Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poor conversion, but a classic nonetheless. And amazing value., 16 Mar 2008
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible value for money. Half Life 2 is one of the best shooters ever made, this package also includes Episodes 1 & 2, along with puzzler Portal and online shooter Team Fortress 2.
For someone who has never played Half Life 2, this is an essential purchase. Even on a repeat play its still gripping and lots of fun.
Half Life games have a tradition of redefining what makes a shooter great. With the originals release in 1998, the focus on narrative was completely new. The game did away with cut scenes and everything was viewed through the eyes of central character, Gordon Freeman. This tradition continues with Half Life 2, but Valve has placed much focus on physics and the way objects react within its world this time around.
As it was first released in 2004, these aspects are slightly showing their age; but no game has done it better. This is helped in no small part by the Gravity Gun. A superb innovation that never gets boring, and makes lethal weapons out of everyday objects.
Episode 1 is a solid if forgettable expansion pack, which picks up the story from Half Life 2's dramatic conclusion. Yet sadly, only the level 'Lowlife' provides any real excitement.
Luckily Episode 2 serves up an electrifyng change of pace, switching locations from the urban squalour of City 17 to the more rural 'White Forest'. Theres also a new vehicle to drive, in addition to previously unseen weapons and enemies.
Unfortunately the Half Life saga is left on yet another cliffhanger, as Episode 3 is still some way from completion. It needs to arrive soon, as the Source Engine is already looking dated when compared to the likes of Bioshock or Call of Duty 4. There are some nice HD effects, but its disappointing more hasnt been done to update the visuals.
Of the versions available, PS3 loses out, which shouldnt be the case.
Having played this on a friends 360, the load times are shorter and the annoying slowdown when too much happens on screen is non existent. This is completely unacceptable.
Portal is truly unique and has to be played to get any idea what its about. Team Fortress 2 is a deep, rewarding shooter, and quite a change from the standard online shooter fare. As the name suggests, TF2 requires teamwork to achieve victory. The cartoony visual style seperates this massively from the others in the package.
So what makes The Orange Box so great? Put simply, theres truly something for every shooter addict. Be it obscure, epic or online.
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72 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You simply must own The Orange Box, 24 Oct 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
The Orange Box (TOB) is the second of Valve's three episodes for the seminal half life 2, and while we may have had low expectations after the not-so-awesome episode 1, and we've had to wait a long, long time to play TOB, cast aside your worries and concerns: TOB is one of the best games of the year.
There are five games here, three of which are new. The new games are Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. The older games are Half Life 2 and Episode 1. This means you're literally buying two games you already own, but that's really not a big deal given the overall price and quality of the package, and if you're fortunate enough to not own Half Life 2, then this is astounding value.
Episode 2 is probably the weakest of the three games, but to say it's also utterly awesome perhaps puts the overall quality of this package in perspective. The story picks up exactly where episode 1 left off. You're immediately thrown into a series of long and winding tunnels, utterly linear, with some simple physics puzzles here and there. The gunplay doesn't start proper until about an hour in, when you get to a small human camp. It's a great set piece involving turrets, friendly AI and a hell of a lot of antlions.
The game goes on like this, alternating between rather mediocre linear run n gunning with occasional physics puzzles which are simple, but serve as a pleasant distraction, and then the game throws a simply wonderful set piece at you. I don't want to go into details about them, they are best experienced without prior knowledge. But suffice it to say that while episode 2 is not the greatest of games, it is a worthy addition to the Half Life universe, and a game anyone fond of HL2 should play. It clocks in at about five to six hours, making it slightly longer than episode 1.
The second game in the collection is Portal, and for those of you not familiar with what portal is: you're in for a treat. It's a first person puzzle game where you can fire portals into walls, a blue and an orange, then step through one and out of the other. It's difficult to simply do the game justice with its basic description. The puzzles begin easy, with things like firing a portal across one side of a chasm, and another on your side to easily pass through. But an hour later you'll be pushing your brain and your finger to their limits.
The whole game is only around three and a half hours long, but it's an utter pleasure to experience from start to finish, it has a wonderfully dark sense of humour (and is probably the funniest game of the year) as you're guided by an unworldly computerised voice that is... eccentric. Without spoiling anything, the game also has a simply perfect ending.
Team Fortress 2 is the final original game in the package, and for anyone who even vaguely enjoys multiplayer FPS games, it's the highlight of TOB. It is in essence an objective-based class-based team multiplayer FPS. You'll select a class (each of which has strengths and weaknesses, and has to work effectively with the other classes to function properly), choose your team and jump straight into the game.
One of the greatest strengths of TF2 is that the individual focus of the player is not merely on kills and deaths, but uses a points based system which also factors in kill assists, headshots, dominations (awarded for killing the same person several times), revenge kills (killing someone who is dominating you) and various other things. This means you won't be preoccupied with your simple ability to kill the enemy, but will be more focused on helping your team as best you can.
Visually, the game is a pleasure to experience - it looks more like a cartoon than a computer game, and does wonderful things with the source engine. Another great thing about this game is it's really not all about twitch reaction ability to score headshots at 200 yards. People who don't enjoy counter-strike and the like will definitely find something to enjoy in TF2, with its variety of classes, each of which is unique, its wonderful visual style, its focus on the team over the individual and the sheer fun of it all, TF2 is the greatest multiplayer FPS I have ever played.
Also featured in the package is Half Life 2 and episode 1, its first expansion. HL2 is one of the greatest games of all time, period. It puts the player in a variety of situations and scenarios and transcends the `run n gun' mentality most FPS games have. One moment you're speeding down a road in a mad max style buggy, the next you're in your very own version of the movie tremors, the next you're leading a team of giant insectoid monsters on a prison raid. Really, the depth of gameplay is rather limited, but the breadth is so amazing, words scarcely do it justice. If you've never played Half Life 2, start here.
Episode 1 is the weakest part of TOB, but still well worth playing. It only clocks in at around four hours long, and it only has a few of the awesome set pieces that make HL2 such a wonderful game, but it is certainly well worth playing.
Five games, three new. TOB features some of the finest games of the year as well as one of the finest games of all time. If you've never played Half Life 2 before, you simply must buy this. You simply must. And if you're a HL2 veteran but don't own this wonderful package yet - I have one question, what are you waiting for?
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest game compilation ever assembled?, 24 Dec 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
The Orange Box- 5 games in one box: Half-life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Portal & Team Fortress 2.
Half-life 2 released back in 2004 scooped up dozens of awards including game of the year and rightly so. A decade or so has past since the events of the original, earth is now under the rule of the combine, a vicious alien race who deal with humans as they see fit, the few remaining humans who aren't firmly under the foot of the oppressors are struggling with little effect to regain control, Gordon Freeman (protagonist) is literally dumped into this world and it doesn't take long for the combine to come after him fortunately he is saved by Alyx a freedom fighter and you head off to take down leader of the city Dr. Breen.
Half-life 2 covers ever corner of the FPS world from the zombie- infested streets of Ravenholm to sprawling city buildings, it maintains a relentless pace mixing pulse pounding shoot-outs with increasingly powerful weapons to gravity defying puzzles. The game constantly changes moving from shootings to high-speed vehicles sections in which you are being pursued by enemy choppers & of course the now famous gravity gun, turning nearly all items around you into a weapon. You don't have to have played the first to enjoy this as you find yourself swept into the story as it goes along. While technically it may not have quite the impact it had at its release its still remains an immersing world, a benchmark for FPS to follow and one of the greatest games of all time.
Episode 1 picks up directly after the end of Half-life 2 rescued from the rubble of the citadel Freeman & Alyx aim to escape the city before the main reactor explodes, which means navigating through the collapsing citadel, tunnels teaming with the undead then to the train station to evacuate the remaining citizens and get out of dodge themselves.
Episode 1 while a good game is probably the weakest of the package coming in at 3 hours long, revisiting some old locations and lacking standout set pieces. However it does have a fair few good points navigating the darkens tunnels with only a small flashlight as the undead pop out at you is genuinely unnerving and a shooting frenzy in a hospital is a glorious bloodbath and a great action sequence. It still sticks to the same half-life formula puzzles using the gravity gun, traversing air ducts and lots of head crabs, the ending taking on a lone strider to beat the game seems anticlimactic and then even more so after the ending of episode 2 still dam good game though.
Episode 2 carries on from episode 1 emerging from the train wreck you head off to white forest a resistance fortified camp to deliver important Intel which is the only thing that can stop the opening of a portal to the combine world. Episode 2 is great, full of heart pounding set pieces such as repelling and army of Ant-lions with a little help form your friends which makes you gasp at the shear number of things happening on screen as bullets spray from every direction or driving at break neck speeds to escape attack helicopters and worse or the final defence of the resistance base against a dozen striders, its non-stop adrenaline thrill that's twice as long as the previous entry and leaves you begging for the story's conclusion in episode 3.
Portal is a unique little puzzle game. You play as an android tasked with completing increasingly difficult mind bending puzzles in the interests of science and at the compilation of you tasks you are promised cake (no really) however cryptic messages in hidden rooms and an increasingly unstable AI bot guiding you begin to make things seem as they should be. Portal basic premise is you fire one portal then fire a second portal across the room walking thorough the first portal will bring you out the second on the other side of the room. Things start up easy enough but by the end the tasks border on impossible and will require fully mastered portal skills to complete. Its a pretty short game about 3 hours but is a unique experience and entertaining while it lasts.
Team fortress 2 is an online game, which means no offline play with your mates unfortunately. It is addictively fun, characters feel like they are from a Pixar movie lively and animated each has their advantages and disadvantages and you're in for a treat on a hectic 16-player match.
So the PS3 version has been under fire for somewhat of a sloppy conversion but these things have been exaggerated by some. The slowdown that occurs when playing is non existent is half-life 2 and portal, there's a lit bit in the more hectic scenes of episode 1 & 2 but its very rare that it effects game play, loading time are about 9 or 10 seconds longer than the 360 version but its something you can live with just don't try to die to often.
A value package the likes of which you've never seen five full games in one box for the price of one, and not just any five games, five brilliant immersing quality games that will take up a fair few weekends. The Orange Box is a must own and if you don't already get it in quick time.
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