On February 25, 2022 Valve quietly premiered a trailer for a sport referred to as Aperture Desk Job. The video deliberately didn’t clarify what the sport was, however past together with the phrase Aperture within the title, it was clear it came about within the Portal universe. The finish of the trailer revealed it could be releasing only some days later, and it could be free.
As promised, the sport launched on March 1 and it seems like no one performed it, which is a disgrace as a result of it’s a incredible, “Playable Short,” as Valve refers to it.
Aperture Desk Job doesn’t have portals in it, however it’s a Portal sport. It options a longtime Portal character, in addition to a brand new character named Grady, voiced by one in every of my favourite comedians (and possibly yours after you watch the clip beneath), Nate Bargatze.
Perhaps essentially the most compelling pitch for the sport for a Portal fan, although, is that it’s canon. You spend most of your time with Grady, however you additionally spend time with Cave Johnson. Not solely did Portal and Portal 2’s writers create extra traces for the lemon-hating Aperture founder, however J.Ok. Simmons jumped into the recording sales space to carry out the brand new dialogue. Neither Cave Johnson nor J.Ok. Simmons’ participation was teased within the sport’s restricted advertising and marketing. It was a stunning shock for me once I performed, however I’ve determined to let you know as a result of should you haven’t performed but, possibly that may push you over the sting to lastly have interaction the obtain.
The complete thought behind Aperture Desk Job is it’s meant to be a showcase piece for the Steam Deck. It is finest performed on Steam Deck because it takes benefit of the console’s numerous {hardware} capabilities, however it doesn’t require the Steam Deck. The sport was launched at a time when Steam Decks have been extremely laborious to come back by, which can contribute to it being underplayed. Maybe many pretty assumed it required the Steam Deck. The comparability isn’t good, however it’s slightly like Astro’s Playroom on PlayStation 5 – if it had additionally been launched on PlayStation 4. And was criminally ignored.
If you really liked Portal as I did, there isn’t a motive to not play. It’s humorous and it inches the Portal story ahead slightly bit. I worry that if extra don’t play it, Valve will level to it as a motive to not proceed making video games within the Portal universe. One completely random person on twitter stated about it, “I really underestimated how thrilling it would be to spend a little more time in the Portal universe and hear new Cave Johnson dialogue in Aperture Desk Job. It is a short experience, but it made me so happy.” Wow, they positive sound sensible.
Here’s a direct hyperlink so as to add the sport to your Steam library. If you could have a Steam Deck, attempt to play it there. If you don’t, play it wherever you’ll be able to – it’s nice, it’s brief, and it’s most likely the closest factor we will likely be attending to a brand new Portal sport any time quickly.
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