Why Portal Is Strangely Empty And Devoid of Humans

thegamer.com:

Think of Portal, and you probably think of two things: the maniacal AI computer GLaDOS and that infamous “cake is a lie” meme, now repeated to the point of ad nauseam. But you may also notice Portal’s distinct lack of human bodies other than that of the silent protagonist Chell—and even then you’ll only be able to catch a glimpse of her via strategically placed portals. In other words, she’s effectively rendered invisible, not typically meant to be seen. Even the game’s other playable characters aren’t humans, but two robots named Atlas and P-Body who, when inevitably destroyed and crushed by the various machinations in the Aperture Science labs, would just be reduced to metal scraps to be rebuilt and revived later.

This lack of bodies in Portal is explained, in the game, by the fact that everyone who used to work here has either managed to flee the labs when GLaDOS forcefully took control of and locked down the facility, or perished as ill-fated test subjects and employees. And yet we see no remnants of their corpses; the labs are immaculately polished, sterile and pristine, and even in the unseen and much more dingy backstages of the test chambers there are still no traces of human remains. This is in stark contrast to the overpopulation of Half-Life, which takes place within the same universe as Portal, where humans and bodies can be found at most locales. In Portal, it’s almost as if humans have been eradicated, wiped out of existence.

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All these may just be chalked up to GLaDOS’ own disgust at, and rampant erasure of, humanity in general, as she furiously and gleefully puts her human test subjects through numerous rounds of testing. To be fair, GLaDOS does have ample