Valve releases Aperture Desk Job, a free game set in the Portal universe

Valve has released a free game set in the Portal universe to celebrate the arrival of the Steam Deck.

Aperture Desk Job has players taking on the role of an “entry-level nobody” on their first day at work at Aperture Science, the company featured in the Portal games.

The game’s main purpose is to serve as a tech demo to show players what the Steam Deck is capable of.

As such, it can only be played with a controller, and doesn’t use mouse or keyboard controls.

However, although it was designed with the Steam Deck in mind, Aperture Desk Job can still be downloaded and played on the PC version of Steam (as long as players have a controller).

“Lower your expectations,” Valve stresses in the game’s product description. “This is not a sequel to Portal. Now get ready to raise them slightly, because it is in the expanded universe of those games.

“Desk Job puts you squarely in the driver’s seat at Aperture Science. Then quickly removes the driving part and adds a desk in front of the seat.”

further reading

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Portal: Companion Collection is coming to Nintendo Switch

Portal and Portal 2 bundle will cost $20 / £20 later this year

Announced in July 2021, Steam Deck is described as “a powerful all-in-one portable PC” capable of running the latest AAA games.

Steam Deck runs the latest version of Valve’s SteamOS software – which is based on Linux – allowing players to access their Steam games library and all the platform’s features.

However, Valve insists Steam Deck is also an open PC with the ability to install any software or connect with any hardware.