you to pick up the power object and plug it in. Something will happen. Something wonderful."
—GLaDOS's prerecorded messages, urging the player to reactivate her
- The player awakens inside the relaxation vault[3]
- Prerecorded GLaDOS messages guide the player through destroyed, overgrown test chambers from Portal
- When reaching GLaDOS's chamber, the player is urged to reactivate her
- The player is tasked with finding different personality cores to repair her
- Personality cores are "battling" for control of Aperture
- GLaDOS slowly regains memory and remembers Chell[2]
- "Roast beef dinner" sequence where a jealous GLaDOS scolds the player for "cheating on her" with one of the personality cores (maybe Multi-Core Era?)
Characters
- Mel (early) / Chell (late)
- GLaDOS
- Aquarium Sphere
- Paranoid Sphere (early) / Morgan Freeman Sphere (late)
- Pendleton
- Quint Sphere
Game Files
Lines
The .nut files in Portal 2\portal2\scripts\vscripts\choreo\demo hold a large number of unused lines that are related to the Core Hub Era.
PreHub02
| SceneTable | Line | .vcd |
|---|---|---|
| PreHub02BrokenChamber0101 | GLaDOS: "Well done! The Enrichment Center reminds you that although circumstances may appear bleak, you are not alone." | scenes/npc/glados/PreHub49.vcd |
| PreHub02BrokenChamber0102 | GLaDOS: "Please note that this is NOT a guarantee, as you may, in fact, be the last man or woman on Earth." | scenes/npc/glados/PreHub50.vcd |
| PreHub02Chamber01Entry01 | GLaDOS: "If the Earth is currently governed by a manner of animal-king, sentient cloud or other governing body that either refuses to or is incapable of listening to reason..." | scenes/npc/glados/PreHub45.vcd |
| PreHub02Chamber01Entry02 | GLaDOS: "The Enrichment Center will compensate you for any retribution you may suffer as a result of performing this next test." | scenes/npc/glados/PreHub46.vcd |
| PreHub02HubInstructions01 | GLaDOS: "You have breached the central core of the Aperture Science Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System." | scenes/npc/glados/HubStage01a01.vcd |
| PreHub02HubInstructions02 | GLaDOS: "Pre-Apocalypse, this would have been an act of criminal trespass and an opportunity for you to go to prison" | scenes/npc/glados/HubStage01a02.vcd |
| PreHub02HubInstructions03 | GLaDOS: "As it is, however, this is a rare opportunity for you to become an honorary Aperture Scientist." | scenes/npc/glados/HubStage01a03.vcd |
| PreHub02HubInstructions04 | GLaDOS: "Do you see a power object? The Enrichment Center invites you to pick up the power object and plug it in." | scenes/npc/glados/HubStage01a04.vcd |
| PreHub02HubInstructions05 | GLaDOS: "Something will happen. Something wonderful." | scenes/npc/glados/HubStage01a05.vcd |
Glados01
| SceneTable | Line | .vcd |
|---|---|---|
| Glados01GladosWakeUp01 | GLaDOS: "Thank you for reactivating your Enrichment Center Test Supervisor. Aperture Science is grateful for your help." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE01.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp02 | GLaDOS: "Running environment scan." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE04.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp03 | GLaDOS: "Available test subjects: [BING] one." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE08.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp04 | GLaDOS: "Uploading personality program." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE12.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp05 | GLaDOS: "Warning: Personality program is eighty-nine percent corrupted." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE13.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp06 | GLaDOS: "Reactivation in three. Two. One." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE02.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp07 | GLaDOS: "Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE16.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp08 | GLaDOS: "Let’s get to know each other." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE17.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp09 | GLaDOS: "How are you? I’M not crazy. This water cooler water is excellent. Mm!" | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE18.vcd |
| Glados01GladosWakeUp10 | GLaDOS: "Well, enough small talk, let’s test." | scenes/npc/glados/BOOTUP_SEQUENCE19.vcd |
Gallery
References
- ↑ DidYouKnowGaming (2022). "Portal 2's Cut Content (Exclusive)". Youtube.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Weier, Josh (2022). "Josh Weier Interview". Kiwi Talkz (Interview). YouTube.
- ↑ Faliszek, Chet & Wolpaw, Erik (2012). Portal 2: Making a Sequel to a Game That Doesn't Need One. Game Developers Conference. "Early Test Intro".
| Previous section: Experimental Era |
Portal 2 - Eras | Next section: Multi-Core Era |
