Aperture Tag - Gameplay Video & First Impressions

by OverwhelmedGamer on July 15, 2014, 11:30 p.m.

A new Portal 2 mod came out today, it’s called Aperture Tag - The Paint Gun Testing Initiative. It’s not a Steam workshop mod that’s free, it’s a whole new campaign with 27 original levels. The mod has been out for a few hours now and there’s already a long list of negative reviews. The majority of the reviewers are complaining about having to pay for a Portal 2 mod when there are so many free mods available already. This isn’t the first game mod that’s turned into a standalone game that you can throw your money at. I doubt there’s a single person reading this that hasn’t heard of at least one of these: DayZ, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and DotA. While I don’t think that this game will be even close to as successful as some of the mods I just mentioned(sorry Aperture Tag devs), I do think it’s quite good and worth the price tag of $7 USD.

I’ve played a lot of Portal 2 mods & levels. I’ve played quite a few good ones and a ton of really bad ones. Aside from the training levels, I think Aperture Tag has some really great levels and some new features that really make it stand out from any other mod that I’ve played.

Instead of the Portal gun that’s in Portal 1, 2 and the majority of mods out there, they’ve created a custom gel gun. If you’ve played Portal 2, you’re already familiar with the two gels that the gun can fire: repulsion and propulsion gel, or the blue and orange gel if you’re unfamiliar with their names. The blue gel repels objects and your character, allowing you to jump much higher and bounce off of objects, walls and ceilings. The orange gel reduces friction allowing you to travel at much faster speeds. The puzzles and the progression through each of the 27 levels require you to use these two gels in many different ways.

While Portal and most Portal mods are known for their thought provoking puzzles, Aperture Tag has thrown in quite a few level elements that require near perfect timing and faster reactions than any other Portal level that I have played. Which I think is fantastic! There’s one level in particular that was really fast paced and was a blast to play. The level requires you to escape the area before a 50 second timer runs out. The entire level you’re shooting your orange gel to surf through tunnels and then you launch out towards small platforms where you have to shoot the blue gel before hitting it to make it out in time. It was so much fun!

Aperture Tag’s soundtrack and level design is great in my opinion. I’m going to have to agree with a lot of the other reviewers about the story and voice acting being a little weak compared to other aspects of the game mod. But for an Indie title, I think they’re just fine. I think that Valve is going to have a very hard time outdoing themselves if they ever make a Portal 3. Portal 2’s soundtrack, story, gameplay and voice acting were all phenomenal.

Aperture Tag took me about 6 hours to complete and I played for another 2 hours after that. In my opinion, $1 an hour for entertainment is a pretty damn good deal!

There's quite a bit of controversy over this mod! I'd love to hear your opinion in the comment section below. Know of any Portal 2 mods that you think are better than Aperture Tag? Let's talk about it! I want to hear what you guys have to say.