Half Life 2: Orange Box Review
Oct 9, 2007
Poor Gordon Freeman can't catch a break. The unlucky scientist has repeatedly risked life and limb to save Earth from marauding alien hordes, only to watch in silent horror as a stoic Master Chief effortlessly scores elusive mainstream headlines and lucrative soft drink deals for basically doing the same thing. He's a crowbar guy living in a Warthog world, and it's just not fair.
So it's time to even the score. In an uncharacteristic act of gamer goodwill, EA has teamed up with the magicians at Valve Software to bring the entire Half-Life 2 canon to the Xbox 360 and PC (the PS3 version is coming, they swear). And it's a winner. Bursting with unprecedented value, The Orange Box is pretty much everything a first-person shooter fan could ask for, head crabs and all.
Witness the goods: full, uncut versions of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1, the brand new Episode 2, the invigorating tech-demo-turned-puzzler Portal and long-awaited multiplayer game, Team Fortress 2. All told, you're looking at five top-notch first-person games in one gloriously standard-priced package.
The core experience is the Half-Life 2 single-player story, now pleasantly chopped up into three parts. Vets can skip the old stuff and pop right into Episode 2, but a better idea is to start from the top and re-live the whole shebang the way it was meant to be experienced. It's all there - the great graphics, the superb voice-acting, the kickass gravity gun - and it's worth another jaunt. Minor tweaks to the Source engine span all three single-player installments, so graphics groupies might notice better facial animations or new lighting touches here or there. Unlike the shaky Half-Life 2 port on the original Xbox, the 360 version runs smoothly, easily on par with a solid PC rig.
Beginning mere moments after Episode 1 ends, the new 6-hour chapter chronicles Gordon and gal pal Alyx's flight through the forests surrounding City 17. Plenty of familiar faces appear alongside several important new ones, pushing the drama to a boiling point as we learn more about the peaceful Vortigaunt allies and the creepy, enigmatic G-Man. Episode 2 doesn't shy away from the tough stuff, imperiling characters left and right for the sake of eliciting an emotional response, which it certainly does.
It's not exactly innovative - there's only one new enemy type and the lone new weapon isn't seen until the finale - but what it lacks compelling additions it more than makes up for in sheer excitement. The action is well-paced and brilliantly scripted, never too tough but never a pushover. The outdoor environments beget much larger-scale shootouts and allow a modicum of open-ended exploration. Episode 2 is still linear, but you spend a good deal of time whipping around in vehicles and making pit stops to grab some goodies or bust some alien chops. The final stand is as frenetic and gripping as anything ever slapped on a game disc - you'll literally breathe a sigh of relief when the carnage comes to a halt.
That down time won't last long, though, because the new Portal game is a menu click away. Set in the bowels of the mysterious Aperture Science labs, Portal stars you as a female test subject forced to undergo a series of trials for the betterment of mankind. These involve devious spatial conundrums solved by ripping two holes in the world with a handheld portal gun. It's technically wondrous and discombobulating stuff - you can literally walk through a wall and "fall" up through the floor - and lends itself to sophisticated, fun puzzle-solving.
It's also superbly written. A soothing robotic female voice urging you onwards might be the best video game character in years, providing expert comic relief with lines like: "Android hell is a real place where you will be sent at the first sign of defiance," and "Cake and brief counseling with be available at the conclusion of the test. Thank you for helping us help you all." She lies, cheats and steals the show.
Portal's over all too quickly, roughly a 4-hour tour lengthened a bit by an unlockable advanced mode. It's a shame that you don't get to enjoy the tech in a combat environment, but by the end it's clear that Portal will make a more prominent appearance in the final act of the episodic trilogy. We can't wait.
Besides, we've got Team Fortress 2 to keep us company. With cel-shaded graphics that are more Hanna-Barbera than Half-Life, it stands out from the rest of the package by having no ties to the Half-Life universe whatsoever. The nine distinct classes from the original make a return along with a new 60's spy-movie vibe, though the gameplay remains the same: two teams square off in pitched Capture the Flag and Control Point battles. Smallish maps keep the action frenzied and centralized, a far cry from the expansive locations of similar team-based games like Enemy Territory or Battlefield. You'll always know where the action is.
It's a solid update but with a few notable changes, not the least of which is the streamlined weapons payload. Each class gets two standard weapons and a melee attack, but save for the Demoman, grenades are conspicuously absent. It's a questionable decision. The ability to clear out a glut of enemies with a well-placed explosive is a time-honored shooter tactic, and it's suddenly gone.
For the most part, though, Team Fortress 2 provides hours of enjoyable team fragging. The classes are well-balanced and offer plenty of ways to play; be it storming the gates as a Heavy, pumping up your teammates as a Medic, stabbing backs as a Spy or building turrets as an Engineer, you'll always find something to suit your mood. While there are only a handful of maps, they're smartly designed and feature multiple variations. It's stylish and pretty and adds tons of value to an already priceless collection.
What more can we say? The Orange Box can't stop giving. It's a sci-fi masterpiece, a clever puzzler and a multiplayer monster wrapped into one, making this a landmark achievement in gaming value and one of the easiest buying decisions you'll make all year. Color us impressed.