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.