Wheatley (Portal)
Encyclopedia
Wheatley is a fictional artificial
character in the 2011 video game Portal 2
. He is voiced by British comedian
Stephen Merchant
and created in part by Portal 2s designer Erik Wolpaw
. To date, he only appears in Portal 2.
Since his appearance in Portal 2, he has received overwhelmingly positive reception from critics. Merchant has been praised for his portrayal by critics who cited his fast-talking dialogue and what a journalist for the Daily Mail
calls his "West Country burr
" (more specifically, his native Bristol
accent). Editors for CNET
wrote that if Merchant didn't win "every video game voice actor award... there is no justice in either this world or any virtual one". Wheatley has also been described as a contrast to GLaDOS' "slower-speaking and more deliberate" personality.
and created in part by Portal 2
designer Erik Wolpaw
. He was first revealed in an ARG
released by Valve in a screenshot of Portal 2 before its release showing the player-character Chell
holding Wheatley. Wheatley was designed with the purpose of making a character who "you’d be seeing a lot". He added that Wheatley served as an "offset" of GLaDOS
; while her voice is "slower-speaking and more deliberate", Wheatley is a "frantic person" which he says is performed well by Merchant due to being able to relay information quickly in his speech. Merchant was chosen for the role both because the designers were a fan of British comedy
and because of Merchant's role in the TV series Extras
and his podcast
s. They sent him a package of Portal 2 material while requesting him to provide the voice of Wheatley and Merchant agreed to do the role. While they were writing Wheatley's dialogue, they had Merchant "in their heads" as a result of Extras though at the time they did not consider pursuing him for the role because they did not think that they would be able to cast him. They were instead considering Richard Ayoade
until they went to Merchant's agents. Wheatley's voice design was always designed with a British voice in mind.
Wheatley was also designed with the intention of writing a video game character who spoke informally which Wolpaw stated gave the sensation that the events were really happening and that this was something players do not often see in video games. He also stated that sidekicks in video games have never "sounded as if they were just making things up as you go along". While they later discovered that Merchant was famous in the United Kingdom, they noted that he was not chosen for his fame. Wolpaw noted that Merchant was the most famous actor that they had featured in one of their games. While they wrote a script for Wheatley, Merchant had an "improvisational style" that they let him employ in the dialogue. Merchant also spoke some of the written dialogue in a way that seemed improvisational, such as in the "reading and repetition of words". This quality was one of the qualities that made them want to cast Merchant.
Merchant himself has compared Wheatley's personality to characters typically played by Woody Allen
, and noted that while initially he didn't know the gravitas of the role, reaction by others made him take the role a lot more seriously. He described the recording sessions as "exhausting", so much so that by the end he was "not looking forward to it", but once the project wrapped, he was overwhelmed with the fan response and would return for a sequel.
. He is one of several personality cores created for GLaDOS; specifically, he was designed by the Aperture Science scientists as "the dumbest moron who ever lived" as a means to hamper GLaDOS' decision-making processes by injecting poor judgement into her routines.
The player-character Chell
is introduced to Wheatley when he revives from from her cryogenic hibernation, with the intent on helping her to escape the deteriorating Aperture Science facility. Wheatley leads Chell to the chamber containing the remains of GLaDOS, and accidentally reactivates GLaDOS while trying to engineer their escape. Chell is separated from Wheatley by GLaDOS and forced to perform more tests, but Wheatley manages to find Chell and help her escape to maintenance areas behind the testing chambers out of GLaDOS' reach. He guides her to destroy GLaDOS' neurotoxin supply and sentry drone manufacturing line before returning to GLaDOS. Without these hazards to stop her, Chell follows Wheatley's instructions to transfer his core into that of GLaDOS. With the threat of GLaDOS quenched, Wheatley prepares to send Chell to the surface, but he becomes power-hungry due to GLaDOS' core programming; he places GLaDOS' personality into a module powered by a potato battery and sends her and Chell into the depths of Aperture Science.
While Chell and GLaDOS work their way up from deep underground, Wheatley begins fumblingly experimenting with his control of the facility, causing several systems to fall into failure mode. By the time Chell and GLaDOS arrive, the core reactor in the facility is set to overload, and the only way to stop it is for GLaDOS to retake her main unit back from Wheatley. Wheatley, coerced by the core programming in GLaDOS, puts them through a series of deranged test chambers in his newly-renamed "Wheatley Science" facility, leading them to series of death traps. Chell and GLaDOS are able to escape, due to Wheatley's lack of foresight, and make their way to his chamber to try to attempt a reversal of the core transfer, but first must subdue his programming by three other faulty personality cores to distract him.
Wheatley, recalling the earlier battle with GLaDOS, takes steps to prevent Chell from activating the core transfer mechanism and assaults her with bombs. However, he did not account for tubes carrying the various gels through the room, which Chell destroys with the bombs and uses the resulting spillage to complete the attachment of the corrupted cores. With Wheatley distracted, Chell initiates the core transfer just as the failsafes on the reactor core fail, causing the roof to collapse. Chell creates a portal between the room and the moon's surface, dragging her and the Wheatley module through it; GLaDOS, now having regained her body, rescues Chell and knocks Wheatley away, and then restores the facility to normal working order. Wheatley is shown in the game's epilogue to be floating adrift in space, apologetic for the trouble he's caused, and forced to listen to the ramblings of one of the corrupted personality cores that is obsessed with space.
staff wrote that Merchant's portrayal of Wheatley was "neurotically stuttering and blubbering" and that his "idiosyncratic staccato Bristol
ian burr" was a "fascinating choice". Edge staff also wrote that he served as the game's "comic relief" and called him "alternately hapless and sinister, the mesmerizing animations of his ‘eye light’ and a changing role throughout make him an unforgettable presence". GameSpy
's Will Tuttle wrote that Merchant's portrayal of Wheatley was "pitch perfect" and is "sure to be a fan favorite". The Telegraph
s Tom Hoggins wrote that the "delightfully skittish" Wheatley's "casual, nervous patter reacting naturally to the events unfolding around you" was performed well by Merchant. He later wrote that the dialogue of Portal 2 was funny due in part to "the way that the frantic, nervous babble of Wheatley contrasts so effectively with the clinical, sinister goading from GLaDOS" and that neither are overbearing. The Guardian
s Nick Cowen wrote that Wheatley was a "stammering, motor-mouthed droid" and at times "funny and monstrous and spine chilling". The Guardians Will Freeman wrote that the "apparently sentient computers" in Portal 2 are "outstanding" though players may have a "divided opinion" on Wheatley.
An editor for The Province
wrote that Merchant's portrayal of Wheatley "really adds to the personality and character of the game". Official Xbox Magazine
s Jon Hicks praised the narrative of Portal 2 and cited Wheatley's "chirpy idiocy" as a contributing factor to its quality. OXMs Ryan McCaffrey wrote that Wheatley was "played to perfection" by Merchant. Computer and Video Games
' Andy Robinson wrote that Wheatley's personality was "equally loud" to GLaDOS and "brilliant". GameZone
's Ben PerLee wrote that Wheatley was "cute but stupid" and called him "adorable and bumbling, a lovable little guy who is much more involved than you might expect". The Escapist
s Russ Pitts wrote that Wheatley was "a helpful - if dumb - robot companion with a chipper English accent". The Globe and Mail
s Chad Sapieha wrote that Merchant was "enormously entertaining as a slow-witted sphere". Ars Technica
s Ben Kuchera wrote that "the casting [of Merchant] was a brilliant choice". He also wrote that "there is something about his delivery that works wonderfully, and it seems like he was having a good time recording his lines".
PC Gamer
s Dan Stapleton praised Wheatley as "fantastically voiced" by Merchant and wrote that he was "basically playing the same mind-bogglingly stupid character from the Ricky Gervais
comedy Extras
". PC Gamers Craig Pearson wrote that "his nervous English voice ... is another indicator that while Valve might not have known what they had with the original Portal, this time around they’re a lot more confident". Giant Bomb
's Ryan Davis wrote that Merchant voiced Wheatley with "terrific nervous energy”. Wired
s Chris Kohler wrote that "you’ll fall in love with Wheatley, a friendly robot with a heart of gold and the charming voice of actor Stephen Merchant". IGN
's Charles Onyett wrote that it's "difficult to overstate how Merchant's obvious enthusiasm for the role benefits the game" and that "no word Wheatley speaks is without witty inflection, and the consistently clever writing perfectly complements the onscreen action". He also wrote that Wheatley Merchant "steals the show" while GLaDOS
and Cave Johnson
's voice actors Ellen McLain
and J.K. Simmons turn in solid performances. PALGN
's Adam Ghiggino wrote that Merchant's performance was "brilliant" and that he has "a lot of emotion to [his] movement". Video Gamer's Jamin Smith wrote that Merchant's voice was familiar and wrote that Wheatley "possesses more personality than the cast of most other games put together" despite "a lack of any distinguishing features at all" in its appearance.
GamesRadar
's Tyler Wilde wrote that Wheatley was "surprisingly expressive" and called it "bumbling". CNN
's Larry Frum called Wheatley "silly, frantic and almost childlike". ABC News
' Lou Kesten called it "equally memorable" to GLaDOS and a "chatty, nervous A.I." Entertainment Weekly
s John Young described its eyeball's appearance as a "giant blue eyeball resembles a HAL 9000
computer with an Apple makeover". He also wrote that he was the "most delightful artificial-intelligence program one could hope to meet, and his witty quips and general clumsiness are a frequent source of amusement" and that he is "splendidly voiced" by Merchant. Editors for CNET
wrote that "if Stephen Merchant doesn't win every video game voice actor award for his portrayal of the protagonist's wacky robot sidekick, there is no justice in either this world or any virtual one". An editor for CBS News
wrote that Wheatley was "a chirpy and well-intentioned" but also "dim-witted". The editor added that the "interactions between the player, GLaDOS and Wheatley are what give "Portal 2" its charm and provide much of the humor that keeps the game captivating puzzle after puzzle". The Daily Mail
s James O'Brien called Wheatley a "loquacious metal ball whose distinctly limited intelligence is rendered even more amusing by Merchant’s distinctive West Country burr
".
However, not all of Wheatley's reception has been positive; in an Ars Technica article explaining why Portal 2 wasn't as great as its predecessor, Peter Bright said that the character's role in the game's plot was predictable and that "his tireless, relentlessly stupid schtick" quickly got old, with the character's jokes being recycled and reused throughout the whole game. Bright also said that Wheatley's "inane babble served only to disrupt the mood."
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
character in the 2011 video game Portal 2
Portal 2
Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...
. He is voiced by British comedian
British comedy
British comedy, in film, radio and television, is known for its consistently quirky characters, plots and settings, and has produced some of the most famous and memorable comic actors and characters in the last fifty years.-Film comedy:...
Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...
and created in part by Portal 2s designer Erik Wolpaw
Erik Wolpaw
Erik Wolpaw is an American videogame writer. Erik along with Chet Faliszek were the two writers behind the now-defunct Old Man Murray video game commentary web site. As of 2011, he works for Valve Software in Seattle...
. To date, he only appears in Portal 2.
Since his appearance in Portal 2, he has received overwhelmingly positive reception from critics. Merchant has been praised for his portrayal by critics who cited his fast-talking dialogue and what a journalist for the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
calls his "West Country burr
West Country dialects
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....
" (more specifically, his native Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
accent). Editors for CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
wrote that if Merchant didn't win "every video game voice actor award... there is no justice in either this world or any virtual one". Wheatley has also been described as a contrast to GLaDOS' "slower-speaking and more deliberate" personality.
Concept and creation
Wheatley is voiced by the British comedian Stephen MerchantStephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...
and created in part by Portal 2
Portal 2
Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...
designer Erik Wolpaw
Erik Wolpaw
Erik Wolpaw is an American videogame writer. Erik along with Chet Faliszek were the two writers behind the now-defunct Old Man Murray video game commentary web site. As of 2011, he works for Valve Software in Seattle...
. He was first revealed in an ARG
Alternate reality game
An alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions....
released by Valve in a screenshot of Portal 2 before its release showing the player-character Chell
Chell (Portal)
Chell is the protagonist and player character of the Portal series. Chell first appears in Portal, where she is taking part in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center's test under supervision by GLaDOS. GLaDOS tries to kill her as Chell then tries to escape the Enrichment Center, attempting to kill...
holding Wheatley. Wheatley was designed with the purpose of making a character who "you’d be seeing a lot". He added that Wheatley served as an "offset" of GLaDOS
GLaDOS
GLaDOS, short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, is a fictional artificially intelligent computer system in Valve Software's Half-Life video game series and the main antagonist in the video games Portal and Portal 2. She was created by Erik Wolpaw and Kim Swift and is voiced by Ellen...
; while her voice is "slower-speaking and more deliberate", Wheatley is a "frantic person" which he says is performed well by Merchant due to being able to relay information quickly in his speech. Merchant was chosen for the role both because the designers were a fan of British comedy
British comedy
British comedy, in film, radio and television, is known for its consistently quirky characters, plots and settings, and has produced some of the most famous and memorable comic actors and characters in the last fifty years.-Film comedy:...
and because of Merchant's role in the TV series Extras
Extras (TV series)
Extras is a British sitcom about extras working on TV and film sets and in theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and is created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom also star in it...
and his podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s. They sent him a package of Portal 2 material while requesting him to provide the voice of Wheatley and Merchant agreed to do the role. While they were writing Wheatley's dialogue, they had Merchant "in their heads" as a result of Extras though at the time they did not consider pursuing him for the role because they did not think that they would be able to cast him. They were instead considering Richard Ayoade
Richard Ayoade
Richard Ellef Ayoade is a British comedian, actor, writer and director best known for his role as Maurice Moss in The IT Crowd.Ayoade was born an only child to a Norwegian mother, Dagny , and a Nigerian father, Layide Ade Laditi Ayoade. Ayoade studied at St...
until they went to Merchant's agents. Wheatley's voice design was always designed with a British voice in mind.
Wheatley was also designed with the intention of writing a video game character who spoke informally which Wolpaw stated gave the sensation that the events were really happening and that this was something players do not often see in video games. He also stated that sidekicks in video games have never "sounded as if they were just making things up as you go along". While they later discovered that Merchant was famous in the United Kingdom, they noted that he was not chosen for his fame. Wolpaw noted that Merchant was the most famous actor that they had featured in one of their games. While they wrote a script for Wheatley, Merchant had an "improvisational style" that they let him employ in the dialogue. Merchant also spoke some of the written dialogue in a way that seemed improvisational, such as in the "reading and repetition of words". This quality was one of the qualities that made them want to cast Merchant.
Merchant himself has compared Wheatley's personality to characters typically played by Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, and noted that while initially he didn't know the gravitas of the role, reaction by others made him take the role a lot more seriously. He described the recording sessions as "exhausting", so much so that by the end he was "not looking forward to it", but once the project wrapped, he was overwhelmed with the fan response and would return for a sequel.
Appearances
To date, Wheatley's only appearance is in Portal 2Portal 2
Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...
. He is one of several personality cores created for GLaDOS; specifically, he was designed by the Aperture Science scientists as "the dumbest moron who ever lived" as a means to hamper GLaDOS' decision-making processes by injecting poor judgement into her routines.
The player-character Chell
Chell (Portal)
Chell is the protagonist and player character of the Portal series. Chell first appears in Portal, where she is taking part in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center's test under supervision by GLaDOS. GLaDOS tries to kill her as Chell then tries to escape the Enrichment Center, attempting to kill...
is introduced to Wheatley when he revives from from her cryogenic hibernation, with the intent on helping her to escape the deteriorating Aperture Science facility. Wheatley leads Chell to the chamber containing the remains of GLaDOS, and accidentally reactivates GLaDOS while trying to engineer their escape. Chell is separated from Wheatley by GLaDOS and forced to perform more tests, but Wheatley manages to find Chell and help her escape to maintenance areas behind the testing chambers out of GLaDOS' reach. He guides her to destroy GLaDOS' neurotoxin supply and sentry drone manufacturing line before returning to GLaDOS. Without these hazards to stop her, Chell follows Wheatley's instructions to transfer his core into that of GLaDOS. With the threat of GLaDOS quenched, Wheatley prepares to send Chell to the surface, but he becomes power-hungry due to GLaDOS' core programming; he places GLaDOS' personality into a module powered by a potato battery and sends her and Chell into the depths of Aperture Science.
While Chell and GLaDOS work their way up from deep underground, Wheatley begins fumblingly experimenting with his control of the facility, causing several systems to fall into failure mode. By the time Chell and GLaDOS arrive, the core reactor in the facility is set to overload, and the only way to stop it is for GLaDOS to retake her main unit back from Wheatley. Wheatley, coerced by the core programming in GLaDOS, puts them through a series of deranged test chambers in his newly-renamed "Wheatley Science" facility, leading them to series of death traps. Chell and GLaDOS are able to escape, due to Wheatley's lack of foresight, and make their way to his chamber to try to attempt a reversal of the core transfer, but first must subdue his programming by three other faulty personality cores to distract him.
Wheatley, recalling the earlier battle with GLaDOS, takes steps to prevent Chell from activating the core transfer mechanism and assaults her with bombs. However, he did not account for tubes carrying the various gels through the room, which Chell destroys with the bombs and uses the resulting spillage to complete the attachment of the corrupted cores. With Wheatley distracted, Chell initiates the core transfer just as the failsafes on the reactor core fail, causing the roof to collapse. Chell creates a portal between the room and the moon's surface, dragging her and the Wheatley module through it; GLaDOS, now having regained her body, rescues Chell and knocks Wheatley away, and then restores the facility to normal working order. Wheatley is shown in the game's epilogue to be floating adrift in space, apologetic for the trouble he's caused, and forced to listen to the ramblings of one of the corrupted personality cores that is obsessed with space.
Reception
EdgeEdge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....
staff wrote that Merchant's portrayal of Wheatley was "neurotically stuttering and blubbering" and that his "idiosyncratic staccato Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
ian burr" was a "fascinating choice". Edge staff also wrote that he served as the game's "comic relief" and called him "alternately hapless and sinister, the mesmerizing animations of his ‘eye light’ and a changing role throughout make him an unforgettable presence". GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
's Will Tuttle wrote that Merchant's portrayal of Wheatley was "pitch perfect" and is "sure to be a fan favorite". The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
s Tom Hoggins wrote that the "delightfully skittish" Wheatley's "casual, nervous patter reacting naturally to the events unfolding around you" was performed well by Merchant. He later wrote that the dialogue of Portal 2 was funny due in part to "the way that the frantic, nervous babble of Wheatley contrasts so effectively with the clinical, sinister goading from GLaDOS" and that neither are overbearing. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Nick Cowen wrote that Wheatley was a "stammering, motor-mouthed droid" and at times "funny and monstrous and spine chilling". The Guardians Will Freeman wrote that the "apparently sentient computers" in Portal 2 are "outstanding" though players may have a "divided opinion" on Wheatley.
An editor for The Province
The Province
The Province is a daily, tabloid format newspaper published in British Columbia by Postmedia. It has been a daily newspaper since 1898.According to a recent NADbank survey, The Provinces average weekday readership was 520,100, making it British Columbia's most read newspaper...
wrote that Merchant's portrayal of Wheatley "really adds to the personality and character of the game". Official Xbox Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine is a monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released for E3 2001, with another preview issue for November 2001. The magazine is bundled with a disc that includes game demos, preview videos and...
s Jon Hicks praised the narrative of Portal 2 and cited Wheatley's "chirpy idiocy" as a contributing factor to its quality. OXMs Ryan McCaffrey wrote that Wheatley was "played to perfection" by Merchant. Computer and Video Games
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
' Andy Robinson wrote that Wheatley's personality was "equally loud" to GLaDOS and "brilliant". GameZone
GameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...
's Ben PerLee wrote that Wheatley was "cute but stupid" and called him "adorable and bumbling, a lovable little guy who is much more involved than you might expect". The Escapist
The Escapist (magazine)
The Escapist is an online magazine covering video games, gamers, the gaming industry, and gaming culture. Published by the Themis Group, it was edited by Julianne Greer up to June 30, 2009, then by Russ Pitts through September 2011, and is currently edited by Steve Butts. The Escapist was first...
s Russ Pitts wrote that Wheatley was "a helpful - if dumb - robot companion with a chipper English accent". The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
s Chad Sapieha wrote that Merchant was "enormously entertaining as a slow-witted sphere". Ars Technica
Ars Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
s Ben Kuchera wrote that "the casting [of Merchant] was a brilliant choice". He also wrote that "there is something about his delivery that works wonderfully, and it seems like he was having a good time recording his lines".
PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
s Dan Stapleton praised Wheatley as "fantastically voiced" by Merchant and wrote that he was "basically playing the same mind-bogglingly stupid character from the Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
comedy Extras
Extras (TV series)
Extras is a British sitcom about extras working on TV and film sets and in theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and is created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom also star in it...
". PC Gamers Craig Pearson wrote that "his nervous English voice ... is another indicator that while Valve might not have known what they had with the original Portal, this time around they’re a lot more confident". Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media...
's Ryan Davis wrote that Merchant voiced Wheatley with "terrific nervous energy”. Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
s Chris Kohler wrote that "you’ll fall in love with Wheatley, a friendly robot with a heart of gold and the charming voice of actor Stephen Merchant". IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Charles Onyett wrote that it's "difficult to overstate how Merchant's obvious enthusiasm for the role benefits the game" and that "no word Wheatley speaks is without witty inflection, and the consistently clever writing perfectly complements the onscreen action". He also wrote that Wheatley Merchant "steals the show" while GLaDOS
GLaDOS
GLaDOS, short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, is a fictional artificially intelligent computer system in Valve Software's Half-Life video game series and the main antagonist in the video games Portal and Portal 2. She was created by Erik Wolpaw and Kim Swift and is voiced by Ellen...
and Cave Johnson
Cave Johnson (Portal)
Cave Johnson is a fictional character in the 2011 video game Portal 2. He is portrayed by American actor J. K. Simmons and created in part by Portal 2s designer Erik Wolpaw. To date he only appears in Portal 2...
's voice actors Ellen McLain
Ellen McLain
Ellen McLain is an opera singer and voice actress from Nashville, Tennessee, USA. McLain provides voices for many characters in several video games from Valve...
and J.K. Simmons turn in solid performances. PALGN
PALGN
The PAL Gaming Network is an Australian based video game news and reviews website that focuses on the videogame industry and culture in PAL territories, particularly Australia and the UK. It was launched in 2003 by a group of PAL forum members on the IGN message boards who were disenfranchised by...
's Adam Ghiggino wrote that Merchant's performance was "brilliant" and that he has "a lot of emotion to [his] movement". Video Gamer's Jamin Smith wrote that Merchant's voice was familiar and wrote that Wheatley "possesses more personality than the cast of most other games put together" despite "a lack of any distinguishing features at all" in its appearance.
GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
's Tyler Wilde wrote that Wheatley was "surprisingly expressive" and called it "bumbling". CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Larry Frum called Wheatley "silly, frantic and almost childlike". ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
' Lou Kesten called it "equally memorable" to GLaDOS and a "chatty, nervous A.I." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s John Young described its eyeball's appearance as a "giant blue eyeball resembles a HAL 9000
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga. HAL is an artificial intelligence that interacts with the astronaut crew of the Discovery One spacecraft, usually represented as a red television-camera eye found throughout the ship...
computer with an Apple makeover". He also wrote that he was the "most delightful artificial-intelligence program one could hope to meet, and his witty quips and general clumsiness are a frequent source of amusement" and that he is "splendidly voiced" by Merchant. Editors for CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
wrote that "if Stephen Merchant doesn't win every video game voice actor award for his portrayal of the protagonist's wacky robot sidekick, there is no justice in either this world or any virtual one". An editor for CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
wrote that Wheatley was "a chirpy and well-intentioned" but also "dim-witted". The editor added that the "interactions between the player, GLaDOS and Wheatley are what give "Portal 2" its charm and provide much of the humor that keeps the game captivating puzzle after puzzle". The Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
s James O'Brien called Wheatley a "loquacious metal ball whose distinctly limited intelligence is rendered even more amusing by Merchant’s distinctive West Country burr
West Country dialects
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....
".
However, not all of Wheatley's reception has been positive; in an Ars Technica article explaining why Portal 2 wasn't as great as its predecessor, Peter Bright said that the character's role in the game's plot was predictable and that "his tireless, relentlessly stupid schtick" quickly got old, with the character's jokes being recycled and reused throughout the whole game. Bright also said that Wheatley's "inane babble served only to disrupt the mood."