Half-Life 2
The last part of the Orange Box buffet is Half-Life 2 along with its Episode 1 and 2 expansions. The PR wizards claim The Orange Box is five separate games, but I consider these three to only count as one since they are basically the same experience. First up, Half-Life 2.This is my second time playing through Half-Life 2, the original Xbox version was the first, and I have come to realize a few things. I mentioned all of this in my Xbox review, but I’ll just restate it here. The core gameplay in Half-Life 2 is flawed. Simply moving around the game world is a chore because you get stuck on objects and in doorways constantly. It is downright silly how poor simply moving around the game world is. Also, the shooting itself is absolutely not as good as we have seen in just about every other Xbox 360 shooter. It feels clunky and disconnected and just plain isn’t all that good. The vehicle sections in the game also control absolutely horribly and are my least favorite parts of the whole experience.
Despite the crappy vehicle sections, the boring first hour or so, and the sloppy movement and shooting, Half-Life 2 still manages to be fun. Why? Because it is a thinking man’s shooter. You have to solve puzzles and use the environment for kills rather than out and out shooting all the time. The game is filled with fun little moments that I would put up against the best moments in any other FPS. It is absolutely not a better game overall than, say, Halo 3 or BioShock, but those little moments are as good as anything you’ll find in any other game.
Episode One
The gameplay is basically the same here with the same flaws as Half-Life 2. One significant change is that there aren’t any vehicle sections. Pretty much everything else, though, is the same. The same sort of puzzles and the same sort of sloppy gunplay as before. The biggest difference is that Alyx is with you almost the entire time, and she proves to be a worthy ally who can take care of herself.
Episode One also provides a slight graphical upgrade over Half-Life 2. No major changes, but you can tell everything is just a bit sharper and more detailed. The sound is just as great as it was in HL2.
Episode Two
Episode Two follows up right where Episode One left off. You have escaped City 17 and left it a smoking crater, and you have information that the Combine forces desperately want back. Episode Two covers much more ground than Episode One did, and features the return of a long vehicle sequence. You see a lot more terrain this time around, which helps put the game closer to the same level as the original Half-Life 2. Alyx is still with you, but you split up and do your own things a lot of the time so you spend a lot of the game alone.Again, the gameplay is mostly the same as before. You are fighting the same enemies and using the same weapons and tactics as before. The game is a bit longer than Episode One, checking in at 4-5 hours, and feels more like a step forward than EP 1 did where it felt like you were kind of spinning your wheels in City 17.
Episode Two is also a significant step forward in terms of graphics. It looks really, really good and all of the outdoor environments are startlingly realistic.
Bottom Line
All in all, The Orange Box is a very solid set that offers up three very distinct gameplay experiences. Portal is one of the funniest and most inventive games of the year. Team Fortress 2 is the rebirth of a classic PC multiplayer shooter. And Half-Life 2 along with its Episode One and Two expansions offers up some of the best single-player moments out of any FPS ever. Now, none of these games is perfect, but taken as a whole The Orange Box is a spectacular value that it highly recommended.
