The Orange Box

"Leave it to perennial Half-Life 2 to teach the new games a lesson in gaming"

Half-Life 2 was, and still is, one of the finest pure First Person Shooters ever made. With its incredible amount of level variation, it's interesting weapons (like the Gravity Gun), fantastic voice acting, and still-great graphics, it did practically everything right. Even now, with hard-hitters like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 driving home the idea that first-person gaming has entered the next generation, leave it to Half-Life 2 to give a huge reality check to practically every other console shooter. Not only is it longer than most, it's better than practically all of them. Half-Life 2's presentation can be called nothing short of epic at times, so it goes without saying that it alone would be worth a full-price purchase on Xbox 360. That said, The Orange Box goes above and beyond any gamer's expectations by packing five stellar titles in one package; most of which could feasibly be released individually (albeit, in the case of Portal and Episode I, at a slightly lower price). In all my history of gaming, I've never been more satisfied with a purchase. That's not to say it's the best game I've ever played, because it isn't, but The Orange Box takes hundreds of dollars' worth of gaming and packs it into one incredible package.

Graphics

All five games run on the Source Engine. Source has been around since 2004 and is starting to show its age, but it's an incredibly versatile engine that is known especially for its ability to run well on practically every computer and console it finds itself on. On the Xbox 360, all five games run smoothly and look great. Half-Life 2 sports a great 1080p resolution, and received some after-the-fact HDR additions that make it look much more up-to-date. Interestingly, Half-Life 2 looks absolutely next-generation if you view the terrain and textures from a distance. Up close, it's very obviously previous-generation textures, but from a distance there's so much detail. Episode I and II were released later, and each represent a significant step up in Source's technology. Episode I introduced HDR and better character models, but Episode II takes the Source engine and flies with it. Episode II is definitely proof that Source is easily capable of standing with next-gen technology, with its great use of lighting and water effects.

Portal looks like an iPod-inspired "white room", but the fantastically realistic-looking portal holes probably required a degree of limiting graphical performance (undoubtedly the whole level must be rendered at once to support portals).

Team Fortress II, with its cheesy 1960's spy theme and great art style, is probably the most stylistic of the bunch. It's so tongue-in-cheek, you almost feel sorry for the more "serious" tournament-style online FPSes out there. Great stuff.

Gameplay

It goes without saying that the Half-Life related games are fantastic. Half-Life 2 is a surprisingly long and satisfying adventure through City 17. The gunplay, characters, storyline, and presentation are all first-rate. One of the defining characteristics of Half-Life 2 is that there are no actual cutscenes; Gordon literally walks (or drives, or steers) from the beginning of the game to the end of the game, with only brief load sequences in-between. This is pretty incredible when you realize you've driven across a highway, walked across sand dunes, fought your way into a prison, etc, without stopping. It's a very impressive feat to connect every level together in such a manner. Overall, the original Half-Life 2 still stands up as one of the most impressive, and inspirational, first-person shooters ever made. It's filled to the brim with great action, fun physics, great atmosphere and replayability.

But that's just one of the five games in this package. Episode I took the what Half-Life 2 did and ran with it. The presentation was sharper, the game was darker, the graphics were better, and aside from being short, most people were satisfied in calling the game an outright sequel. Everything about the game was slightly more polished, better-looking, and more fun.

Yet it's Episode II that steals the Half-Life 2 party. In every aspect of its presentation, it blows both the original Half-Life 2 and Episode I out of the water. It looks next-generation graphically, it has epic battles that put even the most awesome Half-Life 2 moments to shame, and the pacing is better. In Episode II, it's evident that Valve learned what people liked in the previous episode and took out the aspects they didn't. It's also longer, smarter, and better in every way.

And then there's newcomer puzzle game Portal, which may actually be the most important game of the bunch. Yes, Portal is too short (clocking in around 2 or 3 hours, with about 2 more hours for the advanced stages), but it's absolutely incredible how it changes your perception of how games in general can work. The portal system is handled flawlessly; when you "fall" through one portal, it doesn't seem like the game literally teleports your character. Instead, it's like you fell through a hole. It's seamless, and very, very impressive. Once you're good enough at Portal, you'll find the puzzles to be a bit easy (even on Advanced mode). Hopefully there will be an expansion for Portal, because frankly it's the best-conceived game of the package.

Team Fortress II is an absolute blast. It's that crazy class-based combat you've come to love from the original (quite old) Quake Team Fortress. But now, there's this hilarious 1960's spy flick theme and great Cold War-era bases (you should really check out the Wargames-inspired Defcon base). It's fun, doesn't take itself too seriously, and is surprisingly easy to learn. There's a lot of strategy involved (especially for classes like Engineer and Spy) but after just a few games, anyone would get the hang of the game. It's a total blast to play, and could've easily been released as its own game.

Sound

Stellar voice acting in all regards, but especially hilarious in Portal's case.

Overall

While two of the five games have been out before, the package itself is an absolute bargain and likely won't leave your 360 for months. It's fantastic in every facet. Worth buying.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/15/07

Game Release: The Orange Box (US, 10/10/07)