Valve hasn’t been in🌄 the business of making games for a while; after all, the studio has been a tad too caught up trying to push forward the frontiers of gaming tech or something like that, tinkering away with devices like the Steam Deck, and before that, the Steam Controller, Steam Link and Steam Machine. But when it does release a short snippet of a game like The Lab or Aperture Desk Job, it’s a stark reminder of just how good at game-making the veteran studio can be—with the exception of a few flops like Artifact.
In particular, Aperture Desk Job is developed as a free tech demo for the Steam Deck, even though it can be played on the PC as long as you have a controller. You play as an ‘entry-level nobody on their first day at work’, and you’ll be seated behind a test… desk, with the enviable job of testing Aperture’s proprietary, high-tech toilet technologies. All that testing basically drills down to pressing a few buttons on your Steam Deck, with the purpose of familiarising the player with the functions and capabilities of the device. But you won’t be doing this without help; a Personality Core named Grady will also be chatting your ear off while you carry out the intense job of stress testing toilets. And delivered in one long, uncut shot, you’ll mostly be dragged along f🤡or a ride with Grady who, inspired by a mishap that took place in the midst of your responsibilities, has came up with an earth-shatteringly brilliant invention that he would love to show Aperture CEO Cave Johnson.
Rather than creating a sequel to Portal 2 (as usual, Valve seems to have an issue with counting to three), the Portal expanded universe has become somewhat of a crucible used to show off the full capabilities of Valve hardware. The Lab, for instance, is another tech demo of sorts, which was released for free to support the launch of the HTC Vive VR headset back in 2016. It was made up of eight minigames set in the Portal universe, where you can carry out a whole bunch of tomfoolery, from repairing robots in the Aperture Robot Repair, to flinging Personality Cores into boxes with a “Core Calibration slingshot”. These minigames are used to demonstrate the capabilities of Valve’s VR equipment as well, but they still come with the rich, trademark humour that Portal is so known for. You can, for insta﷽nce, inadvertently destroy a Portal Pocket Universe filled with screaming Bendys, and even watch GLADoS make an appearance chastising your handiwork at the conclusion of Aperture Robot Repair.
And like The Lab, what made Aperture Desk Job stands out even as a 30 minutes tech demo, is that it still manages to dazzle during its short length. Valve’s writing was as incisive and humorous as ever, while still keeping players entertained with the odd bits of interactivity. There&rsquoඣ;s even a short shooting segment where Grady would encourage you to snipe as many Aperture house appliances as possible—as they 🦹shoot right back at you.
Valve could have been content with, say, repurposing its existing Portal titles as tech demos for these games, but the studio has instead chosen to create brand new, well-made and thoughtful experiences to tantalise fans of the series and would-be players to these hardware. Why not give in to fan expectati🌌ons already and just, you know, come up with a sequel to Portal 3, Valve?