The Orange Box

So, having played Portal, I decided to turn my attention to the other constituents of Valve's "The Orange Box": namely, Half-Life 2, Chapters 1 and 2 and Team Fortress.

Firstly, let's get this out of the way: I am not about to review Team Fortress fully as I have no interest in objective-based multiplayer. So I suspect I would find myself bored by it quickly, and this would not lead to a subjective review. All I can say is that I love the look and feeling of the game, and from the experiments I have carried out (on my own) on the maps, testing each character and the weapons and objectives, it seems to have a wonderfully dark humor to it. I also adore the characters - most notably the Slovak self-named "Heavy Weapons Guy" - and was impressed with the little "Meet the..." featurettes that are available on the web. You can see "Meet The Heavy" here:

So I like the look and I like the off-the-wall humor. I fear I personally would not like the gametypes, but there are enough of you out there that would, so feel free to tell me what you thought.

Right. On to the Half-Life contingent. Bear in mind that I played Half-Life 2 when it came out on the original Xbox, but I have played through the Orange Box version again, and base the review solely on this. For an overall review, I will treat all three instalments: Half-Life 2, Chapter One and Chapter Two as one single game, although Half-Life 2 was originally released for PC and Xbox way back when, and was added to the Xbox 360 backwards-compatibility list pretty sharpish. Chapters One and Two were released episodically for PC over Valve's download service - Steam - as additional expansions, and further the story.

However, lets get the chapter specific bits out of the way first. Half-Life 2 is essentially an identical port to the 360, in terms of gameplay, although the graphics have been updated to a subtle degree to get a bit more out of the system - there is more realistic lighting and some textures have been upgraded. Some character models - such as the Vortigaunts - have been given a level of polish and now look more "realisitic" and do not have the really crappy eyes that were so noticeable on the original Xbox version.

Importantly, all the graphical glitches and frame-rate issues that plagued the Xbox version when played on an Xbox, and then the extra ones that apeared when played on the 360 as a backwards-compatible title, have been dealt with. The original Xbox release really pushed the old Xbox hardware, and sometimes it showed. But this new 360 version, for the most part, looks smooth, runs smooth and plays well. The frame rate does drop a little here and there, but not enough to diminish the experience. Sadly, Valve have not removed the endless loading screens that appear every 500 yards and stop the action dead in its tracks. Surely this should not even exist anymore? Come on.

It is important to note though that this is not a game that can visually compete hands-down with current-gen games at the top of the league such as Call Of Duty 4, Halo 3 or BioShock. This game is a few years old, and still has low-poly models and some very nasty textures. But it still holds its own, and for the most part looks good.

You can also notice the difference in visual qualiity in the later chapters, Chapter Two looking the best and much better than Half-Life 2 in many respects. But, in all chapters, there is still a gap between the best it has to offer and the best offered by current-gen games. This can be forgiven though, given the timespan of these games' original releases.

For the overall review, I think I can safely break it down ("it" being all three instalments as one) into a small number of aspects to consider: story, gameplay, voice acting and audio. Let's go.

Story

Ever since the original Half-Life, this franchise has excelled in the domain of the deep, engaging and thought-provoking storyline. The story in the original Half-Life was interesting enough, but Valve have created an even deeper, richer plot in Half-Life 2. Twenty years after the original game, the protagonist, physicist Gordon Freeman, is brought out of what appears to be some sort of nether-world stasis by the mysterious G-Man to carry out his next appointed task.

Since Gordon's resonance cascade at the Black Mesa facility in Half-Life, a portal link has opened up between Earth and the mysterious planet Xen and has brought us to the attention of a galactic evil empire: The Combine. Able to get to earth through the portal, the Combine were able to assault and begin enslavement of the Human race, defeating their feeble attempts at defence in the Seven Hours War.

Since their defeat in this war, Humans have lived a miserable, 1984-esque existence, under the auspices of The Combine, who control their every move. The Combine's ultimate goal is to absorb Humanity into their realm by supressing the ability to breed, restricting their freedoms and genetically altering humans to suit their needs. The Combine Overwatch - the military force of the Combine made of genetically-altered Humans - act as the police and surpressing force on the ground, and a "supression field" removes the ability to breed, giving the Humans a stark choice: give in to the Combine and acceed to their will, or die out. Add to this that both the Combine AND Humanity are also fighting against creatures that have come through the portal from Xen, and the Combine have harnessed some of these for their own purposes - such as the famous headcrabs - and Earth is not a dandy place to be!

As Gordon Freeman, you start the game arriving in City 17, a large populace of subjugated humans run by the Combine forces, and governed by a Human puppet dicator - Dr. Breen. Dr.Breen was the head of Black Mesa, and now is lord of all he surveys over City 17, acting at the behest of the Combine and using policitical spin and propaganda to convince Humanity to give up its feeble resistance and follow the rule of the Combine - whom her refers to only as "Our Benefactors" - citing that they will allow us to transcend or feeble human existence and offer us our true destiny, remove the shackles of insitnctual behaviour and travel amongst the stars.

Your task within the game is to hook up with and assist the resistance movement, to try and defeat the Combine attempts at subjugation, remove the supression field, and remove Breen from power. The resistance movement is struggling, and hope and faith are dwindling. Your prescence is seen as the motivational kick the resistance movement needs, and the rallying cry. But the Combine are also aware of the threat you pose.

As far as stories and plots go, this is just the surface. There is an incredible level of depth, and what Valve have also done to enhance this is build it into the atmosphere and feel of the game and its settings. As you travel around City 17, for example, ever-present is the eerie and cold voice of the Overwatch - a female voice that seems to emanate from everywhere and issues commands and information to not only the Combine Overwatch troops and Civil Protection, but also to the populace in general. You have to hear the voice of the Overwatch really to get the feeling, but Ellen McLain (who also provided the voices of GLaDOS and the adorable turrets in portal) offers a wonderful, clinical English accent, and the dialog is officious and overbearing, almost medical. She often comments to the Gordon directly, calling him "individual" and saying that the "anti-civil activity" he has carried out has led to his "citizen status" being "revoked" (evetually you are renamed "Anticitizen One"). The Overwatch also directs citizens to report any anti-civil activity, and that failure to do so will result in restriction of rations or privileges. Combine forces are often directed in almost medical terminology, almost as if you are a virus and they white blood cells, with phrases such as "Isolate; cauterize, sterliize". It's really hard to explain the Overwatch voice, but it gives the ambience a real 1984/Brazil feel to it, and works perfectly.

The sense of opression and subjugation in the story is enhanced tenfold by the ambience and environment, and is utterly engaging.

Gameplay

Well, I hate to say this to all you Half-Life devotees out there, but for me, this game is not what I would call fun, or engaging.

Sadly, despite the fantastic story and plot, and the marvellous settings and ambience, the gameplay lets it all down. Thre seem to be only three different types of action: fight the Combine, fight the headcrabs and headcrab zombies, or fight the creatures from Xen (such as Antlions). And all these are interspersed with inane puzzles and uninteresting vehicle sections that go on for too long. Wash. Repeat. Rinse.

Boring weapon mechanics make fighting the combine an unintersting chore. Vehicle sections which show potential end up as nothing more than a quick way to get to the next tedious fighting section, and they last just too long (the dune buggy section on Half-Life 2 just goes on and on and on), and with the addition of not the most fantastic vehicle control scheme, it becomes a pain.

Fighting Combine is usually a case of "stay a long way away and use your pistol", and up close the AI is not that fantastic. The Combine generally stand there and let you take them out. For example, there is a section in the Nova Prospekt level where, on first play, you will feel overwhelmed and struggle to survive, until you realise that you can simply jam yourself into a pokey little corner and safely stand there with your shotgun, blasting each enemy as he walks up and faces you - as they ALL will. You will be alive, there will be no challenge, and there will be a huge pile of dead dudes in one spot. This is generally how Combine combat unfolds.

In the ubiquitous headcrab zombie sections, you will find yourself growing more and more bored fighting off the shambling zombies who all apparently all shop at the same clothing store. Even the fun of the Gravity Gun and using ripsaw blades as weapons do not alleviate the tedium. The whole "We Don't Go To Ravenholm" level is just awful, and like the vehicle sections, goes on for ever.

And the Xen creatures? Antlions are horse-sized insects that sense vibrations in the floor and pop out of loose ground to attack you, at speed. A single shotgun blast will take them out, and there is no fun to be had doing so. The whole sequence in Half-Life 2 where you have lost the dune buggy and have to traverse the beach using objects and the gravity gun to make safe walkways and stay off the sand had me wanting to throw my controller against the wall. And don't get me started on the garage sections in Chapter One or the underground hive sections in Chapter Two.

So pretty bad huh? Well, wait, it gets worse. Permeating almost all of the levels are the damn puzzles.

Puzzles are not a bad thing, and Half-Life is known for them. They were fine in the original Half-Life - get past these trip mines, figure out how to get from here to here, that sort of thing. Which was fine, and new and shiny at the time. But from Half-Life 2 onwards, they seem contrived, pointless and appear as nothing more than an excuse to show off the Havok Physics engine. Oh look, another inconceivably unlikely see-saw puzzle! Gimme a break. They are endless, and never really seem to fit. At one point in Chapter Two, even your Vortigaunt ally, when faced with a puzzle, leaves it to you, saying in effect (I am paraphrasing here) "Oooh look, here's a ridiculous puzzle, I'll leave that to you then, as that is what the Freeman is known for." I am not averse to pulling a lever here or pressing a button there, but so many of these puzzles seem so silly when you see them over and over again that they start to get annoying. We know you have a funky physics engine. Now get over it, and give me some gameplay back.

The sad thing is that there are so many things that make the gameplay uninteresting that it makes the game something very bad: it makes it not fun, and boring. When shooting is boring, and AI is dumb, and puzzles are pointless, and more often than not you are frustrated by contrivances and unclear map design, you simply want to give up. And in the end, I did. I have not finished Chapter Two, and I might not ever. I am debating whether to use a cheat to get past the hive section I am on now, which is, frankly, boring me shtless and frustrating as hell (run out, die, run out, die, run out, die ad nauseam).

Voice Acting / Audio

For the main characters, voice acting is fantastic. With great voice talent such as Robert Culp for Dr. Breen, Valve have done a marvellous job.

Sadly, with minor characters, the result is FAIL. There seem to be two voice actors to represent all the male, non-main story characters (the resistance fighters). And, incidentally, only about four different male faces and one female. Which means that the black dude speaks with the same voice as the white dude, and often two dudes having a conversation will have the same voice, and look the same. This just sucks. For the amount of effort and immersion that has ben put into the other characters and audio, to see an endless stream of NPC's with a total of two voices is just bloody awful, and destroys the immersion completely. Not to mention the limited number of phrases they actually have.

Audio, at least, is excellent throughout. I have mentioned the Combine Overwatch, but generally through all three instalments, audio is top-notch, engaging, and enthralling. From the ambient sounds of City 17, the "whoompwhaaaa" of the thumpers, distant sounds of Combine activity and even the garbled radio-speak of the Overwatch forces and Civil Protection, it is all wonderful. I cannot fault it.

So, in conclusion...as it is late and I need to sleep.

I feel and understand the passion that Half-Life garners, and this is in no small part to the premise and deep, enthralling plot and well-crafted ambience.

But, I can't help feel that although this pulls me in more than most other games out there, the gameplay itself then slaps me back out. With so many long, drawn-out and tedious sections, and with such little satisfying play to be had, I really wonder how the developers at Valve enjoyed this? If I had been a tester for Valve, being forced to play most of these levels would have caused me to walk out.

Jaime Griesemier at Bungie is famous for saying that a good game taps into the "30 seconds of fun" ethic, and repeats it over and over.

Sadly, all Valve seem to have tapped into is 30 seconds of "Christ, how much longer?"

Don't get me wrong - for the sheer amount of stuff you get in The Orange Box, it's a fantastic deal. And although the Half-Life contingent may be one of the deepest yet most tedious games out there, Portal alone makes this compilation worth the purchase. And if you have never played Half-Life, you should give it a go.

Tastes differ, it might just be your bag.