No, I am not...or was not alone. There were lots of people there before.
Lots of people from all over the world.
P. Bishop
Sarma Cube, most commonly known as just CUBE, is a mod for Half-Life 2. Heavily inspired by Cube, Lost, and Portal, the first half of the game involves solving tests in the cube using expies of the Gravity Gun and Portal's cubes. The second half involves navigating the adjacent Sarma Base in order to find a way back to civilization.
The location of the original download of the mod has been disabled, but it can still be downloaded here
.
The game provides examples of:
- Abandoned Area: In the extended ending path, you must navigate an abandoned Sarma base after escaping the Cube.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted. When the player comes close to escaping the Cube, the AI tries to kill them. However, the AI considers this to be a mercy compared to what the Combine will do.
- Alternate Universe: In this universe, Aperture Science allied with the Sarma Initiative.
- Ambiguous Situation: Taking the elevator out of the cube leads to an unknown fate for the elevator occupant. A previous survivor, P. Bishop, is believed to have chosen to take the elevator, leaving the survivor's fate unknown. Later information suggests that subjects that took the elevator were placed back into cryogenic stasis.
- Apocalyptic Log: They are written on the walls within the cube. Eventually, assuming you continue past the Chapter 6 ending, you can find 4 dead survivors who presumably wrote the logs.
- Artificial Gravity: There are anti-gravity panels present throughout the cube.
- Death Course: The cube superstructure is built as this, containing cube rooms similar to the ones in the film Cube as well as Portal-esque test rooms.
- Drone of Dread: The hallucinations usually have this.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The Sarma Base.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The player character's designation, as revealed near the end of the mod, is Test Subject 23.
- Explosive Instrumentation: Minigames in the Sarma base involve using the Gravity Gun to move a fuse to another place in a circuit. Touching the fuse to a wire causing the circuit to explode, killing the player.
- Expy: Like Portal, this game also has a companion cube. However, this cube is purple, has a smiley face, and is named "Pasha".
- Gas Chamber: Some of the dangerous rooms release deadly gas.
- He Knows Too Much: An unfortunate Aperture scientist is sent into the cube for this reason.I was just a young Aperture scientist, one of those who were sent to this damned place during training program. An ordinary engineer - WHAT HAVE I DONE??Why did they put me into this damned cube? The last words that I had heard before awakening in this hell were "You know too much". And so what? All Aperture Science employees who were helping them in CUBE project know that thing!I can't believe that they slew all my innocent friends! This is not science, this is MURDER!
- Mobile Maze: A notice on a wall early on in the game states that the cube superstructure changes constantly to remove, modify, and create test chambers.
- Multiple Endings: In Chapter 6, you are given a choice to get an immediate ending to the game, or continue to reach the other ending.
- Ambiguous Ending: The earlier ending has the player character apparently manage to escape the cube successfully. Hallucinations suggest that the player character is falling into a trap, but the ending does not supply enough information to prove this. However, considering the later reveal that the exit was filled with concrete, the player was likely just placed back into cryogenic stasis.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The later ending has the player character successfully escape the facility, managing to get to the surface. However, the player drops into the City 17 train station, which is currently filled with Combine troops. The player character is last seen facing a large Combine response with no escape route.
- Mystical 108: 108 commonly appears on the monitors in hallucinations.
- No OSHA Compliance: Large electrical arcs cross a bridge players must use to cross a gap in the Sarma base.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The Sarma AI tries to convince the player of this, considering the Combine have conquered Earth.
- Sanity Slippage: The player character suffers hallucinations throughout the game. A wall notice states that the cryogenic freezing the player character experiences before the events of the game is the cause.
- Shared Multiverse: Cube takes place in the Half Life multiverse, but not in the Half Life games' universe. Despite this, the events of Half Life and Half Life 2 are still stated to have occurred in this universe.
- Shock and Awe: Some of the dangerous rooms try to electrocute you.
- Survivalist Stash: Several stashes are present throughout the cube, left by other test subjects.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Once the player gets close to escaping the cube, the Sarma AI decides to kill the player, since the AI believes being captured or killed by the Combine is worse than dying in the Cube.
- You Wake Up in a Room: The player starts the game being lifted into one of the cube rooms.
