10 Video Game Characters Who MASSIVELY Changed Before Release

Chell from Portal may be a silent protagonist, but her being mute is actually one of the most iconic things about her. Her utter lack of reactions contrasts hilariously with the insanity of the lab she's trapped in, however, what you may not know is that at one point of development, Valve actually wanted her to talk!

In the beta version of Portal 2, the game was supposed to end with a joke. During the final boss fight, Wheatley was going to destroy the stalemate resolution button, and this would force Chell to resort to activating the procedure with a voice command, prompting her to say the word "yes."

At that point, the game would humorously fade to black as Chell would say the command and finally break her years-long silence.

The joke seemed funny in theory, but when it came to playtesting, it turned out to fall flat, as most testers couldn't understand who was actually speaking after the blackout. This made Valve realize that perhaps it's best to let Chell stay silent, and so they scrapped their joke, making Chell mute forever.