| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| Xbox 360 | 9.00 |
| Overall | 9.00 |
|
The task of writing a review for a collection of games is a difficult one, usually made easier by the inclusion in the compendium of a few lousy games. You can spend most of the review saying, "But on the other hand." The Orange Box, Valve's collection of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2 related games, is a little more difficult because in and of themselves each title is fairly good and two of the games have not been released before. The Half-Life 2 series owes its popularity to three strengths; graphics, physics and story. Unfortunately, the first two do not remain strong enough to demand a second play-through for those who have played them in the past. When Half-Life 2 first came out in 2004 the most striking aspect of the game was the rich and detailed visuals. While the visuals still hold up they are no longer the crowning achievement of the game (something that Valve acknowledged with the very pretty re-release Half-Life 2: Lost Coast). The game still stands out for the amazing facial animations which are only now starting to be challenged by the work found in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Mass Effect. Beyond the graphics Half-Life 2 was also notable for its use the Havok physics engine which made it fun to do almost everything in the game, from shooting a milk container to playing basketball with a 40 gallon oil drum. Today, however, the realistic physics has moved from being a stand-out novelty to being the starting point of expectations in first-person-shooters. Playing through the series a second time, the low-end gravity gun now seems like a substitute for what could have been more appropriate -- hand and arm animations. Using the high-end gravity gun to pick up foes and fling them into their chums, while still very much fun, does seem a little silly given the tone of the rest of the game. In fact, it now seems kind of tacked on as if it was someones favorite way of playing around with the cool new physics engine. While time has taken the sheen off two of the three best aspects of the game one of Half-Life 2's strengths remain entirely intact -- the portrayal of Gordon Freeman and associations. While the story is nothing special, the motivation of your character to get from one point to the next is always present in mind due to the good dialog, the brilliant voice acting and realistic facial animations. The use of in-game engine to relay story without interruption was also something that stood out in 2004 and it remains impressive today. Most of the weapons are nothing special, but the Magnum and Standard Issue Pulse Rifle are powerful and fun to use. Level design is lacking for an FPS, most of the time you are being pushed down a virtual tube with little room for strategy, but Half-Life 2 is no different than most other non-tactical shooters in this respect. Portal and Team Fortress 2 are wonderfully original and humorous additions to the collection. Portal being a puzzle-level game which makes use of the a "portal gun" to allow the user to solve their exit from level to level and Team Fortress being a team-based shooter whose realistic staging is matched only by the excellence of it cartoon-styled imagery. For the record, The Orange Box includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2 any of which which would be worth the price of admission alone. Well, maybe not Episode Two, but on the other hand... |
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Posted by aspro Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:16:24
Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:18:16
Apologies for this. Noted that I did not have this one up here and need to store it somewhere.
Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:22:03
I see no reason for apologies. This site was originally made as a place to store reviews. Plus the more (game) reviews, the better.
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:34:03
What the hell is up with that score?
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:49:38
I wrote these a while back. Now that I've played Portal, allow me to fix the score (from an 8 for those of you reading this later).
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:27:42
Phew, I thought you were crazy for a moment Aspro. 
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