Crave Editor Rich Trenholm also regarded her highly, listing her as the fifth best evil computer. PC World Editor Spandas Lui listed GLaDOS as the second most "big-time, badass video game villain", citing her various non-sequitur one-liners and personality for her becoming one of the most memorable video game villains ever. Pittsburgh Live Editor Jessica Severs described GLaDOS as having the most entertaining villainy due to her promises of cake and her encouragements such as "This next test is impossible." GameDaily listed her as the most horrific video game boss, describing her as "polite, passive-aggressive, and insanely sadistic". The review adds that while the game may be short, GLaDOS will "resonate with players long after players finish it". Game Informer considered GLaDOS the top defining video game character of the 2000s (decade), taking the archetype of the sentient computer in "surprising new directions, at turns slyly comic and malevolent", and that she remains "one of the most fascinating characters in game history".
The comparison was also made by other critics such as Journalist Stephen Totilo and IGN's Cindy White. Totilo wrote that HAL was an influence on GLaDOS' "psychotic breakdown" seen near the end of the first Portal title. White wrote HAL and GLaDOS were similar due to both having "a calm, almost childlike, demeanor" which "hides nefarious intentions". She added that "the prospect of being shut down causes them to act out in deadly ways". GamesRadar Editor Tyler Wilde stated that while the staff of GamesRadar loves GLaDOS, it makes no sense to insert a personality core into a robot. He suggested that the Scientists either never read 2001: A Space Odyssey, or read it too much. Empire Online listed her as the 12th-best video game character of all time, describing her acts as "HAL-like conduct". Writer Stephen Totilo alluded the final battle with GLaDOS to the scene of David from 2001 disabling HAL, with both scenes involving de-evolving the respective characters.
GLaDOS has won several awards in 2007 for her role in Portal. IGN Editor Hilary Goldstein awarded her the "Best of the Worst Guiding Voices", commenting that it was between her and BioShock character Atlas. However, he gave the award to GLaDOS, citing her humor as the prime reason. GameSpy awarded her the "Best Character" award, stating that she came from the most unexpected place – a game that could have gotten by without a story. They added that during the final encounter, her mood swings provided some of the most memorable dialogue in video game history. X-Play similarly awarded her with the best new character award. GamePro awarded GLaDOS, referred to as "The Voice" in their article, the most memorable villain award, describing the decision as a surprise upset, considering either Frank Fontaine of BioShock or Saren of Mass Effect to win. GLaDOS has received other awards, including "best nemesis of 2007" from Primo Technology, best new character from GameSpot, and character of the year from Man!ac. Game Informer also highlighted GLaDOS in a 2010 retrospective list, "Thirty Characters Who Defined a Decade".
The song "Still Alive" has garnered significant attention from fans and critics alike. It was released as a part of The Orange Box Official Soundtrack and appeared in other video games, including the Rock Band series and Left 4 Dead 2, the latter which was also released by Valve. The song has been performed in multiple venues by Jonathan Coulton which includes the Penny Arcade Expo in 2008, the Press Start -Symphony of Games- concert in 2009, and the Game Developers Conference in 2008. The song is popular for fans to perform covers of on YouTube.
Ellen McLain voices a computer AI in Guillermo del Toro's 2013 film Pacific Rim; her voice work is deliberately similar to GLaDOS, a Valve-approved nod to the character and Portal series. When announcing McLain's addition to the cast, del Toro stated that he is a "big fan of Valve" and highlighted Portal and Left 4 Dead as "instrumental family experiences" in his home. Del Toro contacted Newell directly to secure McLain's voice, with his daughter's influence on the call helping to finalize the deal.
Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point G. Christopher Williams discussed the relationship between GLaDOS and Chell. In response to a quote by designer Erik Wolpaw that read "we wanted you to have this very intimate connection with this AI that changes and evolves over time, leading up to the point that you betray her and do the most intimate act you can do with someone—murdering them in cold blood", he at first noted that "on the face of it, this description of intimacy seems nonsensical", but also noted that "a changing and evolving relationship with someone in authority over you that eventually leads to betraying them by violating their rules—is one that is an altogether familiar one". He used the parent-child relationship as an Example of this and cited a metaphor by Psychologist Sigmund Freud which Williams said was about "murdering a parent in an effort to describe how children eventually would attempt to get out from under the wing of their parents". He wrote "nothing can be as intimate, perhaps, as loving someone enough to follow their rules and then needing to “kill them” in order to escape that “game,” which makes this game feel like something more like a really familiar relationship". He called her "just one of many countless authorities that have explained to me the rules of a game, how to control myself, and then pushed me towards a particular goal of the computer’s design" and that "this is an experience that I have every time that I fire up my Xbox and describes the curiously intimate relationship between player and Gaming system that emerges in single player gameplay". He further discussed that he had no idea that Chell's name was Chell or that she was a female because he recognized the character as himself. He wrote "I cared about GlaDOS only because she was the one directing me. Oh, and then I really cared about her because she wanted to kill me".
Video game developer Nathan Frost describes Portal as an "exploration of a relationship with someone with narcissistic personality disorder". He adds that in order to fulfill her self-centered narcissistic Desire to toy with someone, the player-character is trapped in the Enrichment Center, forced to do tricks for the computer. However, once the player-character becomes skilled enough to break the confines of the center, GLaDOS's secure amusement gives way to "histrionic, bipolar deportment". He describes this as a parallel to how a real-life narcissist might attempt to secure the admiration of another person by empowering them in some ways, but limiting them in others. He adds that this works out well for the narcissist until the other person learns to think and act for themselves. He concludes by saying that a part of Portal's resonance comes from the fact that using the portal gun to escape the center is a "cogent metaphor for escaping an intimate relationship with someone diagnosably narcissistic". Grant Tavinor, author of The Art of Videogames, wrote that GLaDOS' actions and personality in Portal were "in the best of science fiction traditions" and describes her as "insincere, malfunctioning, and probably insane". Wendy Despain, author of Writing for Video Games Genres: from FPS to RPG used Portal as an Example of a "modern classic" video game and "how they tell their stories". She called GLaDOS an "endlessly cheerful and clearly insane computer" and called her narrative "simple". Emily Short, creator of a female artificial intelligence character in the video game Galatea, speculates that in GLaDOS's final remarks to Chell (“No one likes you, you know”), "there is a hint that she’s talking about herself, not Chell; that she herself desires an emotional connection that she has never been able to achieve, because she also needs to survive, and all humans are a threat to her... [She has] learned that the humans view her as potentially threatening and essentially disposable, and so she has to see them the same way."
