Portal: Prelude

Oh, your face just then. It was all like WTF ZOMG NO WAY!!!!!! Like, rilly.

Sorry, but this isn't a reveal of the rumoured official prequel to the gamette that stole our hearts and minds around about this time last year. Instead it's a mod, but considering pretty much every other Portal mod has been little more than a level pack, this is a particularly ambitious one.

Specifically, it has a storyline. It even has NPCs that aren't cubes or turrets.

It's not due out until October 10th, but the three man team behind it are cranking up the hype machine in readiness.

Here's the setup:

Its story revolves around the pre-GlaDOS epoch, even before she was plugged in. At this time, test subjects were monitored by real Aperture Science employees, whose work was tedious, lengthy and repetitive. This is why they decided to build a great artificial intelligence that could both replace them in these difficult tasks, and also take responsibility for many other tasks within the complex and compete with Black Mesa's superiority. All employees of the Aperture Science complex are now eagerly awaiting GlaDOS. Maybe even a little too eagerly, as the upcoming events will tell... This game is totally free and set to be released somewhere around the end of the month. It offers a bit more gameplay hours than the original Portal, with 8 chapters, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps, a brand new storyline and more than 400 lines of speech with english and french subtitles.

And here's a trailer:

The idea of Portal with people is an odd one, but should hopefully add a very different flavour to those test lab aesthetics we're now so familiar with.

Eight months in the making, apparently. Follow its progress at its official site or its Moddb page.