Core Hub Era

A screenshot of the Core Hub and the Morgan Freeman Sphere

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.

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.

• The team behind Tag: The Power of Paint joined Valve during this era

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 Core Hub was later reworked into Portal 2's co-op campaign, albeit without the nonlinearity

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

Story

A screenshot of the destroyed GLaDOS

"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

Prehub

• The player awakens inside the relaxation vault
• Prerecorded GLaDOS messages guide the player through destroyed, overgrown test chambers from Portal

Core Hub

• 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
• "Roast beef dinner" sequence where a jealous GLaDOS scolds the player for "cheating on her" with one of the personality cores

Characters

• Mel (early) / Chell (late)
• GLaDOS
• Aquarium Sphere
• Paranoid Sphere (early) / Morgan Freeman Sphere (late)
• Pendleton
• Quint Sphere

Gallery

• 
• 
• 

References

Previous section: Experimental Era

Portal 2 - Eras

Next section: Multi-Core Era