Portal 2: 20 years or hundreds of years into the future? Maybe join with Half Life?

Half-Life Series
#1

While many people disagree I think it is very possible. By looking at the extent of damage in Portal 2 I would say it is very feasible for that level of damage to occur during a 20 year period.

For my argument I will bring up two points

  1. Chernobyl: This country was abandoned on the date of April 26th, 1986 due to a nuclear meltdown. The level of damage due to the lack of maintenance from the abandonment of people is currently at a 25 year period.

  2. History Channel video that originated from t.v. series “Life After People.” About 5 minutes long. Speculates level of damage from abandoment ranging to 150 year long period (jumps from 6, 10, 60, then 150 years.)

20 years is more than enough time for plant growth to completely take over something as confined as Aperture labs. without any sort of maintenance plant life takes over which thus causes cracks in walls, concrete, etc. Running water which then is frozen and thawed constantly would widen cracks and of course weaken the structure of the building thus giving the old Aperture look.

You are free to disagree with me. While the video I provided only covered 10 years (then jumped to 60 years for unknown reasons) I would imagine that 20 years would look twice as bad as ten.

If Aperture labs was indeed that old the weather conditions in the location of Aperture would cause Aperture labs to crumble (merely due to rain causing cracks in the cement which thus forces the weight of the earth to crush the Facilities.) Moreover the technology certainly wouldn’t work that far into the future. Jet fuel I believe has a shelf life of 10 years. A computer such as GlaDDOS wouldn’t function at all.[/SIZE]

Sources

1.History channels “Life after people” video

https://www.history.com/shows/life-after-people/videos/grand-central-station#grand-central-station

  1. Website I found about Chernobyl

https://englishrussia.com/2006/09/13/lost-city-of-chernobyl/

Feel free to speculate or to discredit any sort of inconsistencies or any known and unknown issues upfront.

THE END

MY OPINION

#2

cool story bro :smiley:

changed my life…

#3

Sorry, to disagree, but Valve stated that Portal 2 takes place hundreds of years after the first one.

#4

I was impressed with how they just let you use your imagination for what kind of civilization Chell ends up coming across, considering they could have done a post-combine thing to tie in with how Gordon ends up in stasis at the end of episode 3 only to wake up to the same thing in HL3

#5

cool.

#6

Eventhough there are no humans in the facility, they(Computers) don’t need any person to control the manteinance. SO it can be 1000 year old and still look the same.

#7

I personally believe it is infarct 20-50 years, Even though “Final Hours of Portal 2” says its 50,000 years.

#8

If I recall correctly, Portal 1 took place either during or shortly after the combine took over. So a few hundred years afterwards (assuming the combine were completely overthrown) should leave the world renewed and vibrant.

#9

EDIT

I have been thinking about the current possibilities that Valve is perhaps injecting falsehoods to purposely trick their audience into thinking that Portal and Half-Life have nothing to do with each other. Maybe perhaps to make it more of a surprise? I don’t know but 50,000 is quite a stretch

#10

Hundreds of years is bullshit, the whole complex would have been completely collapsed. I’d say 20-30 years, though.

#11

I agree, it’s more in the range of maybe a few decades gone, tops. Remember: Sci-fi writers have no sense of scale. And that includes Marc Laidlaw.

To put in perspective: 50,000 years is almost five times longer than the entirety of human civilization.

#12

I mean 50.000 years is insane. It’s just seems so impossible. I think Valve is deliberately giving us false information so the storyline remains mysterious. When Chell emerges from the underground you’ll notice that Earth is…apparently in pretty good shape, far from the environmental apocalypse ubiquitous in Half Life 2. That gives us no answers as to what happened to humanity, but since the games are in the same continuity, it does look like the Combine got kicked out at some point. Not surprising, but reassuring that some kind of Episode 3 did happen.

#13

I would like to think that maybe Chell at the beginning of Portal 2 is alive during which Gordon Freeman is on the Tram entering City 17 at the beginning of Half-Life 2.

If you think about it the Combine don’t have complete control of the Earth (since the Combine rely strictly on technology they have presently which of course is limited and doesn’t allow them ease of travel.) Also there are many areas, like Ravenholm, that are completely abandoned (well except Gregori) whom have no population at all so the Combine don’t have 100% control but they are nonetheless powerful. With that in mind it would make sense for Chell at the end of Portal 2 to see the world without Combine influence due to seeing a small part under which the Combine have yet to encounter.

Moreover the Administrator of Black Mesa probably didn’t know the location of Aperture science (due to top secret labs and such) ergo it would make perfect sense for the Combine to not occupy such locations due to the idea that all that is at Aperture is a wheatfield as such what Chell saw at the end of Portal 2.

The level of damage at most suggests a few decades of overgrowth from the plants. Not too bad but not 50,000 years worth.

I agree I think they are giving us misleading information to convince us they have nothing to do with each other but why make a game like Portal when it only has like one reference to Half-Life? Makes absolutely no sense at all.

In the end I really don’t know.

#14

Actually, they stated that Portal 2 takes place “a long time” after Portal 1.

#15

Well it is more than that really. Rain, weather, snow, insects, animals, etc. can cause degration of a building. If it was 50,000 years into the future the level of constant snow and thawing of ice would weaken structures and cause these said buildings to collaspe.

Moreover the growth of plants would show more cracks in cement and even have whole parts of facilities covered in rubble.

#16

It’s also possible an earthquake happened in Aperture Science and accelerated the weathering process.

#17

if they can build psychotic computers and machines that open portals and teleport whole ships around the world then they would be able to build a facility with robotic maintenance that stood up for hundreds of years

#18

Yeah, that’s what I said. The computers keep the manteinance and also keep constructing the facility since they’re programmed for that. That’s why Aperture labs are HUGE. Because they’ve been under construction for hundreds of years.

#19

Hundreds of years can take place between the 1960s and the 1990s? Don’t forget the largest portions of Aperture labs are the oldest ones, and the reason they and aperture in general is so vast is because they were built into an old abandoned salt mine.

#20

GLaDOS runs on jet fuel now.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.