The Cake Is a Lie

My second blog post will be about my favorite indie game of all time. Portal. It was designed by some college kids at Valve. It was a hit that wasn’t expected. They recently mad a sequel that was amazing in following up the story.

            In Portal you’re a test subject at a scientific laboratory call Aperture Sciences. You test out the portal gun, thus the name of the game. Throughout the entire game you are constantly harassed by a computer call “GLaDOS”. She arranges all the tests and promises cake when you complete all the courses. She is always watching you and never runs out of mean things to say to you. This feels similar to you parents nagging at you for one thing you did wrong once and wont let it go. It grates on your nerves until you want to kill GLaDOS. Throughout the game there are these secret areas in the walls called rat-man holes. These give you secrets about what’s really going on in the facility. These holes in the wall were made from other “testers” who were on the same test courses you are. They show things that GLaDOS wont tell you and leave clues as to what all this is about. Every time you find one of these rat-man holes you feel like you found something you really needed, like a dollar or a good piece of candy. Also in the there is the elusive promise of cake at the end of the testing. GLaDOS always promises a party and the wonderful cake, but the cake never truly comes. Its an empty promise that was never fulfilled. Its like doing a job for your parents when the promised money to you, but when you get it done they don’t give you the money. You feel betrayed and lied to.

            This game is fun to play to and has little to no blood in it so its kid friendly. If your look for a good puzzle game with a lot of morale meanings Portal is a good place to look. Throughout the game the rat-holes have the same message written on the walls. “The cake is a lie.” Now this obviously means more than the physical manifestation of the promised cake. You could take this many different ways but whatever way it helps you understand something about yourself.

A man chooses, a slave obeys

Video games are one of the most popular ways to entertain you these days. People play them for the blood and gore, and some play them for a living. There are some though that play them for the story in them. I am one of those people and I want to share this with other people. I’m going to show people that video games are more than a way to pass the time or to vent anger by unloading bullets into and N.P.C.

            My first blog post will be about “Bioshock”. In this game you’re an unwilling hero who gets pulled into a power struggle in an underwater metropolis. The city is called Rapture and it was once a magnificent structure that housed thousands. It was built by the great Andrew Ryan who built it to get away from the tyranny and oppressiveness of the world above. Rapture fell out of grace after it was corrupted by a man named Fontaine. Fontaine wanted Rapture for himself so he sabotaged it. Your character comes along after all this happens and Fontaine uses you to get to Ryan. He lies to you and plays you like a fool. When you find out he used you, you feel like you were betrayed by a friend. You feel shocked and hurt. Ryan also is out to get you. He tries to stop you every time you do something he doesn’t like. Every time you travel to a new area in Rapture, Ryan has to try and stop you. After a while he seems like and annoying fly that keeps buzzing around you on a hot summer day. In the game there are also “little sisters”. These are little girls who have genetic material in them. They are Raptures main source of conflict. Everyone wants them and there are bloody battles over just one of them. In the game you can choose to harvest or rescue them. This decision impacts you character and the way the game is played. If you harvest them you get more Adam (genetic material) but it kills them. If you rescue them you get less Adam but the little girl lives. You get to decide what their fate is.

            All in all the game has many choices that are very influential to the player. You get to decide a lot of things and these show a lot of things about you. The way people act in the game is very similar to how they would act in life.  At the end of the game the once might creator of Rapture parts with these words. “A man chooses, a slave obeys.” How you interpret you is up to you.