The Orange Box

(This is my review from my Gamespot account, I just moved it from there)

It is without any hesitation that I can say that Half-Life 2 is one of the greatest games of all time. But what makes Orange Box so great? Is it just another game packing things together to get people to buy it? Or is it actually worth getting?

These questions are all easily answerable. But it doesn't take somebody explaining it to get the point across. All these games in this collection speak for themselves, and quite loudly.

Lets start with Half-Life 2 (HL2). HL2 won over 35 awards for best game of the year and more.. completely dominating anything that came out back in 2004. Rightly so, it deserves the appraise it has been given. The gameplay is smooth and feels just right. The animations and voice overs flow nicely, and the story does a good job at getting you involved in the overall story. The Combine are an alien race controlling the planet. The people of earth have been put into refugee camps and forced to work. You are Gordan Freeman, a scientist who is eventually wrapped up into the massive plot. On your journey's you'll meet lots of key characters who's actions push the story in certain directions. Alyx Vance, Dr. Kleiner, and Eli. These are the 3 main characters giving you your main objectives throughout the game. The story follows a pretty linear path, most locations, especially ones inside, usually consist of one path through a specific building and a variety of puzzles throughout. Outdoor areas are probably going to be more favorable to people who like open-ended places. The outside locales are usually pretty big with multiple ways of "getting to the end" and progressing to the next part of the story. You'll plow your way through tons of enemies with all the standards of guns, shotguns, pistols, automatic weapons, nothing you haven't seen before. The main attraction of this game is once you get a few hours in and are rewarded with the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator AKA: The Gravity gun. You can essentially play the entire game just lifting things up and using them as weapons. All this type of gameplay continues until the end of the story. Saying that doesn't make the story or gameplay any less exciting, albeit the story does end dramatically, and not to mention at the worst moment, leaving it abruptly open for the sequels. It could probably win the award for best cliffhanger too. You can only complain so much about that now though, what with having the next two parts at your disposal immediately following the first game because of The Orange Box. Episode 1 starts exactly where Half-Life 2 left you hanging, same with Episode 2 with 1. Episode 1 Continues your travels as Gordon Freeman with Alyx Vance. Your whole objective of this episode is to shut down control of the citadel, the massive tower you can see throughout you journey in Half-Life 2, also the main base of the Combine forces. You'll complete many different objectives and even meet up with rebellion forces, and get to do a lot of Combine ass kicking. At the ending we are yet again left with another cliff hanger. These cliff hangers are pretty bad.. stopping at major plot points that you've worked so hard to get to. But thats okay again because you have orange box and can jump right into the next episode. Episode 2 is probably the strongest single-player asset to the orange box compilation. As it has the most story-driven experience, and by now your attachment to the characters is probably at it's peak. Still with Alyx Vance, you're objectives remain to seek safety with friendly faces and help them, also to seek a way in destroying the Combine super portal from the rift created from the huge explosion. Episode 2 is the best the half-life series has ever been. The progression of the story seems perfect, and the events and puzzles don't seem at all tedious.. that is unless you've been playing the entire series straight. Which I did, in one weekend. This Episode focuses more on action then puzzles though. There's also a lot of traveling by car. It gives you a real sense of the destruction cause by the alien forces. It's also good to see a new change in scenery. The forest details are amazing. It's fun to get out of the destroyed city look, and into something different.

Now Portal. Portal is.. well.. if I said it was an add on I wouldn't be giving it enough credit. Portal is truly an amazing game. The game is hilarious, which is very rare to find in games, and completely unique. Nothing has ever been done like this before, but it's been done here, and it's been done right. The whole objective is to complete "Floors" or tests. Each floor has different puzzles to complete, and at the end of it all you'll find another elevator to the next floor and puzzles. But the entire game is based upon physics and portals. Using your gun you can create a blue with left click, and an orange with right. You have to use both for the functions of the portals to work.. and when you do you can walk right through one, out the other. It's quite a mind-boggling experience at times. You'll find that sometimes you can feel like quite an idiot after you've found out what to do, which makes for some good laughs.... or frustrations. If this game wasn't included in the package, I would still insist paying full price for this game.. thats how innovative and good it actually is.

Finally we come to the multiplayer aspect of the package. Team-Fortress 2 is probably the main attractor for some. It's the next big Multiplayer game from the people who bring you Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat. This time, you pick a specific class from a list, granting you their special abilities. The game forces you to work more as a team because each class is specialized in only one thing.. making the idea of "one man army" completely inane. The game caters to your playing style because you can choose whatever you want to play as at the time. If your style of play changes, then you can easily just switch classes at the press of a button, and spawn again to continue the fight. IF you're a CS Fan this game can play a lot like it if you want it to, you can easily just pick soldier or sniper from the class list and plow your way through opponents. Or for the metal-gear or splinter cell fans.. you can choose spy and sneak behind enemy lines disguised as the opposing team members, and take them out with a backstab or sabotage their electronic devices and turrets. The game is flexible, and will definitely have a class for everyones playing style. All in all the Orange Box is a fantastic compilation of games. It has something for anyone remotely interested in any First Person Shooting games, and you should definitely own this great package. Especially If you don't own any of the Half-life series. Pick this game up and give it a whirl.