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Name of the Game ​Lori

Jones

Date
02​/​29​/2​020

Session 2: Solo Playthrough | 45 to 60 minutes

a) Descriptive Notes

The opening sequence is a great story.

I am in what appears to be a hotel room

with a bed and not much else.

A voice comes up and dictates you need

to move periodically while in testing. He
asks you to look at the ceiling and then
the floor.

Why am I looking at the ceiling and

floor?

The voice says to look at the picture on

the wall

Where the heck is the picture? The wall

opposite me has palm trees on it but that
doesn’t seem to be a picture. The voice
is really male robotic.

Holy crap moving around is hard. Okay

found the damn picture after 5 minutes,
Its so small and at the head of the bed
behind me.

Get back in the bed? How the hell do I

do that something flashed on the screen
I think it was an E

Yep it was an E oh.. Lights out!

Awake again ooh things look really old

now. Like its been a while.

I was right the robotic voice says I have

been in stasis for 9999999 oh glitching.

It is funny and establishes a storyline

and gives context for what the research
facility is.

You have to play through the scene to

show you how the controls work, but the
instructions pop up so quickly that it is
tough to figure out how to maneuver.

This is frustrating!!!

I struggled to figure out the movement

controls and it was really frustrating to
try and click on the bed to go to sleep.

The derelict part of the setting is explained by your intense length of time in
the research facility. This is made clear by the original “lab voice” glitching on
the number of days you have been in stasis.

Knocking and a voice… Do I let them in or should I try to

getaway. They seem friendly enough.

Open door...

Oh wow, that is a really big eyeball scared the crap out of me!
His accent is brilliant, and his wit is funny.

Wheatley has a lot of human characteristics for a robot eye. He

moves and expresses like a human, it makes you feel more like
you are playing with someone than as a single player.

So far all-male interaction. I think you are assumed to be male though no pronouns are used.

Learning the controls is through some humorous interaction with Wheatley

I didn't know I needed a mouse but in order to zoom out and see things you need a
middle mouse button

I had to stop play and hook up a mouse because it was really frustrating to see where
you were going without being able to zoom in and out.

Learning how to pick things up was difficult as there was no instruction so I tried the
controls for initially sleeping it worked.

There is no instruction as to what you are supposed to do. Once you reach the puzzle levels rather
than the storyline sequence. I pushed buttons on pedestals by using the mouse button by sheer trial
and error. and walked through portals until I figured out the puzzle and used the cubes to hold open
door switches.

I was frustrated and the 3d movement was difficult and not at all fluid as I am not used to playing
games that require so much back and forth with left-hand keyboard keys and right-hand mouse
controls.

I picked up the portal gun which allows me to make the portal to walkthrough within the game. It was
a simple mouse click to shoot portals. You can only place portals on blank walls, not on rubble. trial
and error, walking through the portal and seeing yourself walkthrough, I noticed my character
appears to be female with a ponytail
Nav​i​gation keys asdw pick up objects “e” shoot portal gun left mouse click

The commentary by the automated system reminds you that you are in post-apocalyptic time
frequently it also is quite funny about your well being.

b) Analytic Notes

All of the intended gameplay problems where puzzles about opening doors and escaping the
room you were in. Cubes as placeholders were provided in some areas but you had to figure out how
to retrieve them. The camera movement is fluid with your movement like a pov experience. I struggled
with spatial movement and awareness of the environment I was in. The only interaction within the
game is Wheatley male and the automated computer voice also male. It would have been nice to have
more scaffolding to learn the controls and how to solve puzzles. Because this is a single-player game
and you can only see yourself as you look from one portal to another you only get a distant view of
yourself. I was female my race difficult to determine though my skin looked fairly dark, however, my
clothes are also torn and it could simply be dirt. Class is suggested based on the continual reference
to my inability to do things, my safety, and my captivity as a test subject. I am clearly not of the elite
class. More slave like a test rat if you will..

c) Affective Notes

At the outset, I was curious and trepidacious because figuring out the controls was so fast in the initial
story setup that I was not sure what to do.. As I played a little it was clear that the controls are not
actually that complicated. Though using them with dexterity took me a long time to figure out. It added
to my frustration about solving puzzles. The puzzles were varied in difficulty enough that I could
move through the game at a frustrated but intrigued level. I wanted to keep playing even though the
complexity of the puzzles got more difficult quickly. The comic relief of Wheatley is well-timed after
you have complete a few intense puzzles it breaks up the story to make it lighter to give you a chance
to refocus. The elevators and automated voice do the same thing on a more frequent basis but they
are not as funny and I eventually just tuned out the automated voice as it was really just reiterating my
station in the game. It really kind of annoyed me. I was anticipating meeting GlaDOS and having
some female interaction. I did feel a sense of accomplishment when I solved a puzzle only to be
pushed downward with an elevator to encounter a fresh apocalyptic puzzle.
The ability to use the mouse and key controls at the same time is a dexterity piece that takes a little
getting used to but is almost identical for most PC games I have ever played.

Session Fieldnotes

The game was challenging to figure out the movements and the puzzles increased in difficulty
at just the right rate to make you feel frustrated enough to keep going, but experience enough
success that you felt accomplished. Becoming fluid with the mouse and keyboard controls along with
the POV movement of the camera definitely takes getting used to as someone who doesn’t game
often. The Wheatley character is good comic relief to keep the intensity of the game moving and the
storyline intact. The automated computer voice gets annoying after a while as it reiterates the same
thing over and over, however it does simulate a stereotypical research facility well.

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