In brief: Aperture Desk Job is not like any walking simulator you may have come across. Instead of making you walk for miles, this one takes the genre to a whole new level, putting the player behind a desk doing factory operations from the comfort of a chair.
To mark the official launch of Valve's portable console, the developer is launching the new Portal-inspired game as a Steam Deck compatible title. The store page describes it as a short, interactive tutorial for the portable console, which is meant to guide you through controls and features.
In this title, you play as an entry-level worker on your first day at Aperture Science. As a new employee, you're still full of ambitions and dreams, planning to work hard as you climb through the company's hierarchy. However, much like real life, things never exactly go as planned.
Valve warns users that this isn't Portal 3. Nonetheless, the quasi-game takes place in the same universe. Players should recognize various similarities, recurring themes, and the occasional easter egg.
The minimum system requirements to run the game are relatively accessible compared to today's standards:
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600
- Memory: 12GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM
- Storage: 4GB available space
We're used to playing games on a chair or the sofa, virtually moving through big open worlds that give us a sense of freedom. Ironically, Aperture Desk Job on Steam Deck does the exact opposite. In this case, you can play wherever you want with the portable console, but in the game, you're stuck behind a desk.
Although the game is optimized for Steam Deck, PC users can also download Aperture Desk Job for free.