In response to the latest handheld PC console, Steam Deck, Valve has launched a free mini-game called Aperture Desk Job, which is not only set in the Portal world, but also allows players to Try out the various features of the Steam Deck console. However, after data mining, players found information related to 4 undisclosed games in the game’s background files.
According to the latest report published by Tyler McVicker, a reporter specializing in Valve related news, this background file of “Aperture Science Inspector” tailored for Steam Deck contains content related to four mysterious works, namely “Citadel”, The Source 2 engine version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the sequel to the VR game Half-Life: Alyx, and a previously hacked game to the cancelled Portal franchise. For now, Valve has not released information about any of the four titles to players.
This data mining uncovered up to 70 pages of documents containing material related to the mysterious work “Citadel”. According to Tyler McVicker, “Citadel” seems to be set in the latest work in the “Thriller” series of worldviews, and focuses on the conflict between synths and rebels. The “real-time strategy FPS” game. In addition, the game seems to have two different main systems, co-op and single-player.
In more details to be released later, Tyler McVicker said that “Citadel” will put players in the role of a commander responsible for commanding a large number of AI robots. Players can adopt a bird’s-eye view of traditional real-time strategy, or directly operate the commander himself or other squad units in the battlefield.
From the current future news, players are still unable to determine the development status of “Citadel”. After all, a game developer is indeed very likely to develop some works that are only concepts or prototypes, and may not even enter the official game at all. production stage. But this data mining still allows players to see that Valve does still have plans to develop games. While many of the archives in the background have hard-to-break protections, many of them provide clues that allow players to suss out Citadel.
This team-based game features various AI bots with a behavioral system that responds differently to different “moods” and “memory.” Both the player character and these bots have access to a variety of weapons, upgrades, firing systems, and positive buffs. Some parts of the equipment function design also suggest that this game is likely to be a VR game, however, Tyler McVicker emphasized that he believes that “Citadel” does not require high hardware.
As for the other three games found in this data mining, the relevant details can be said to be even less than this. In addition, McVickers also found many words related to “SteamPal” in the background. According to him, this is actually the remake version of “F-Shop”, the cancelled sequel “Portal” on Steam Deck, which is Aperture Camera. Another dossier also hints at the possibility that Absolute Force: Global Offensive will switch to the new Source 2 game engine, along with a sequel to Trembling: Alyx. As with Citadel, players still can’t tell if these games are currently in development, have been canceled, or have been transformed into completely new projects. Therefore, this data mining does not seem to be regarded as absolute proof that Valve is developing a new game.
Even so, fans still have high expectations for this, after all, after the success of the VR game “Thriller: Alyx”, Valve has repeatedly emphasized that they are developing a number of new works, as for those games. Whether it is “Citadel” and other mysterious information that appeared in the background of “Aperture Science Inspector”, we can only wait for the official follow-up news.