Aperture Tag
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''Aperture Tag: The Paint Gun Testing Initiative'' is a 2014 puzzle-platform game developed by the Aperture Tag Team. Originally made as a
mod Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
of
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's ''
Portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...
'' series, it was released on July 15, 2014. The game removes the iconic
portal gun ''Portal'' is a series of First-person (video games), first-person puzzle-platform video games developed by Valve Corporation, Valve. Set in the ''Half-Life (series), Half-Life'' universe, the two main games in the series, ''Portal (video game), ...
of the series and instead utilizes a newly created paint gun that fires two kinds of
gel A gel is a semi-solid that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state, although the liquid phase may still di ...
with different properties. The game features new characters and
voice acting Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
, along with a
co-op mode A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratical ...
that includes a level editor.


Gameplay

The primary tool used in the game is the paint gun which fires two kinds of gel, blue and orange. Both gels were featured in ''Portal 2'', with the blue providing a jump boost and bouncing pad and the orange gel providing a speed boost. Unlike the stationary locations of gel in ''Portal 2'', however, the paint gun allows the player to apply the gels to paint-enabled surfaces through the levels. The game also takes advantage of a cut part of the ''Portal'' series in Pneumatic Diversity vents/tubes, which were featured in early trailers for ''Portal 2''. They are used in ''Aperture Tag'' to move the player from level to level in order to make the transitions faster.


Development

Eugenio Roman, the original organizer of the Aperture Tag Team, first began considering paint gun and gel concepts before the '' Portal 2'' game was released and when the gel components of the game were announced. It was stated that the concept of paint for ''Portal 2'' was first derived from the game '' Tag: The Power of Paint'', whose team was hired to work on the paint aspects of ''Portal 2''. After playing this precursor, Roman wanted to do more with the aspects of the game, especially the paint gun. The paint gun he ended up using for ''Aperture Tag'' was developed by another modder in the community. Roman asked the creator if he could use the device, was approved to do so, and made some modifications before releasing his own map utilizing it. After attending a Valve-hosted closed beta for the Perpetual Testing Initiative, Roman asked the employees if a paint gun add-on was going to be developed for ''Portal 2'' so that it could be used in community made maps. They responded that while a weapon_paintgun file was in the game, it didn't do anything and had been dropped from the release entirely. Roman paid a visit to Valve in May 2013 and decided afterward to make ''Aperture Tag'' a full modification release and not just a series of episodic maps. The game's soundtrack was composed by Harry101UK, and Christopher McEvoy, and also included the song "All These Walls" by Abarax. Many of the tracks are remixes of tracks in the soundtrack of ''Portal 2''.


Reception

ValveTime stated " perture Taglooks great, it plays well, and it last 2–3 hours. Giving it good value for money." ValveTime praised the visual and level design for its gameplay mechanic and variety, level design structure, polish degree, soundtrack detail consistency and map scale without affecting performance. However, they also criticized the pacing of the story and dialog falling weak many times. ''
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'' rated the game 58 points out of 100, stating that it "lacks balance and grows repetitive, but provides a handful of good puzzle chambers if you're willing to pay for them." A general statement by purchasers of the game in reviews on Steam have been that it has a "poorly written script, sub-par voice acting, and general lack of polish". Others, however, have largely complained about the existence at all of a $7 price tag for a licensed mod, rather than the game being free of charge.


References

{{Source (game engine) modifications 2014 video games Abandoned buildings and structures in fiction Cooperative video games First-person shooters Laboratories in fiction Linux games MacOS games Portal (series) Puzzle-platform games Science fiction video games Source (game engine) mods Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring female protagonists Video games set in the United States Video games with Steam Workshop support Windows games