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The Orange Box
October 12, 2007 | 5:18 AM PST
AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
EA must be using The Orange Box as one massive tax write-off -- a generous donation to the charity of 'Gamers Around the World'. Or maybe they're planning a business move down the road that they know will tick off the gaming community and they're trying to collect as much goodwill as possible ahead of time. In all honesty, whatever EA's motivation for compiling five modern classics on one reasonably priced disk, it's irrelevant. What's important is that gamers don't overlook what's being offered here in the wake of some other, recent high-profile releases. The single best first-person shooter of all time, the most satisfying class-based multiplayer game ever crafted, and the most unique and innovative puzzle game in recent memory. Any one of these games alone would worth full price but pack all three of them together with two pieces of all-killer-no-filler episodic content for the insanely reasonable price of $60, and that, friends, is the definition of an "instant purchase."
What's Hot
Hailed by most critics as the best game of 2004 and generally considered to be the best first-person shooter ever made, Half-Life 2 is as amazing today as it was three years ago. The game may be starting to show its age visually despite some sharper textures and the addition of HDR lighting, but the oppressive atmosphere of the Orwellian City 17 remains as palpable as ever. Brilliant level design, engaging combat, and genuinely intelligent puzzles all contribute toward a building pace that pulls the player from one memorable set-piece to the next. Also notable is the game's creative implementation of physics, which goes beyond simple immersion and actually allows direct manipulation of the environment for both combat and puzzle-solving. No game since has implemented the use of physics in such a natural or cohesive manner, where anything and everything in the environment is always fair game.
All those great features notwithstanding, most of the magic comes from the story. Few games released in the three years since Half-Life 2 was originally released have so seamlessly blended narrative and gameplay. The game's story and dialog are well-written and layered enough to stand the test of time, but it's the delivery of the major plot points through the action itself that supplies the level of drama necessary to keep the game compelling over multiple play-throughs. Were players forced to stop playing in order to watch a cut-scene, the game would certainly lose its impact the second or third time through. However, players never leave the first-person perspective and most of the major plot points are delivered through playable scripted sequences and entire levels worth of gameplay, so they exerience the drama every time. The fact that most of the extended exposition is done on the run or in the midst of combat, the same tactic James Cameron employed in Terminator to inform audiences of the future back-story without boring them to tears and destroying the pace, helps maintain the feeling that players are living through a story rather than having it told to them, and makes replaying the same events every bit as exhilarating as the first time around.
Episode 1 is the weakest component of The Orange Box, but it's still too damn good to be left out of the 'What's Hot' category, and certainly doesn't deserve to be sentenced to the 'What's Not' section of our review. Episode 1 takes the strong interactive story-telling techniques from Half-Life 2 and enhances many of them, but then turns around and applies them to a plot that's not particularly enthralling. Many questions are answered regarding the state of the world and the player's position in it, but nothing particularly significant happens until the last several minutes of the 3-5 hour game. Furthermore, the storyline in Episode 1 drags the player back through environments they'd already seen in Half-Life 2, and while its mildly interesting to see the impact of the player's actions from Half-Life 2 on the city, déjà vu is quick to set in. On the other hand, Episode 1 does a fantastic job of leveraging great dialog and the detailed facial animation afforded by the Source engine to turn Alyx Vance, a minor character that popped in and out of Half-Life 2, into a major character that players will almost certainly grow attached to. When she speaks, her facial animations – along with great voice acting – make her more believable and relatable than any game character before or since. Her rich development actually has the unintended effect of making the player character, Gordon Freeman, feel cold, empty and disconnected.
Having Alyx as an AI partner to work off of changes the combat dynamic a fair bit. She's nigh-indestructible and a damn good shot, so players can leave her to keep enemies busy while they try flanking around or repositioning for a better shot. There's also an added emphasis on the Gravity Gun, the primary tool through which players interact with the environment, so having Alyx there also offers players an opportunity to scour the environment for creative and effective ways to defend and attack enemies. More than anything, it's just nice to have a female supporting character that's something more than a liability with a pair of tits.
Episode 2 reaches an ideal balance between the action and epic feeling of Half-Life 2 and the intimate character development and expositive plot progression seen in Episode 1. The game is set up as one long chase sequence, with enemy forces hunting Freeman and Alyx through the forests surrounding City 17, and the result is 5 to 7 hours worth of tension and dread as players fight for their lives and try to outrun unrelenting alien forces. Like the previous games, Episode 2 is a fairly linear affair, but it reintroduces vehicular segments after their hiatus during Episode 1, and they help create the illusion that the game world is a little more open and explorable than it actually is. Whereas little of note happened in Episode 1, Episode 2 is filled with major developments and twists that start to answer some of the major questions that have been hanging over the narrative. Episode 2 evades another one of the major missteps of Episode 1 by offering players a range of new areas to explore, from lush forests and unsettlingly silent villages to slimy underground ant-lion hives. None of the levels feature repetitive textures or architecture and backtracking is kept to an absolute minimum.
More than mere aesthetic variety, the nature and layout of the new areas provide for combat that feels decidedly different and of noticeably larger scale than the close-quarters corridor battles of Episode 1. Zigzagging between trees to evade squads of enemies before circling back behind them to pick them off one at a time feels like authentic guerilla warfare, which is a far cry from taking on massive hordes of zombies that eschew tactics for sheer numbers, and even further from the simple joy of mowing down enemies in a stripped-down muscle car. Furthermore, Alyx and Freeman separate several times over the course of the game, so there's a nice variety to the combat scenarios. In some battles, players will be able to rely on Alyx for support while they attempt to outflank enemies like the new, startlingly intelligent Hunter enemy type. In other cases, players will be alone to contend with the likes of entire underground ant-lion colonies. Players will have to draw on the skills earned from all these experiences, not to mention set pieces in Half-Life 2 and Episode 1, in order to survive the exhilarating climax. There's nothing particularly new or different in Episode 2, it's simply more of the same, but better.
Portal on the other hand, is completely new and completely different. An ingenious first-person puzzle game that makes full use of all three dimensions, Portal presents players with spatial challenges that they must solve using nothing but a device that allows them to create and place two connected portals. Goals range from simply reaching a seemingly inaccessible exit, to sending objects to specific points within a room, to incapacitating turrets and avoiding various other traps. The physics at work complicate matters and force players to use increasing amounts of foresight as the puzzles grow more complex. Momentum is carried through the portals regardless of the direction the exit points in, so players can jump from a platform, achieve terminal velocity before falling through a platform on the floor and subsequently launch forward at a horizontal angle from the exit portal mounted on the wall. Most players will probably spend the first thirty minutes or so just flinging themselves through the environments, testing the limits the space-bending mechanics.
The initial 'campaign' doesn't take more than a few hours to complete, as it's not until the last quarter of the initial batch of puzzles that the game actually bridges the gap from promising concept to challenging puzzler. Once the campaign is over though, the game offers players the chance to play through more advanced remixes of levels they've already completed, as well as the challenges that task them with completing puzzles under certain conditions – a certain number of moves, a time limit, or total number of portals used. These challenges are hellishly devious, and might keep the more obsessive among us lying awake at night trying to solve them in our heads.
What the Game's About
EA must be using The Orange Box as one massive tax write-off -- a generous donation to the charity of 'Gamers Around the World'. Or maybe they're planning a business move down the road that they know will tick off the gaming community and they're trying to collect as much goodwill as possible ahead of time. In all honesty, whatever EA's motivation for compiling five modern classics on one reasonably priced disk, it's irrelevant. What's important is that gamers don't overlook what's being offered here in the wake of some other, recent high-profile releases. The single best first-person shooter of all time, the most satisfying class-based multiplayer game ever crafted, and the most unique and innovative puzzle game in recent memory. Any one of these games alone would worth full price but pack all three of them together with two pieces of all-killer-no-filler episodic content for the insanely reasonable price of $60, and that, friends, is the definition of an "instant purchase."
What's Hot
Hailed by most critics as the best game of 2004 and generally considered to be the best first-person shooter ever made, Half-Life 2 is as amazing today as it was three years ago. The game may be starting to show its age visually despite some sharper textures and the addition of HDR lighting, but the oppressive atmosphere of the Orwellian City 17 remains as palpable as ever. Brilliant level design, engaging combat, and genuinely intelligent puzzles all contribute toward a building pace that pulls the player from one memorable set-piece to the next. Also notable is the game's creative implementation of physics, which goes beyond simple immersion and actually allows direct manipulation of the environment for both combat and puzzle-solving. No game since has implemented the use of physics in such a natural or cohesive manner, where anything and everything in the environment is always fair game.
All those great features notwithstanding, most of the magic comes from the story. Few games released in the three years since Half-Life 2 was originally released have so seamlessly blended narrative and gameplay. The game's story and dialog are well-written and layered enough to stand the test of time, but it's the delivery of the major plot points through the action itself that supplies the level of drama necessary to keep the game compelling over multiple play-throughs. Were players forced to stop playing in order to watch a cut-scene, the game would certainly lose its impact the second or third time through. However, players never leave the first-person perspective and most of the major plot points are delivered through playable scripted sequences and entire levels worth of gameplay, so they exerience the drama every time. The fact that most of the extended exposition is done on the run or in the midst of combat, the same tactic James Cameron employed in Terminator to inform audiences of the future back-story without boring them to tears and destroying the pace, helps maintain the feeling that players are living through a story rather than having it told to them, and makes replaying the same events every bit as exhilarating as the first time around.
Episode 1 is the weakest component of The Orange Box, but it's still too damn good to be left out of the 'What's Hot' category, and certainly doesn't deserve to be sentenced to the 'What's Not' section of our review. Episode 1 takes the strong interactive story-telling techniques from Half-Life 2 and enhances many of them, but then turns around and applies them to a plot that's not particularly enthralling. Many questions are answered regarding the state of the world and the player's position in it, but nothing particularly significant happens until the last several minutes of the 3-5 hour game. Furthermore, the storyline in Episode 1 drags the player back through environments they'd already seen in Half-Life 2, and while its mildly interesting to see the impact of the player's actions from Half-Life 2 on the city, déjà vu is quick to set in. On the other hand, Episode 1 does a fantastic job of leveraging great dialog and the detailed facial animation afforded by the Source engine to turn Alyx Vance, a minor character that popped in and out of Half-Life 2, into a major character that players will almost certainly grow attached to. When she speaks, her facial animations – along with great voice acting – make her more believable and relatable than any game character before or since. Her rich development actually has the unintended effect of making the player character, Gordon Freeman, feel cold, empty and disconnected.
Having Alyx as an AI partner to work off of changes the combat dynamic a fair bit. She's nigh-indestructible and a damn good shot, so players can leave her to keep enemies busy while they try flanking around or repositioning for a better shot. There's also an added emphasis on the Gravity Gun, the primary tool through which players interact with the environment, so having Alyx there also offers players an opportunity to scour the environment for creative and effective ways to defend and attack enemies. More than anything, it's just nice to have a female supporting character that's something more than a liability with a pair of tits.
Episode 2 reaches an ideal balance between the action and epic feeling of Half-Life 2 and the intimate character development and expositive plot progression seen in Episode 1. The game is set up as one long chase sequence, with enemy forces hunting Freeman and Alyx through the forests surrounding City 17, and the result is 5 to 7 hours worth of tension and dread as players fight for their lives and try to outrun unrelenting alien forces. Like the previous games, Episode 2 is a fairly linear affair, but it reintroduces vehicular segments after their hiatus during Episode 1, and they help create the illusion that the game world is a little more open and explorable than it actually is. Whereas little of note happened in Episode 1, Episode 2 is filled with major developments and twists that start to answer some of the major questions that have been hanging over the narrative. Episode 2 evades another one of the major missteps of Episode 1 by offering players a range of new areas to explore, from lush forests and unsettlingly silent villages to slimy underground ant-lion hives. None of the levels feature repetitive textures or architecture and backtracking is kept to an absolute minimum.
More than mere aesthetic variety, the nature and layout of the new areas provide for combat that feels decidedly different and of noticeably larger scale than the close-quarters corridor battles of Episode 1. Zigzagging between trees to evade squads of enemies before circling back behind them to pick them off one at a time feels like authentic guerilla warfare, which is a far cry from taking on massive hordes of zombies that eschew tactics for sheer numbers, and even further from the simple joy of mowing down enemies in a stripped-down muscle car. Furthermore, Alyx and Freeman separate several times over the course of the game, so there's a nice variety to the combat scenarios. In some battles, players will be able to rely on Alyx for support while they attempt to outflank enemies like the new, startlingly intelligent Hunter enemy type. In other cases, players will be alone to contend with the likes of entire underground ant-lion colonies. Players will have to draw on the skills earned from all these experiences, not to mention set pieces in Half-Life 2 and Episode 1, in order to survive the exhilarating climax. There's nothing particularly new or different in Episode 2, it's simply more of the same, but better.
Portal on the other hand, is completely new and completely different. An ingenious first-person puzzle game that makes full use of all three dimensions, Portal presents players with spatial challenges that they must solve using nothing but a device that allows them to create and place two connected portals. Goals range from simply reaching a seemingly inaccessible exit, to sending objects to specific points within a room, to incapacitating turrets and avoiding various other traps. The physics at work complicate matters and force players to use increasing amounts of foresight as the puzzles grow more complex. Momentum is carried through the portals regardless of the direction the exit points in, so players can jump from a platform, achieve terminal velocity before falling through a platform on the floor and subsequently launch forward at a horizontal angle from the exit portal mounted on the wall. Most players will probably spend the first thirty minutes or so just flinging themselves through the environments, testing the limits the space-bending mechanics.
The initial 'campaign' doesn't take more than a few hours to complete, as it's not until the last quarter of the initial batch of puzzles that the game actually bridges the gap from promising concept to challenging puzzler. Once the campaign is over though, the game offers players the chance to play through more advanced remixes of levels they've already completed, as well as the challenges that task them with completing puzzles under certain conditions – a certain number of moves, a time limit, or total number of portals used. These challenges are hellishly devious, and might keep the more obsessive among us lying awake at night trying to solve them in our heads.
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November 20, 2009
