“Aperture Desk Job” is a first-person action game developed and published by Valve. It is set in the same universe as the “Portal” duology, hence the setting of an Aperture Science desk job. It was developed to be played with a controller and only a controller, with back paddles being optional, but encouraged for one of the sections.
The game starts with a long monologue by Aperture Science head and founder Cave Johnson congratulating the player on their new job at his great company. Once the player is transported down to where their job will take place, the friendly robot manager Grady realizes he put in the wrong tape. Once he plays the right one, the player learns that they must get to work immediately or be fired. They do not even get complementary overalls for the job like the tape mentioned they would get.
Grady starts the player off on their mundane job of inspecting toilets, but the job becomes much more exciting very quickly. A faulty toilet leads to a pipe full of firearm ammunition breaking, the ammo getting stuffed in it and Grady getting inspiration for the next big product. After a short five months, Grady comes back with the first two models of
the invention: a toilet with built-in guns. The first model is swiftly destroyed after a couple stray bullets, but the player gets to have some fun with the over-engineered Mark 2. The final rocket of the Mark 2 leads to a very comedic sequence of events in which the entire floor of the building is trashed.
This leads into one of my favorite sections of the game where the player must use their mic to state their name vocally, use their keyboard to type their name and use their mouse/touchscreen to sign their name in order to get out of jail. I love to mess around with what I record, type or sign for my name, especially recording and signing. I love the recording part because whatever the player records is played back to them and I love the drawing part because the player is able to draw whatever they want wherever they want on the paper.
Grady soon reveals that he set up a meeting with Johnson, but on the way to the meeting, an ambush from the appliances department occurs. This starts up the most action-packed sequence of the game in which the player must defend themself for a couple minutes.
After escaping the ambush, Grady reveals not only that he did not set up a meeting with Johnson, but also that nobody has seen him in years. Prepared for a closed-off millionaire’s possible collection of jars, Grady and the player enter Johnson’s office.
Overall, “Aperture Desk Job” is a hilarious game with many funny moments in a short playtime. I did not even mention the praying mantis civilization that evolves every time the player has a loading screen. It will get 14/14 rockets from the Mark 2’s rocket launchers and its prize is a positive review on Steam.
