By Sam Coles:
2007 was truly a fantastic year to be gamer, because we got
a slew of titles that had a massive impact on the industry such as Call of Duty
4, Bioshock and the game I’m going to reviewing The Orange Box. This was one of
the best gaming bargains of the decade as you got several of Valves notable
games which included Half-Life 2, HL Episode 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress
2. I remember picking this up on the PC originally and thought “Wow! I got more
than my money’s worth”. This rings true even today, I can’t think of another
example of this maybe the Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection, but Konami didn’t
produce many copies.
Well talking about the narrative is tough, as I would have
to talk about 4 separate titles but I can lump Half-Life into one and Portal’s
story is vague at best without doing background reading. Half-Life 2 takes
place after the events of the original, where our bespectacled theoretical physicist
Gordon Freeman has been brought out of stasis by the G-Man to battle a new
alien threat. The combine have taken over Earth after the 7 hour war, the human
race then surrenders and are put into walled off numbered cities, something
straight out Orwell’s 1984. Like the first game the story is minimal, but this
game started the trend of locking you in a room and then vomits exposition at
you.
Portal’s story is vague, unless you do background reading on
the series where you get into the Ratman etc. The basic gist is that you play
as Chelle who wakes in a facility called Aperture Science; she is greeted by a
flat mono and robotic voice in the form of Glados. At first everything seems rather
innocent as you’re just doing tests, but as you progress through the game you
find that the lab is sparse of human life.
Gameplay in all of the games are from a first person
perspective with shooting, except Portal unless you count firing portals on a
wall as a shooter then be my guest. They all control differently especially
Team Fortress 2 as you have a wide selection of different classes as they can
range from slow to fast. Half-Life 2 still controls well for the most part
although it can feel rather stiff and sluggish in some aspects especially when
you’re turning around, this might have something to do with me playing the 360
version. An issue I had with this game was the “ground breaking” physics
engine, as you can get stuck on geometry easily and the game has a habit of
cluttering areas with random bits of rubbish which just get in the way more
than anything.
Considering that the Source Engine is well over a decade
old, it still looks surprisingly good with excellent lighting effects, coupled
with bloom that’s not too intrusive unlike some games of the time. Textures can
look a bit blurry if you stop to smell the roses, but it’s not a deal breaker
as you have to bear in mind Half-Life 2 came out in 2004 originally. The game
does have a few performances issues as the game targets 30 fps, but starts hiccup
when things get busy with the physics engine, such as explosions or when there
are loads ragdolls flying everywhere. Also the net code on the 360 version of
Team Fortress 2 is atrocious, and yes there are people still playing the game
on the 360 after 10 years.
The Orange Box is one of the best deals in video game
history and to this day I can’t think of any other bargain you can get. You get
hours upon hours of gameplay in this collection, with games that still hold up
today. If you haven’t give this collection a go, but I would strongly recommend
playing the PC version as it is the best way to play it, plus Team Fortress 2
is free to play these days. If not it is very cheap on the PS3 and 360 version,
but out of the two I would recommend the 360 version because the PS3 has a lot
of performance issues and long loading times.
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