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These next tests require cooperation. Consequently, they have never been solved by a human. That's where you come in. You don't know pride; you don't know fear. You don't know anything. You'll be perfect.
— GLaDOS
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The Cooperative Testing Initiative, or simply co-op, is a multi-player gamemode and campaign in Portal 2 whereby two players can join up and take part in test courses built specifically for cooperative testing.
Overview
Players take the form of two robot test subjects built by GLaDOS, Atlas; the short and round blue bot, P-body; the tall and pea-shaped orange bot that looks like a turret with arms and legs. Each bot comes equipped with their own Handheld Portal Device with separate portal colors. The portals are capable of maintaining the flow of things, even if it enters a partner's portal, which is essential during some test chambers.
There are five official testing courses, each with a number of test chambers within, which will test both the robots' ability to solve the different puzzles as they progress. Each chamber becomes much harder than the last, with the final test taking place outside the official Aperture testing facilities. In these tests, the bots are then put to the test, so to speak, and must use every bit of knowledge earned about the previous tests in the final one.
For the last chambers of each courses, excluding the fifth, the bots are instructed by GLaDOS to go out and locate a certain disk to be inserted into a DVD player found at the end of the course. Once found and inserted within the device, the players are given a few lines from GLaDOS before she triggers a self-destruct sequence on the duo. This is the only means of retrieving them back to the Hub.
During the testing, GLaDOS will periodically chime in and say a few choice words, either to bemoan the bots' progress or point out their tiny flaws. She even goes beyond to try and break their partnership by pointing fingers at one or the other. If either both or one of the bots' stands within range of GLaDOS' monitoring cameras and perform a gesture, it will elicit her response, depending on the gesture performed.
In this campaign, the bots will be notified that their partner has been destroyed and exactly where it did. The destroyed bot will be easily rebuilt seconds later in a chute from the Reassembly Machine. The gamemode gives an infinite amount of lives, and GLaDOS will comment on every death that occurs with dry humor or irritability. As the bots progress, they will cross checkpoints that lead into the next part of the test chamber. Checkpoints allow the bot that died to respawn at the checkpoint for shorter travel time to the next testing chamber.
Courses
Portal 2 courses
Additional Courses
Art Therapy
Set after the conclusion of the Mobility Gels course, GLaDOS has reassembled the bots for testing again and claims that it has been 100,000 years since they were last reassembled. As the testing progresses, the bots are able to observe the defunct surroundings of the Enrichment Center, which GLaDOS assures them as part of an "art exhibit". Further on in the course, players will be sent to a Robot Assembly Annex station to repair their own reassembly machines as GLaDOS finally makes it clear that it has only been a week since the Mobility Gels course and that she needs their help in restoring her control over the facility as something is overriding her controls. At the end of the course, both players are sent out of the testing area to resolve the problem in a control room housing a prototype chassis of the central core. While the first 8 test chambers take place in the "Remaster" clinical look, the last chamber takes place in the 50-80's era Aperture
Interestingly, the sixth course was initially going to consist of advanced test chambers during Portal 2's development, months before the game was released. However, this was scrapped and was removed from the final game. The Peer Review DLC to Portal 2 instead adds only challenge modes to single-player and co-op, with no sign of advanced test chambers. The Art Therapy course is referred to as an additional course instead of the "sixth course".
Non-Emotional Manipulation
All owners of the Sixense MotionPack DLC receive this course for free. It makes use of the new Portal Surfing and One-to-One mechanics.
Gallery
| Atlas in the Roll Cage. P-body is located behind Atlas's frying pan, also in a roll cage
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| The bots in a Aperture Science blueprint format
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Related Achievements
Portal 2
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You Saved Science
Complete all test chambers in all courses of co-op
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Team Building
Complete all test chambers in the Team Building co-op course
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Triple Crown
Solve 3 co-op chambers in the Mass and Velocity course in under 60 seconds each
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Still Alive
Complete Course 4 with neither you nor your co-op partner dying
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Rock Portal Scissors
Win 3 co-op games of rock-paper-scissors in a row
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Professor Portal
After completing co-op, complete Calibration Course online with a friend who hasn’t played before
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Portal Conservation Society
Complete Chamber 3 in the Hard-Light Surfaces co-op course using only 5 total portal placements
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Party of Three
Find the hidden companion cube in co-op test chamber
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Obstacle Building
Complete all test chambers in the Excursion Funnels co-op course
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Narbacular Drop
Place a portal under your co-op partner while they are gesturing
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Iron Grip
Never lose a cube in Chamber 6 of the Mass and Velocity co-op course
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High Five
Celebrate your cooperative calibration success
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Gesticul-8
Perform all 8 gestures of your own volition in co-op
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Friends List With Benefits
While playing co-op, hug 3 different people on your friends list
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Four Ring Circus
Enter 4 different portals without touching the ground in co-op
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Empty Gesture
Drop your co-op partner in goo while they are gesturing by removing the bridge under them
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Confidence Building
Complete all test chambers in the Mass and Velocity co-op course
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Can't Touch This
Dance in front of a turret blocked by a hard light bridge in co-op
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Bridge Building
Complete all test chambers in the Hard-Light Surfaces co-op course
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Asking for Trouble
Taunt GLaDOS in front of a camera in each of the five co-op courses
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Air Show
Perform 2 aerial gestures before touching the ground in co-op
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Talent Show
Never lose a cube in Chamber 6 of the Mobility Gels co-op course
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See also
