Half-Life 2 - The Orange Box

Average rating

(76%)

Developers:	VALVE SOFTWARE
Genres:	PS3
Released:	July 07, 2007
Also available on:	Half-Life 2 - The Orange Box is also available on Xbox 360

The Orange Box delivers five innovative action games from Valve - creators of the blockbuster Half Life franchise, in one box. The Orange Box includes Half Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2 in addition to full versions of award-winning Half Life 2 and Half Life 2: Episode One for an engrossing first-person action experience.

All new games in The Orange Box are:

Half Life 2: Episode Two - the second chapter in Valve's award-winning trilogy, taking gamers beyond the walls of City 17 for the first time.

Portal - A groundbreaking new kind of action game that will forever change the way gamers interact with their environment, much like Half Life 2's gravity gun rewrote the rules for how gamers manipulate in-game objects and use physics.

Team Fortress 2 - The long-awaited return of the legendary king of role-based online multiplayer games, Team Fortress 2 pushes the Source Engine to new heights with a daring new art style and deep multiplayer gameplay for nine distinct roles.

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Highest rated reviews

17 out of 17 people found the following review helpful:

*** May contain spoilers ***

Still Alive

KatiMark from , 8th January, 2008

Wow. There is just far too much to say about this game. Just far too much. With 5 games in 1 box I am not surprised that no one has attempted a review to cover that much detail in 500 words! I suppose the best thing to do is presume that you, the reader, has no knowledge of this game what-so-ever. You are now a scientist named Gordon Freeman. With several nicknames including 'The Free Man' and so forth. You first made an appearance in the late 90's with the original Half Life game, with two expansion packs closely following into the new decade. You started in a research facility named Black Mesa, where things got a bit pear shaped. Incidently, you managed to open a portal to a boarder world named Xen - where creatures of every shape and size squeezed through and then continued to slaughter everyone and anyone in sight. Thats the background of Half Life, in a nutshell. The new (or not so new) Half Life 2 introduces you to a new world of pain and a slight hint of genecide. Trying not to give too much away about the storyline or game (because that's really what you are going to buy this game for) you are under attack from an alien species pretty much the entire time. The game shares a lot of attributes with such games like Silent Hill, to the degree of walking along and wetting your kecks every so often when something flies out and gives you a good going over. That's 1/5 games. The 2nd game is coincidently Half Life - Episode 1. Pretty straight forward. The 3rd game is Half Life - Episode 2. Hmm! The 4th game is an innovative new style of stratigic puzzle solving called Portal. Honestly, I can't see this game every losing it's playability. If you're not at all interested in first person shooters - just rent this game to play portal. Guess what it's about? Portals!! And finally, the last game in the box, so to say, is a renowned Team Fortress multiplayer game. Graphically different to Half Life, with a different weapons system and.. well let's just say it's got very little simularity to Half Life! Addictive online class-based multiplayer. Simple. Still not too sure whether to buy it or not? Rent it! Just don't expect to blink for the next month!

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Most recent reviews

Only worth getting for one game

Stevronius from from Ely, 10th September, 2008

Withoud a doubt PORTAL is one of the best games I have EVER played. A whole new way of thinking, witty computer remarks and an amazing song at the end make it well worth playing (if rather short - I completed it in under 2 hours). The rest of the games are average at best. The gravity gun in HL2 is good fun but the graphics are very drab and dated, the enemy AI moderate at best and a number of issues with crackiling sound at random times lasting 10-15 minutes at a time tarnish an otherwise average game. So absolutely get this for PORTAL, otherwise not really worth getting.

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