The Orange Box is a 5-games-in-one kinda deal, featuring five first-person games that run on Valve's Source engine. It might sound a bit of a cop out, but the camera and the engine are the only things these games share(Well, technically Half Life Episode 1 and Episode 2 are pretty much Half Life 2 expansions), as they couldn't be more different from each other... Which is why it's better to talk about each one separately.
Half-Life 2 - As far as I'm concerned, this is The Orange Box's centerpiece. It's over 10 years old, and the game only shows its age when it comes to graphics, otherwise, it has aged as gracefully as it gets. HL2 comes from an era before 'regenerating health', and the somewhat realistic, if completely anti-fun, two weapon limit.
The thing about Half-Life 2, is that it feels like a big epic. You never lose control of the character, there are no cut-scenes so to speak, so you are always seeing stuff as Gordon sees it. The pace and the sense of adventure is something I really, really like about this game, you are always pushing forward, through a large, interconnected world. Even more impressively, the game always keeps it fresh, you'll go from traversing water on a boat, stopping only to open gates, to commanding an army of 'ant-lions' and laying wreck on a prison, to driving a buggy through deserted land and then traversing the abandoned, trap-ridden town of Ravenholm. Needless to say, you won't be doing the same thing for long.
As much as I love the game, the PS3 port has a couple of shortcomings. Loading screens are rather frequent, as they were on the PC version, but they feel a tad longer in this one. The somewhat lame graphics, lame nowadays anyways, wouldn't bother me, if only there weren't a couple of frame rate issues. They are rare, but they are there. Then there's the vehicles' controls... The sand buggy is fine, but for some reason the boat's controls are all messed up. It's hard to explain, but it's a bit too sensitive, and both accelerating and steering is done with the left analog stick, and for some reason, when you go backwards, if you push left, it turns you right, but if you are accelerating, it turns you left... the game come be veeeery finicky as to how the boat is moving before deciding whether it's gonna turn you left or right. It made the fun boat sequence into an absolute mess.
Consensus: Half Life 2 is every bit as good as it once was, but the PS3 isn't as good as the PC version.
10 out of 10.
Team Fortress 2 - There's no point to playing this version, as it's awfully outdated. It's missing alternate weapons, hats or any kind of customization item. I mean, the PC version is free and it offers everything this game has and then some. And it's hard to find full rooms in the PS3 version. Really, Team Fortress 2 is awesome, but there's no reason what so ever to play this particular version.
3.0 out of 10
Half-Life 2 Episode 1 - I'll say it now before I even dabble into Episode 2... I don't think the Episodic format works for Half-Life. Heck, it's hard to judge just a piece of a bigger thing, a bigger thing that isn't even finished as of now. On it's own, Episode 1 is a decent, if very short, game. Chapter 1, of 5, can be a bit frustrating, but it gets decent-ish later. Thing is, it reuses mechanics from Half Life 2, sure covering Antlion's nests with cars is fun at first, but it kinda runs its course the third time around. I did appreciate the first three chapters, as you are limited to the pistol, shotgun, machine gun and Gravity gun, and ammo is very scarce, as you trudge through very dark areas filled with zombies... it certainly lends it a very unique flavor, when compared to Half-Life 2. But then again, and due to its episodic nature, it's missing some of the things that made Half-Life 2 so good, its pacing and its sense of progression. It only adds one new enemy type, the Combine Zombie, and the facial animations have been tightened up.
Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, a game that basically adds upon Half Life 2 can't be bad, but it certainly leaves a lot to be desired.
6.0 out of 10
Half-Life 2 Episode 2 - It fares slightly better than Episode 1, but it still suffers from its episodic format. It's a bit longer than Episode 1, 7 chapters instead of 5, and while it doesn't introduce any new weapons either, it has a new item, the Magnusson Device, which is an anti-Strider sticky-bomb like weapon. It's only used in Chapter 6 though. There're two new enemy types, an larger sized Antlion, and the Hunters(Which behave like 'Guardians', but they have a new attack). What I liked about this one, more than Episode 1, is that it feels more like Half-Life 2. It has a vehicle section, the aforementioned chapter 6 in which you get to use the Magnusson Device, or even a 'defense the base' section... it keeps things fresh, keeps you doing different things, I really liked that! Still, it's very short, the blame once again falling on the episodic format.
Episode 2 is a step up from Episode 1, but I still think that Half-Life shouldn't stick with with Episodes.
8.0 out of 10
Portal - It's hard to truly judge Portal for what it was, considering how much of what made it so good has been spoiled on the Internet... unless you are lucky enough to have been living under a rock for the past 7 years.
Basically a first-person puzzle game, in which you have a gun that can create two portals, an exit and an entrance, upon certain surfaces. The rules are simple, and puzzles get increasingly more complex as you go along. The funny, if creepy, quips from GlaDOS while you adventure certainly add to the game's charm.
It's a fun, original, creative and a bit short game. Personally, while I think it was pretty good, I wasn't left awestruck, contrary to most people on the Internet, but I think it has to do with how familiar I was with it before I even played it.
7.0 out of 10.
Here's the thing about The Orange Box, not only does it contain one of the most influential First Person Shooters ever, in Half-Life 2, it also contains one of the most influential games in Pop Culture ever, in Portal. There really is no going wrong with The Orange Box. Unless you are looking for a multiplayer game, in which case, well, it can't offer much, seeing how awfully outdated this version of Team Fortress 2 is!
10 out of 10
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