Portal Soundtrack - Self Esteem Fund

What always sent chills up my spine was GLaDOS's allusion to the Combine in the final fight... "Are you trying to escape? [Laughs Maniacally] Things have changed since the last time you left the building, what's going on up there will make you WISH you were back in here. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge, and even I'm not sure what's going on outside, all I know is I'm the only thing standing between us, and THEM."

Theres something strangely dark about all valve games and this perfectly describes that feeling, depressing and melancholic

Nothing in a videogame has ever moved or terrified me quite like when this song started playing. It's when the nightmarish reality suddenly sinks in, that you are totally trapped, far, far away from any sunlight, completely alone besides the faceless sociopathic computer and the bloodied writing behind torn-off wall panels, seemingly doomed to wander through bland sterile test chambers for the rest of your life. It's fucking amazing.

 I suddenly feel like the room is 20x bigger, ceiling reaching to the sky. And i'm the only one here.

As a kid, I always looked up into the observation rooms overlooking test chambers waiting for a scientist to pop up. When later in my life I found out they were all gassed, I got weirdly emotional for people I didn't even know.

Did you know you can donate one or all of your vital organs to the Aperture Science Self-Esteem Fund for Girls? It's true!

I love the mechanics and humor and story of Portal 2, but THIS FUCKING TRACK. The atmosphere is just so good! It makes me feel completely alone.

Beautiful.

This song gives off a very "empty" kind of feeling, and it's called "Self Esteem Fund". The Self Esteem Fund is empty.

This is such a powerful track

Portal 2: Oh yeah take that turrets! (Bam) Woah, gels! (Extreme action) wow this is so fun! Portal 1:what, what is life? Is it nothing, just an ever-growing void? I am but dust, in a cold, sad, unnatural world of precision, and control...

This is why everyone wants a third game of anything from Valve. Not necessarily because we want to see the story continued (although we of course do), but because if these games were so great with older technology, just imagine how absolutely amazing a modern Valve game could be.

This kind of atmosphere makes me wonder. It just makes me think "Hey! Why are there no people here?" Then when you find out that some homicidal supercomputer killed so many people it just feels weird and saddening.

Who else here finds the sense of isolation portal gives actually comforting?

"We're living at the best time in human history" How 90% of young people live:

When I first played Portal and heard this track I always thought there are people in those observation rooms.

Anyone else agrees that valve make really depressing games? The source engine has great physics but always looked strangley dull to me. Anyone else realise no matter what game you play, there is always some sort of nature involved. In 99% of games you will at least see grass, trees, plants, the sky, the sun or at least other characters. But not this game. Portal has no life in it at all, and no one else in the game at all (the only enemies you will see are the turrets which are only in very few segments). You can't even see the sky, you are completely trapped and deprived  in a colourless building which is why the companion cube, turrets and glados are so memorable because they are the only things you are exposed to in the entire game. Now if this was not done the right way, Portal could have been a very boring game, but since the innovation of the portals and glados and all the other highlights are added in, those things are going to get full attention from the player since nothing else is in focus since everything else is so bleak, which also why the escape sequence is so much fun, because you want to get out of this place and back outside That is fucking genius!!! Analysis OVER!

This is depressing indeed, but also very relaxing imo. I listen to this every early morning on my way to school.

I remember listening to this during a 12-hour flight. It was nighttime, the lights were off, all the other passengers had fallen asleep, and at that time I saw no flight attendants in the cabin. Listening to this piece of music while watching the night sky with the full moon made me feel like I was the only person on that plane. Such experience is truly exceptional.

the dark undertones present here are truly fantastic