The Orange Box has something for every type of gamer
OK, it has taken me awhile to get around and review The Orange Box. So, here it is.
The Orange Box includes five games in one box; Half-Life 2, Half-Life2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.
The Half-Life series will offer gamers the first-person shooter genre to anyone who loves to shoot things or they just love the Half-Life series.
Portal is very much like a puzzle game with mind-bending scenarios and very funny dialogue.
Team Fortress 2 is for gamers who like team-based multiplayer battles or just a fun online experience.
I am going to review each game separately.
Half-Life 2 is known as the best first-person shooter game and as, arguably, the best game of all time. At the end of the original Half-Life, as protagonist Gordon Freeman, the so-called and mysterious G-Man offers you a "job" or to basically die. You choose to take the job. At the opening of Half-Life 2 you are awakened by the G-Man to ,well, begin his job and save City 17. You arrive at City 17 and realize that Earth has been taken over by the Combine, an alien race of superior technology. The world seems to be ruled under a totalitarian type of government. It is up to you to save the planet from the alien menace. The gameplay is some of the best quality gaming I have ever seen in a video game. The game also uses physics very well and you, if armed by the Gravity Gun, can alter the environment and use everyday objects , such as a chair, as a weapon. The characters of Half-Life are very believable and you WILL grow attached to them and admire them, especially Alyx Vance, who is the daughter of Eli Vance. The graphics are great, but Half-Life 2 being an old game, the graphics seem a bit dated. The programmers have enhanced the graphics slighlty, but not enough to be good for the Xbox 360. The sound is my favorite part. The sound is amazing, like hearing a dropship fly over your head or hear the "footsteps" of the Striders in the distance. The sound quality is phenomenal. Half-Life 2 is an awesome game and is great by itself as an included game in The Orange Box.
Half-Life 2: Episode One continues the adventure as Gordon Freeman after the cliffhanger of its predecessor. For the majority of the game you will be with Alyx. The gameplay and sound quality are still really good. The graphics are improved and the character models are very good. Pretty much everything is the same as in Half-Life 2. The only thing that is a problem with Episode One, is that it is over too quickly. You will probably be over with it in about four to five hours. Besides that, it is still a very good game.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two once again continues the Half-Life saga. Episode Two is probably the best game in The Orange Box, besides the original Half-Life 2. The sound and gameplay are still very good and will keep you on your toes. The graphics are once more improved, but they look very good, better than Episode One. In Episode Two you can once again man the wheel of a vehicle. In Episode One , there were no vehicle sequences. But Valve brought it back. The vehicle looks like an old 1969 Dodge Charger that has been revamped. In the original Half-Life 2, gamers complained of the confined and enclosed locations and felt like it was just going from corridor to corridor. But in Episode Two you will find that the developers caught on to this and gave gamers very open spaces, such as a valley where you will fight two Antlion Guards at the same time and the areas where you will be driving. You will also be introduced to a new enemy, the Hunter. You will see this enemy early on in the game, but you will not confront it yet. But once you do fight them it feels like an epic battle. The Hunters pretty much look like a small strider. They are probably approximately 8-10 feet tall. Near the end of the game you will have to defend a missile silo base from striders who are being escorted by a small group of Hunters, two or three at most. You will also be able to use a new weapon called the Magnusson Device. You use the Gravity Gun to throw it at the head of the strider where it attaches and then you simply pull out a weapon to shoot it. Then, you can watch the fireworks. Episode Two ends with the biggest cliffhanger yet, but I am not going to divulge what happens. All I am saying is that it was, emotional. Episode Two is really fun and you will have a blast playing it.
Portal, as I said before, is a puzzle game. You will obtain a "gun" that you can use to shoot portals into walls, ceilings, or floors to solve the puzzle. The game pretty much has you going from puzzle to puzzle and complete each one. They get harder as you go. Portal also has ties to the Half-Life universe, such as you being a test subject in Aperture Sciences, which is basically the Black Mesa Research Facility of Portal. Portal is also humorous. The supposed computer construct, GLaDOS, will guide you through the first set of puzzles and will amuse you throughout the game. She says that there will be cake if you complete the puzzles. She also says many other things. Portal is really fun, go and try it out.
Team Fortress 2 is team-based multiplayer game that allows you to choose from different classes of the character you want to be. There is a lot of variety between the classes; each character has there strengths and weaknesses Either you can be a huge guy with a minigun, but you are slowed down. Or you can be a Spy that is fast and uses stealth to eliminate your foes. The game has a kind of cartoonish style to it that makes it stand out and at the same time it is quite brutal. Team Fortress 2 is an enjoyable game that should be played.
In conclusion, The Orange Box is a must have addition to your gaming collection. The Half-Life series is my favorite game of all time and it is pretty much why I got the Orange Box, but as I played Portal and Team Fortress 2 I realized that there is a whole lot more that is to be offered with The Orange Box. Awesome game or should I say games
The Orange Box includes five games in one box; Half-Life 2, Half-Life2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.
The Half-Life series will offer gamers the first-person shooter genre to anyone who loves to shoot things or they just love the Half-Life series.
Portal is very much like a puzzle game with mind-bending scenarios and very funny dialogue.
Team Fortress 2 is for gamers who like team-based multiplayer battles or just a fun online experience.
I am going to review each game separately.
Half-Life 2 is known as the best first-person shooter game and as, arguably, the best game of all time. At the end of the original Half-Life, as protagonist Gordon Freeman, the so-called and mysterious G-Man offers you a "job" or to basically die. You choose to take the job. At the opening of Half-Life 2 you are awakened by the G-Man to ,well, begin his job and save City 17. You arrive at City 17 and realize that Earth has been taken over by the Combine, an alien race of superior technology. The world seems to be ruled under a totalitarian type of government. It is up to you to save the planet from the alien menace. The gameplay is some of the best quality gaming I have ever seen in a video game. The game also uses physics very well and you, if armed by the Gravity Gun, can alter the environment and use everyday objects , such as a chair, as a weapon. The characters of Half-Life are very believable and you WILL grow attached to them and admire them, especially Alyx Vance, who is the daughter of Eli Vance. The graphics are great, but Half-Life 2 being an old game, the graphics seem a bit dated. The programmers have enhanced the graphics slighlty, but not enough to be good for the Xbox 360. The sound is my favorite part. The sound is amazing, like hearing a dropship fly over your head or hear the "footsteps" of the Striders in the distance. The sound quality is phenomenal. Half-Life 2 is an awesome game and is great by itself as an included game in The Orange Box.
Half-Life 2: Episode One continues the adventure as Gordon Freeman after the cliffhanger of its predecessor. For the majority of the game you will be with Alyx. The gameplay and sound quality are still really good. The graphics are improved and the character models are very good. Pretty much everything is the same as in Half-Life 2. The only thing that is a problem with Episode One, is that it is over too quickly. You will probably be over with it in about four to five hours. Besides that, it is still a very good game.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two once again continues the Half-Life saga. Episode Two is probably the best game in The Orange Box, besides the original Half-Life 2. The sound and gameplay are still very good and will keep you on your toes. The graphics are once more improved, but they look very good, better than Episode One. In Episode Two you can once again man the wheel of a vehicle. In Episode One , there were no vehicle sequences. But Valve brought it back. The vehicle looks like an old 1969 Dodge Charger that has been revamped. In the original Half-Life 2, gamers complained of the confined and enclosed locations and felt like it was just going from corridor to corridor. But in Episode Two you will find that the developers caught on to this and gave gamers very open spaces, such as a valley where you will fight two Antlion Guards at the same time and the areas where you will be driving. You will also be introduced to a new enemy, the Hunter. You will see this enemy early on in the game, but you will not confront it yet. But once you do fight them it feels like an epic battle. The Hunters pretty much look like a small strider. They are probably approximately 8-10 feet tall. Near the end of the game you will have to defend a missile silo base from striders who are being escorted by a small group of Hunters, two or three at most. You will also be able to use a new weapon called the Magnusson Device. You use the Gravity Gun to throw it at the head of the strider where it attaches and then you simply pull out a weapon to shoot it. Then, you can watch the fireworks. Episode Two ends with the biggest cliffhanger yet, but I am not going to divulge what happens. All I am saying is that it was, emotional. Episode Two is really fun and you will have a blast playing it.
Portal, as I said before, is a puzzle game. You will obtain a "gun" that you can use to shoot portals into walls, ceilings, or floors to solve the puzzle. The game pretty much has you going from puzzle to puzzle and complete each one. They get harder as you go. Portal also has ties to the Half-Life universe, such as you being a test subject in Aperture Sciences, which is basically the Black Mesa Research Facility of Portal. Portal is also humorous. The supposed computer construct, GLaDOS, will guide you through the first set of puzzles and will amuse you throughout the game. She says that there will be cake if you complete the puzzles. She also says many other things. Portal is really fun, go and try it out.
Team Fortress 2 is team-based multiplayer game that allows you to choose from different classes of the character you want to be. There is a lot of variety between the classes; each character has there strengths and weaknesses Either you can be a huge guy with a minigun, but you are slowed down. Or you can be a Spy that is fast and uses stealth to eliminate your foes. The game has a kind of cartoonish style to it that makes it stand out and at the same time it is quite brutal. Team Fortress 2 is an enjoyable game that should be played.
In conclusion, The Orange Box is a must have addition to your gaming collection. The Half-Life series is my favorite game of all time and it is pretty much why I got the Orange Box, but as I played Portal and Team Fortress 2 I realized that there is a whole lot more that is to be offered with The Orange Box. Awesome game or should I say games
