New Steam Deck Game Now Available for Free

A new Steam game that's supported by the Steam Deck is now available for free, courtesy of Valve, the makers of Steam and the Steam Deck. And the new free game is a Portal spin-off game. Over the years, Steam has developed and published some legendary games and series, including Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, and Dota. Not much of this tops Portal and Portal 2 though. Unfortunately, there's no word of Portal 3 or any reason to expect Portal 3 to be made anytime soon. However, what Steam users do have is Aperture Desk Job, a free game set in the Portal universe.

According to Steam, the game has been designed with the Steam Deck specifically in mind, providing players with a tutorial to the piece of new hardware. Thus, as you would expect, it's on the shorter side. Whether it's any good or not, we don't know. Reviews on Steam are currently "Overwhelmingly Positive" though, with 97 percent of users reviewing the game positively. 

"Lower your expectations: This is not a sequel to Portal. Now get ready to raise them slightly, because it is in the expanded universe of those games," says Valve of the game. "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."

An official pitch of the game continues:

"Aperture Desk Job reimagines the been-there-done-that genre of walking simulators and puts them in the lightning-spanked, endorphin-gorged world of sitting still behind things. You play as an entry-level nobody on their first day at work – your heart full of hope and your legs full of dreams, eager to climb that corporate ladder. But life's got other plans, and they all involve chairs. Designed as a free playable short for Valve's new Steam Deck, Desk Job walks you through the handheld's controls and features, while not being nearly as boring as that sounds."

Of course, there's no barrier to entry to using Steam. The Steam Deck is a different story though. Depending on the model, the price varies from $399 to $529 to $649. For more coverage on the Steam Deck, Steam, and all things PC gaming -- including not just the latest official news, but the latest unofficial news -- click here.