Advanced Knee Replacement
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| Advanced Knee Replacement | |
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| General information | |
| Faction | |
| Type |
Prosthetic heel springs |
| Usage | |
| Used by | |
| Game information | |
| Entity |
N/A |
- "Ewww, what's wrong with your legs?"
- ― GLaDOS' Curiosity Core[src]
The Advanced Knee Replacement is a technique used by Aperture Science to prevent Test Subjects from injury from huge drops by lessening the impact.
Contents
Overview[edit]
- The device consists of two prostheses completely or partially replacing the knee, partially tied to the Test Subject's calves, and prolonged with two flexible curved pieces of metal going under the Test Subject's heels, acting as springs.
- Before she first woke up at the start of Portal, Chell’s legs had already each been fitted with the Advanced Knee Replacement. These were destroyed by the Party Escort Bot after she defeated GLaDOS.[1] When Wheatley woke her again at the start of Portal 2, Chell was wearing Long Fall Boots instead.
Behind the scenes[edit]
- The Advanced Knee Replacement was added to Portal due to disbelief by playtesters that Chell could survive the drops she was subject to, particularly those that involved falling recursively through portals.[2] The Portal trailer, "Orientation Video no. 1", predates this development phase, as it states that jumping from high ledges is fatal if a portal is not below.
- The Advanced Knee Replacement design was recycled from that of the Combine Assassin's heel springs, the female Combine unit cut from Half-Life 2.[3]
- According to Matt Charlesworth, the team was not sure whether to keep the Advanced Knee Replacement in Portal 2. He stated that some team members were attached to it, and that some were not, so they experimented what to do with them, or how to replace them,[4] until they decided to replace it with a variant, the Long Fall Boot.
Trivia[edit]
- The real-life corollary activity to this is called "powerbocking". A very similarly shaped device is also used as prosthetic legs for amputees (such as Eli Vance's).
- The sound files for the Advanced Knee Replacement footsteps use the name "future shoes".
Gallery[edit]
Portal[edit]
Diagram showing what happens when a Test Subject jumps without the Advanced Knee Replacement.
Chell and her Advanced Knee Replacements from the back.
Front view.
Clipboard sheet featuring the Advanced Knee Replacement specs.
Two clipboards in an Aperture Laboratories office, including one about the Advanced Knee Replacement.
Portal 2[edit]
Concept art for different Advanced Knee Replacement iterations, revealed during the PotatoFoolsDay ARG. Several of these designs would be the basis for the Long Fall Boot that would later be used in Portal 2.
Two early Advanced Knee Replacement models, also revealed during the PotatoFoolsDay ARG.
Views of an early render of the Portal 2 Chell model, with Advanced Knee Replacement.
Views of Chell's Portal 2 model, with Advanced Knee Replacement.
Chell's Advanced Knee Replacement is destroyed as the Party Escort Bot drags her back into the facility.
Outfit study for Chell on a picture of Alésia Glidewell, revealed during the PotatoFoolsDay ARG, featuring several Advanced Knee Replacement iterations.
Pink Advanced Knee Replacement on Mel's placeholder model.
List of appearances[edit]
Main games[edit]
- Portal (First appearance)
Other[edit]
- Portal: First Slice
- Portal: Still Alive (Non-canonical appearance)
- PotatoFoolsDay ARG
- Portal 2: Lab Rat
- The Final Hours of Portal 2
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Portal 2: Lab Rat
- ↑ Portal commentary
- ↑ Half-Life 2 leak
- ↑ Redesigning Portal: Valve’s Artist Speaks on Game Informer (March 22, 2010) (archived)
