The Orange Box

Added October 19th, 2007 by Jason Stafford

Valve Software is a development studio synonymous with innovation. Its landmark title Half-Life instantly catapulted the company into the spotlight. Its numerous follow-ups such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Day of Defeat truly supplanted the developer as a diamond in the rough in the first-person shooter genre. The Orange Box is a titillating portfolio of not only the studio's wide-spread prowess, but with the inclusion of three full games and two episodic expansions, it's also a bargain basement value.

When The Orange Box first loads up, you're treated with a menu screen allowing you to choose from Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. The sensation is most akin to examining all the courses at a posh dining locale, knowing that no matter which dish you choose, it's going to be exquisite.

The first delectable course is Half-Life 2. Picking up from where the first Half-Life ended after the Black Mesa incident, Half-Life 2 opens with our silent protagonist Gordon Freeman on a train heading into City 17. Humans are being corralled like prisoners in the city by ominous humanoid individuals clad in battle-gear and gas masks known as the Combine. Of course, there's more to it than that, and Half-Life 2 doesn't skimp on what made the first installment such an important title. The cinematic experience of Half-Life 2 is bar none, and though you can play the opening and not be involved in a firefight for more than fifteen minutes the dialogue and story are so captivating you'll forget that you're playing what will ultimate be a first-person shooter.

City 17 and the impending trek to escape and make things right certainly looks wonderful, despite the game being three years old. Valve has made a worthy port of the game and though the textures and resolutions aren't what one would expect on the PC, they're nothing to scoff at. The characters that Gordon encounters on his journey come to life with more than just superb writing and solid voice acting, with wonderful models and stunning detail with animation. Movement and facial features are crafted with great care and diligence, making every person truly come to life.

When the cinematic experience takes a back seat to the action, Half-Life 2 still holds its own. Enemies are varied enough to keep the game exciting, but in true Half-Life fashion they're also in place where one would expect them. Escaping from City 17, Gordon will deal with gun-toting humanoids and even have to deal with a helicopter gunship. In the desolate tunnels of Ravenholm, headcrabs, a nightmarish head louse crossed with Alien's face hugger and Futurama's brain slug, are plentiful. Though the game as a whole is often rife with excitement, Half-Life 2 features two vehicle sequences that are immensely longer than they need to be, and continue to drag on even after their welcome has been worn out.

You'll get plenty of firepower throughout Half-Life 2, from a semi-automatic pistol and Colt Python magnum, a submachine-gun with underslung grenade launcher, shotgun, and even a crossbow. Eventually, however, you'll obtain the Zero-Point Energy Field Emitter, or simply the gravity gun. The gravity gun is a blast, no pun intended, and puts a spin on Half-Life 2's environments. All the crates, boxes, furniture, buzzsaw blades and explosive containers are suddenly deadly projectiles that can be launched with the aid of the weapon, and it never loses the fun factor. In fact, the developers knew the Zero-Point Energy Field Emitter would be so much fun that rather than be relegated to the weapon select menu with the D-pad, one need only press the right bumper to instantly switch between the gravity gun and the currently selected weapon.

Unfortunately, not all is perfect even in Half-Life 2. At times, you may become hung up on something in the environment, oftentimes a door. It's merely an issue with angle, unless underneath his Hazardous Environment Suit, Gordon's packing a few too many pounds. The game is also divided into areas, and each section needs to be loaded when entered, taking roughly five seconds on average. It's not immensely long, but if you need to backtrack for whatever reason, it becomes an irritation. Still, once the area is loaded it runs smoothly, and since the entire game is essentially one enormous area, it's a small price to pay.

Once Half-Life 2's lengthy journey is finished, there are still the Half-Life 2 Episodes to contend with. With two epilogue episodes even after the main journey, there's plenty of playtime available in Half-Life 2. And hey, even after you finish all three of Half-Life 2's parts, there's still two more titles waiting!

The Orange Box introduces Portal, essentially a first-person puzzle game with an enormous twist. As a test subject in an Aperture Scientific Enrichment Center, you will use the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or simply the portal gun, to complete increasingly complex tasks. Essentially, the portal gun can create portals, one blue and one orange, in order to navigate through the tests presented to the player. An artificial intelligence known as the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, or merely GLaDOS, will guide you through the tests and provide hilarious dialogue throughout the experiment. The ultimate goal of the experiment is a mystery, but the game does feature a story that ties it into the Half-Life universe. Your short-term goal is clear, however, because GLaDOS promises cake at the end of your venture.

Portal eases the player into the concept of the game, initially having the portal gun being unavailable with the player merely reacting to the environments to complete the tasks at hand and using pre-established portals to navigate the areas. The portal gun is soon acquired; although at first only capable of firing one portal, keeping a short leash on the player so as to become accustomed to the concepts at hand. Eventually, both portals can be used, and it's then that Portal truly shines.

In short, the basic task is to reach to the elevator in order to undertake the next task. There will be many obstacles in your way, including robotic drones firing live rounds, radioactive goo, energy balls that can cause death upon impact, and simply resolving how to complete the level. A large part of Portal is figuring out how to open doors, either by powering up a conduit by discovering how to get one of the aforementioned balls of energy to enter the conduit, or merely a manner of maneuvering a weighted cube from point A to point B. It all sounds simple on paper, but many of the levels take a little bit of head scratching to figure out what you'll need to do. Once that's out of the way, it's merely a manner of wrapping your mind around how to do that.

Moving from portal to portal and determining how to best each area is a total blast. It's a shame that Portal feels like it's over right when it's getting good. The first run through should take about two hours until it's finished. Fortunately, beating Portal unlocks advanced versions of some of the levels as well as challenges such as using the least number of portals to complete a map. These are tied to achievements, and since the game is so much fun it's worth playing them even if they weren't.

The final entry in The Orange Box's lineup is Team Fortress 2, an online only first-person shooter which, as its name suggests, is all about team and base gameplay. Based on the same Source engine as Half-Life 2 and Portal, Team Fortress 2 goes an alternate route in its presentation. Rather than trying to be another gritty and visceral online shooting experience, Valve has taken the idea over the top multi-player gameplay and poured that feeling into the game's environments and characters.

The game has a very cartoon look and feel, lending itself visually to just having a boisterous romp. There are nine character classes in Team Fortress 2, each divided into three sections: Offense, Defense, and Support. Offense sees the likes of the flamethrower wielding Pyro, the speedy Scout and the rocket-launcher toting Soldier. Defense sees the crafty Engineer who can build sentry guns and supply depots for doling out precious health and ammunition to nearby allies; the Demoman, whose grenade launcher and remote mines can help turn the tides of battle; and a Heavyweapons specialist, who, though a lumbering hulk, touts the most health of any class, plus a vicious Gatling gun. Support roles see the Sniper, with a sniper-rifle that can charge up for a more powerful shot; the Medic who can heal teammates and even make them temporarily invincible; and finally the Spy, who can become invisible, disguise themselves as an enemy teammate, outright kill an opponent with a butterfly knife in the back and even disable enemy machines with a sapper. Every class has three weapons – one of which being a melee weapon. Enemy weapons cannot be picked up. Walking over fallen equipment will simply replenish the ammo supply of your weapons, ensuring that each class stays within its defining role.

Each class has its own playstyle, strengths and weaknesses. This lends to each having a defined role in the game. The Engineer can make it difficult for enemies to steal their intelligence, but a clever Spy can sneak in and disable the turret and take out its master. The Pyro can dole out big damage to up close enemies, but the Scout can keep a safe distance and use his double-jump to maneuver around his opponent. Classes can be changed upon death or by inducing your own demise, which gives each team flexibility in regards to the opposing team's strategy. Of course, then the enemy can change their tactic to combat yours, so the battlefield is constantly changing and consistently fun.

Though Team Fortress 2 only has six maps, each map is custom tailored to the game type that is specific to it. Every level has its own intricacies and strategies that can be exploited, and while each features stellar design, some may lament that there are only six maps. Some may gripe even more that each has its own game type and cannot be changed. Still, Valve is a company that's about quality over quantity, and there's nothing to say that more maps won't be released for download later on the Marketplace.

Each component of The Orange Box controls remarkably well, thanks in part to allowing choosy players to completely customize the controls to their liking. Don't like which buttons jump, reload, activate and fire your weapon? Change all of them. The sensitivity of the analogs can also be altered a great range, being just about the perfect amount of sensitivity at the highest level. It's no keyboard and mouse, but it's responsive enough to allow a quick turn around with the wonderful motion-blur effect or pinpoint aiming without going haywire at the slightest nudge in one direction.

Audio is solid across the board, featuring a rounded soundtrack for each of the games that fits each one's style. Voice acting ranges from good to great, and again fits the dynamic of each addition. Half-Life 2 and its Episodes feature more realistic character interaction and dialogue, Portal offers the hilarious quips and musings from GLaDOS, while Team Fortress 2 offers over the top lines and delivery, making each game entirely unique of the rest of the package.

With their emphasis on thinking outside the box, Valve has ingeniously decided to take a chunk of their creative portfolio and place it inside The Orange Box. Whether you're a standing or new coming fan to the world of Half-Life, the second installment, along with its episodic content, stands heads above the competition as a remarkable first-person shooter. Gamers who appreciate clever puzzles will eat up all of what the innovative Portal has to offer, and most likely more than once considering the maps and challenges that are unlocked once the game is completed. Those who tend to gravitate more towards multi-player fare should find plenty to love in the team based Team Fortress 2. If you love all of them, and rightfully so, then you can dutifully work towards getting the ninety-nine achievements scattered throughout all five installments.

While each game by itself is remarkable, what's even more jaw-dropping is that they all come bundled together on one disc that will set you back the same as much as any other full retail price game. Even compared to some of the other remarkable titles being released on the Xbox 360, why buy one amazing game when you can purchase get five for the same price? No matter how one looks at it, The Orange Box is an astonishing deal that should be considered a mandatory purchase for any real fan of the genre. If all that still isn't enough to sweeten the deal, just remember that there's a promise of cake.