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Portal and Portal 2 are not at all part of these games in which I easily imagine placing excerpts from shows. It doesn’t go too well with the atmosphere – although who knows, since Portal 2 added characters, a Portal 3 could combine a few performances.
But that’s not why I’m interested.
As with The Cave, what interests me here is the reverse operation: bringing the game, more or less, to the stage.
Given the gameplay, it will require acrobats of a very high level.
Portal – and its 2nd opus – is literally a game that makes you mad with rage.
You are “tested” … by an AI who pretends to be cool and friendly, who promises you a cake at the end – and who is in fact a kind of dirty bitch who only wants to kill you.
She lies to you too.
A computer that lies – frankly, it’s not “game”: in short, your only guide in Portal is a perverse and totally satanic machine.
The principle of the game is simple – not its implementation. You move forward in closed rooms. In the beginning, it’s still pretty and very high tech. It’s almost easy. It’s all about getting out of the room.
To do this you have to create gates (… necessarily): one to enter, the other to leave.
So it’s a maze principle, but in 3D.
And if you have no sense of spatialization – nor of orientation – you start to feel very very quickly – how can I say it? – stuck.
Of course, you can’t open portals on all surfaces – which causes good nervous breakdowns (but no, I didn’t rage about this damn game at all).
Of course, as you progress through the game, you have to build paths to: eliminate the shots that duck you (may I use “duck” as a verb to say to be caught in a hail of bullets? It’s a French expression that I like very much to convey the impression that you won’t get away with it – and I don’t like ducks, they’re ugly beasts that come and pinch you if they can.) – go where you can finally get out (the character jumps very, very badly, it’s unbearable) – find yourself in another room and come back to the main room but not in the same place – not knowing where you are at all – and on top of that, put up with the sarcastic remarks of the AI who shamelessly mocks you. And of course – you have less and less time to think
All the math guys I know love this game.
And since there’s a story – and since there’s talk of going from one place to another when apparently that’s not possible – and since I’ve seen the acrobats of the Vietnam Circus perform performances that are very close to what the character achieves in play – I thought I’d like to see a circus production based on the principle of Portal.
And all the more so since the 2nd Opus opens up to other characters – which can bring in several artists in addition to the two main ones.
This is clearly an example of a commission for a show, which would materialize the link created between games and the world of live performance.
And it’s not an original idea at all, since a film adaptation had been announced in 2013 I think.
Either I missed the film, or it hasn’t been released yet – but if there’s material for a film – there’s material for a show.
And can you imagine the pleasure of experiencing this in a VR? because here, for the moment, I’m not even looking, it’s pure evidence.
And because it’s VR on a real world, with a great view of the set, the grids, the passages, the stage at the very bottom – it can’t make the same sensations as VR for the game. It’s going to feel worse.
Featured Image : Portal – Valve Corporation –
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