This article has a talk page!This is a sub-page of Proto:Portal 2/July 28th, 2009.
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Chapter 1: Test Subject Detected#
p2_lab_prehub_1#
Upon starting the map, the player is shown an unfinished pre-rendered video where they wake up in a completely destroyed relaxation vault before being sucked up by a Vital Apparatus Vent. Along the way they see how test objects are distributed, pass by test chambers with new mechanics such as Thermal Discouragement Beams and Hover Turrets, and at the end land on top of a stasis bed before being hit in the head by a radio. This video was originally shown off to the public at GDC 2012 albeit in a shorter form.
After this, the contents of the map consist of a highly abridged version of Portal 1's first few levels. While there are differences to make the chambers look overgrown and neglected, the early sections of the map are in better shape.
First, the player wakes up in the Relaxation Vault with a few cobwebs on the floors, walls, and ceilings, a blood splatter under the radio, and Goo present in the toilet.
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The door leads to Chamber 00 (part of the Container Ride level in the final game), where a crack in the wall is visible. Once the button has been interacted with, the door malfunctions, with the right of the door opening and closing and sparks flying out of it.
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The elevator after the cube and button puzzle goes straight to Chamber 05 (part of the Smooth Jazz level in the final game) with rubble found on the floor, a very damaged ceiling, and a panel with arrows pointing to it where the first Rattmann Den is found, giving access to the blue-only Portal Gun. Unlike the rest of it, the portion of the chamber leading to the exit is undamaged, missing the detour required in the final game. This is the last chamber from the first Portal which appears in the final game, the rest are skipped as the game goes right to GLaDOS.
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The next elevator drops the player off at Chamber 08, which is slanted and only contains half of the hazardous liquid. Unlike in the first game, you can just shoot a portal to the exit. However, the puzzle is still functional and it can also be completed.
The final chamber in this map is Chamber 12, which is considerably more overgrown than the rest of the map, with plants and vegetation growing all over the chamber. The dual Portal Gun can be found left by Rattmann sitting in a chair on the floor. The solution to this chamber is the same as its original version.
p2_lab_prehub_2#
The map begins with Chamber 13. The glass appears as a wireframe because of a missing texture. The player is only required to clear the High Energy Pellet to trigger an event which causes the Unstationary Scaffold to explode and collapse the wall next to it. From there, in order to get to the newly revealed alcove, the player must use a very deep pit not seen in the original version and fling to it. From there, the player is pushed into a hole containing the next chamber.
The next chamber is labelled as Chamber 14, but is just an unrelated chamber featuring a simple button attached to a door. The way through is through the floorboards, which rise when you stand on them and allow for a portal to be shot under them and lead to a short segment featuring holes you must portal through.
In the chamber is a stripped-down version of GLaDOS next to a fuse box. A piece of pre-recorded narration tasks you with putting GLaDOS back online by plugging in the missing fuse that is next to the fuse box.
After a video plays featuring many different test subjects on one of the monitors above her, GLaDOS wakes up confused and asks the player to retrieve the missing parts of her body. There are multiple doors in the room which would have presumably opened throughout the story, however when you return to her throughout each hub map the game fades out and takes you to the next map.
Chapter 2: N.R.S.R#
p2_lab_lasers_1#
The first chamber of the Laser Course is an early version of Laser Intro. This chamber would go through a few revisions in later versions to remove the laser redirection cube and to change the placement of the laser and its catcher, making a more clear introduction of the mechanic to the player.
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The second chamber is an early version of Dual Lasers. This chamber only recieved visual changes, the layout and puzzle itself are the same sans the Rattman Den added later on.
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The third chamber is an early version of Laser Stairs. The next prototype swaps this chamber in the map order with Dual Lasers. The method of getting the laser redirection cube would also be iterated on in future versions, first being stored under the floor and then behind debris.
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In the chamberlock the player is required to go through behind an open maintenance tunnel to proceed. The error sound plays constantly in here as it's missing the corresponding audio files. The player must then ride on a panel that will take them to the next chamber. The two maps that this section was split into were scrapped by the final game, but the assets and ideas from the first section would be re-used for the final game's Chapter 5, and the entrance to the next chamber would be used for Laser Relays.
The fourth chamber is an early version of Laser Relays, complete with the special panel ride intro. The puzzle's design is the same, but the laser redirection cube is placed in a different spot initially and the fake entrance seen to the left is missing. When the chamber is completed, the initially dark room is lit up.
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The fifth chamber is an early version of Laser Vs. Turret, the general puzzle and layout are the same but many minor things such as the Rattman Den, the position of the cubes and the addition of a blockade are different in this version.
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The sixth chamber is an early version of Laser Over Goo, this version features a protective glass wall at the entrance that prevents the player from placing a portal in the direction of the receptacle. Once they're on the moving platform the pedestal button, it's at a much lower height.
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The penultimate chamber of the Laser Course is another cut chamber, named "Tube Blockage" before being scrapped. It features two laser receptacles, with only one laser emitter and one laser cube. In order to solve the chamber, the player has to go into another area behind a panel to find another room with another laser emitter, however a laser redirection cube will be needed in order to complete the chamber. Above is a giant stash of items on a vertical shaft, including several laser redirection cubes. When it is approached, the platform they rest on becomes tilted, and all of the items resting on it fall down to the room with the laser below. The laser must be redirected using the newly acquired redirection cubes and the other items must be moved out of its way to complete the chamber.
The final chamber of the Laser Course is none other than Triple Laser! This chamber is remarkably similar to its final version, only missing a window and a security camera, besides the usual texturing, lighting and model differences for the chamber's objects featured across the whole prototype.
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After clearing the last test, you walk through a maintenance tunnel holding the first personality core room. The first core is the Curiosity Core from the first game. Grab it and you will be redirected to the main hub area through a large, circular portal that only opens when you are holding the core. Once it is brought back to GLaDOS, the screen fades out and you are brought to the Slowfield Course.
Chapter 3: Think Fast#
p2_lab_slowfield_1#
The Slowfield Course introduces a brand-new mechanic: the titular slowfield. The slowfield (or Self-Esteem Field) would be scrapped by the next build, and none of its six chambers would make it into the final game.
The first chamber is split into three rooms. The first room contains nothing but a surface which you can shoot a portal on and a slowfield - serving as a tutorial of sorts for the basics of the mechanic. GLaDOS' narration during this section plays at a super-fast speed and can only be heard properly while under the effects of the slowfield.
The second room expands on this, requiring the player to fling off a slope in order to reach the next room.
The third and final room features more platforms to fling off of, and another slowfield. This room would be recycled into the Catapult Fling Intro map until the August 2010 prototype, where it was made unused and then scrapped by September 2010.
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After this, the player is granted an upgrade to the Portal Gun. This upgrade allows the player to slow down time at will using the R key, and marks the last appearance of the Slowfield itself.
In the second chamber, the player has to drop from the ceiling and shoot a portal through a very small gap in the glass wall in order to fling themselves to the exit.
The third chamber is a run-down version of Chamber 18's final room, except with the pit at the entrance replaced with goo. In this version, the player has to build momentum from a broken pillar facing down and use it to clear the rest of the chamber.
The fourth chamber is a run-down version of Chamber 11 from the Portal: Still Alive bonus maps (labelled as "Chamber 08"), although it can easily be confused with the crusher chamber from the Portal trailer. The player has to climb up to the crusher into a maintenance tunnel, and then use the slow-down button to shoot a portal through the vent's fan.
This fan is the only point in the game where slowtime is strictly required to continue, the rest of it can be beaten with enough skill and fast reflexes.
The second room of the chamber has the crushers lowered and broken, requiring the player to portal around them in order to get to the next test chamber.
The final chamber of the Slowfield Course is Chamber 12 from the Portal: Still Alive bonus maps. The player needs to retrieve two cubes to be placed at each button on the bottom to open the door. The first cube is already activating a rising pillar and will descent when removed. The player needs to get on the pillar when it is down and re-drop the cube into the button to ascend and then use the slow-down button while jumping off through portals to grab the cube tucked away in a high corner.
After clearing the last test, the second Personality Core is found. This one is obtained in a method similar to the Curiosity core from the Laser Course, with barriers around it that were ultimately recycled for the Stalemate Resolution Button. The core here looks visually identical to the Anger core from the first game, but is actually an early version of the Aquarium core before it was ultimately scrapped in favour of the Space core.
Chapter 4: Catapult#
p2_lab_catapult#
The third test course revolves around the new mechanic: the Aerial Faith Plate. Its functionality is the same as the final game, however it uses a squared glass Panel as the model. As mentioned in official Portal 2 developer commentary for the Aerial Faith Plate, the Panel model was a placeholder as Valve wanted to experiment with the Panel gameplay first, and was later replaced with their current design after playtesters got the old model mixed up with regular Panels.
The first room of the first chamber is a simple one featuring only an Aerial Faith Plate which you must ride to the exit.
The second room is an early version of Catapult Intro with no portalable surfaces.
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The second chamber (Assisted Angle Fling) is a very basic one, only containing an aerial faith plate on the ground and one on the wall that both lead you to the exit.
The third chamber (Unassisted Angle Fling) requires the use of momentum to reach a panel on the wall.
The fourth chamber is an early version of Trust Fling with a different layout of the aerial faith plates and a turret that must be knocked over in order to reach the exit.
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The fifth chamber requires the player to set two portals so the cube can be correctly flung to them, in order to reach the exit.
The sixth chamber (later named Hole In The Sky) features a catapult facing into a ceiling which must be used in order to gain enough vertical height to reach the exit. Later versions add panels to the walls, a goop pit and a cube needed to reach the exit.
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The seventh chamber involves catapults and momentum in order to carry the player to the end.
The second room of the chamber (named Catapult Multifling in later builds) requires the player to use several portals in order to fling to the end. This chamber was removed from the February 2010 prototype before being re-added in the next build and then being scrapped by September 2010.
After clearing the last test, the third core room is found featuring the Cake Core from the first game. This core is surrounded by panels that fling you backwards, requiring the use of portals to land on top of the core from the ceiling and grab it.
Chapter 5: Projected Walls#
p2_lab_wall_01#
The third test course revolves around the new mechanic: the Hard Light Bridge, although a very similar element had already been introduced in bonus Chamber 06 from Still Alive. It works exactly like it does in the final game, except that it's visually less interesting as it's merely translucent rather than incandescent.
The first room has you walking a hallway with a hard bridge covering a pit. The following room has a cube spawner and a hard bridge, the player is tasked with using portals to extend the bridge to carry the button into the other side.
The next room has the player use portals to reach higher heights by walking through the portal place at the end of the hard bridge's spawn point.
The following room showcases that portals can still be shoot through hard bridges, it's required to reach the other side. Then the player is tasked with shooting a portal through the hard bridge to reach to a lower area, the only accessible portalable panel is at the hard bridge's spawn point, crossing through the portal reveals that the bridge is blocking the bottom of the room. To proceed the player has to shoot their portal to the ceiling to break the connection to the bridge.
The next room was reused for Chamber 12 in Chapter 3 (Bridge the Gap) except that the hard bridge is placed further away from the adjacent wall, it's solved in the exact same way.
The next room is a very easy showcase of how the hard bridge can be used as a shield against turrets.
The following room has a turret on a high pillar protecting a cube and button, there's a vertical hard bridge but it isn't necessary to complete the test.
The next room will require to use the hard bridge to reach a high point on the left side of the room and walk back to the center of the room to shoot a portal bridge to the right side from above (be sure to fall into the original bridge) and reach the exit.
The next room has the player making descending bridges until they're tasked with quickly opening a portal on the floor to create momentum to shoot themselves from a slope, using the slow-down button is recommended.
The following room tasks the player with using sloped hard bridges to climb up higher places. It later tasks them with placing bridges over a goo pit while maintaining their current height.
From there the player reaches a dilapidated version of Chamber 11 from the first game (although the layout doesn't match it), they find a maintenance hole which will lead them to a piston maze reminiscent of to Chamber 11 from Still Alive.
At the end of it they'll go back to the testing course, the next room has three turrets facing a wall over a goo pit. The player must create bridges to reach to the turrets to take each down without being detected, from there they have to press the pedestal button that will spawn a cube (a bridge is needed where the cube will drop as to not lose it immediately) and finally take the cube to the elevated area to open the exit door.
The next room was reused as Chamber 17 in Chapter 3 (Pull the Rug) without the Rat Man's den, it's solved in the exact same way.
After clearing the last test, you walk through a maintenance tunnel holding the next personality core room. This one is a copy-paste of the first one with no gimmick around it, the core itself is the Curiosity core again.
Chapter 6: Mash-up#
p2_lab_mixup#
This final test course is a potpourri of all the previously introduced mechanics interacting with each other.
The first room has a couple of plates that will bounce off from each other, the player is tasked with using the hard bridge on the distance and place a portal on the ceiling to block their trajectory into an in-between plate that will fling them to the next section. In it the player needs to repeat the process of placing a bridge to stop their flight to the opposite plate to reach the one that will fling into another plate near the exit, the player has to place a portal on the wall to create a bridge that will stop them from touching the plate and walk into the exit.
The following room was used for Chamber 06 in Chapter 8 (Stop the Box) but it's entered from what would be the exit in the final game, the elevation in which the player needs to stop their fling with a hard bridge to drop into is slightly higher making it so the players actually bump into the edge to stop their momentum and climb up, making the use of the bridge almost redundant, the exit has been placed just above the turret pit next to the fizzler. The solution is the same as in the final game.
The next room tasks the player to use bridges to reach a pedestal button that's in the middle of a pool of goo. It will spawn a cube that will infinitely bounce between two places, once caught needs to be carried over to the opposite side of the room through the gap of a fizzler high above and then descend with bridges over another pool of goo to the exit.
In the next room, the player encounter a large pillar with a bridge being drawn into it and surrounded by two plates. The first one will fling them above the pillar, but the second one only to a low portalable wall. The player needs to place a portal at the end of the bridge's spawn point and quickly turn around before touching the ground to place another portal on the second plate's bullseye panel, which will allow them to reach a button pedestal that will spawn a cube. Then the player must return to the first plate and repeat the process but this time placing a bridge portal to the panel above the bullseye to reach to the exit (to be able to shoot a portal while carrying the cube in quick succession is required to use the slow-down button).
The next room reintroduces the rocket turret, but it introduces a different utility to it: the blast from its rockets will push stuff around the impact zone. The rocket turret's crosshair appears to have a missing texture. This is first demonstrated by predictably being used against a group of sentry turrets. Later it's used to bring down a cube that is out of reach. Opening the door reveals another group of turrets, they're taken down the same way as the first group.
The following room tasks using bridges to block turrets and destroy them using laser with the Redirection Cube. There's a large group of turrets in a platform over a goo pit guarding a button, the player needs to walk all the way around them using bridges until they reach a portalable wall from which they can redirect the laser into. Once cleared, the player can place the cube on the button safely and walk to the exit.
The next room has a large pillar with sentry turrets on the top guarding a cube, the player needs to use the bridge bellow them to cut their vertical sight and then create a bridge portal above their sight to attack them from above. The player will be able to safely descend to the other side of the room through a sloped bridge and walk to the exit.
The following room is a brief introduction to the Hover Turret enemy, it rotates 360° on a fixed spot but unlike Sentry Turrets it won't detect you through glass walls. Sneak by it and snap its cord. Then safely use momentum to reach to the cube above and place it in the button to open the exit.
The next room is a dilapidated version of Chamber 11 from the first game, the glass window is now broken and the goo pool is empty. It's being guarded by a rotating hover turret where the dual Portal gun used to be. To take it down the player needs to get into the room with the High Energy Pellet and redirect it into the turret, then get where the Portal Gun's pedestal used to be to press a pedestal button to open the door to the exit.
On the other side the elevator will be missing, drop through the shaft and it will reveal an abandoned Chamber 07 with missing textures. The button only needs to be pressed once for the door to break, requiring to shoot a portal through it to the other side.
The final core is waiting on the other side and signing, this time protected by a group of sentry turrets, lucky to enter its room there's a portalable wall behind them so the player can easily sneak into them and tumble all of the turrets down like bowling pins. The Paranoid core appears to be far more talkative than the others as it will comment on its surroundings (as well show fear for GLaDOS). You're tasked with carrying it through the last stretch of the testing course into the exit, primarily used as a shield against turrets.
p2_lab_hub_1 - p2_lab_hub_4, p2_lab_hub_6#
After each test course has been cleared, the player returns to the hub carrying a core. In its current state, the game just fades to black and loads the next test course once GLaDOS is reached. Presumably there would have been more interactions with GLaDOS as she opens the next door but these aren't present here. Interestingly, the trigger to load the next map is set exclusively at the entrance for GLaDOS' chamber and the rest of it can still be entered if the player gets in through a portal, in which the player can repeat the GLaDOS' reactivation sequence (no new dialogue will play but the exact same as the first time).
In p2_lab_hub_6 the prototype ends with a test card (specifically the BBC's Test Card W) playing smooth jazz and a message asking to return to menu.