But regardless, we’re all happy to see Chell escape at the end of Portal 2. Half-Life‘s alien-totalitarian City 17, BioShock‘s heartless libertarian paradise Rapture, and Fallout‘s post-apocalyptic society are all high-profile examples.Ĭhell never verbally explains that she wishes to leave the testing program, she never does anything explicit that would make the player feel sympathy for her.
Likewise, for gaming, various forms of dystopia have long been a popular premise. Dystopia is nothing new in storytelling, so much so in the literary world that dystopia is its own fully-fledged genre. While both worlds reached their decrepit state through different means, the outcome is still the same. The stories of both Stray and Portal are dystopian, both a reflection of human society gone astray. Following on from this, I started realising how much the entire premise of Stray reminded me of that of Portal – not just narrative-wise but also how the game world is presented to the protagonist, and consequently the player. Having recently completed the brief adventure platformer Stray, I was struck by how much the ending reminded me of Portal 2’s conclusion.
SPOILER ALERT: Naturally, the following piece contains significant spoilers for both Portal 2 and Stray.
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