Valve’s hatred of the number three is legendary but though we might never see a Portal 3 this all-time great franchise is just about… still alive.
Since 2016 Valve has used the Portal universe as the setting for their delightful but short tutorial games for their new tech. 3D motion tracking was demoed in 2016’s The Lab, the Vive finger tracking tech in 2019’s Aperture Hand Lab, and last year the many inputs and capabilities of the Steam Deck were shown off in Aperture Desk Job.
Aperture Desk Job comes pre-installed on all Steam Decks and is just about the most delightful introduction to Valve’s handheld system you can imagine. You play a nobody beginning a job at Aperture Science, spending the game trapped behind a desk and performing menial jobs at the encouragement of AI core Grady and eventually crossing paths with Cave Johnson, as voiced by the inestimable J.K. Simmons.
This straddles the line between game and tutorial, showing off the touchscreen, gyros, rear buttons, trackpads and general things you can poke and prod at on the Deck. You’ll get through it in about thirty minutes, it successfully teaches the player the capabilities of their new gadget and is pretty damn funny to boot.
But, honestly, this little morsel of Portal just makes us hungry to return to this world for real. According to developer Erik Wolpaw, this is still very much a possibility. In 2022 he said “we’re literally going to be too old to work on Portal 3. So we should just do it.”
Whether that’s ever going to happen is unknown, though given Valve’s history we shouldn’t be too surprised if one day it simply appears in the Steam store as a surprise release. Perhaps there was a chance we could get a fully-fledged VR portal in the vein of Half-Life: Alyx, though after that incredible experience it doesn’t seem like Valve is itching to develop another blockbuster VR title (or release it on PSVR2 for that matter…).
So the Portal series may be on life support, but at least Aperture Desk Job proves that it’s still got a faint pulse. If you pick up a Steam Deck it really should be a priority as it makes a wonderful first impression of the new hardware.
It should also be noted that you can play this for free without a Steam Deck, though most of the fun comes from exploring your new device, so if you ever think you might buy one hold off on playing it until then.
Pixel Hunted 