Customer Reviews

The Orange Box (Original Soundtrack)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I only downloaded one song from this soundtrack, Still Alive because I just love the game PORTAL. However, all the music from all the games on Orange Box are excellent. If you're a completist than this is for you.

If you just want Still Alive, it's definately worth the $.89.

The soundtrack to the year's most varied video compilation, Valve's The Orange Box, is in itself a nuanced and varied listen. The three core games that make up The Orange Box are as different as can be.

The tracks from Half Life 2 Episode One and Episode Two continue HL2's tradition of pumping industrial rock that gets Gordon Freeman from one battle to the next.

Next, Team Fortress 2. In line with the goofy, cartoonish art and gameplay, the theme is gleefully exaggerated and fun. Also, those familiar with the Team Fortress 2 trailers will instantly recognize the TF2 Soldiers' Rocket Jumping Waltz.

Finally, you get two versions of Portal's end theme, Still Alive, a wonderfully playful yet sinister ditty by Jonathan Coulton and Aperture Science's supercomputer, GlaDOS.

If you own The Orange Box, you owe it to yourself to get this album.

The Half-Life series of games have always had some great music, much of it blending into the background, but often good enough to just sit back and take it all in, the most recent offerings being no exception.

While the songs can be extracted from the game via GCFScape, few are properly named and they are at 128 kbps bitrates. The songs offered here are higher quality VBR and I can hear the difference; these are much better. Since only some people can get the soundtracks on CD, this is the next best thing.

Now, I didn't get all of the songs (which I see that I'm not alone in doing), but I'm happy with the ones I did get. Of course, "Still Alive" is probably going to be the song most people end up getting, and for good reason. However, it's not the only song worth getting here instead of relying on extracting the MP3 from the game. "Abandoned In Place" and "Sector Sweep" are worth grabbing, as is "Vortal Combat", which I think is the best song to grace the entire series to date, followed closely by the aforementioned "Still Alive".

Unless Valve decides to release the soundtrack(s) to the general populace, this is a great way to get your hands on some great tunes that sound much better than the versions embedded into the games.

I bought this from Steam and let me tell you that the song "Still Alive" is the best song ever. Totally worth buying this album or at least that one track.

I got it for free though.... comes free with the audiosurf demo on steam, just look in the game's directory

If you played the orange box, and liked the music, then you might want to buy this -- especially if you bought it for a console (I feel sorry for you). The music can be extracted from the PC version pretty painlessly (use cfgscape). As for the music itself - you already know if you like it (you did play the game, right?). You don't need my opinion to help you decide. The only surprise here is track 19, which is not in any of the games. Track 19 is Still Alive sung by the author of the lyrics. Listen to a preview to get an idea of how it sounds.

As for the music itself, my humble opinion is that this soundtrack is on par (if not greater than) Valve's previous works. I love it.

Yes, Still Alive is an amazing way to end a game, a fun and charming song. No one seems to be giving the rest of the album any praise at all. I love the music Valve puts in their games. I was as excited to listen to the Orange Box games as to play them. Last Legs and Sector Sweep are awesome hard hitting tracks which really capture the essence of those tense moments in Half Life. Team Fortress 2's tracks bring a new approach to Valve's games with a 1960's spy movie style.

All in all, it's a great buy. Viva la Valve!

These are all pretty good songs but, me being a portal geek, I was a little dissapointed that there werent many portal songs. Also "Want You Gone" from portal 2 would've been nice, but Portal 2 wasnt in the orange box. All and all these songs are good, and now I can listen to "Still Alive" while completeing school assignments on the computer!

As a fan of Valve's games, I knew I had to get this. It has the songs from the games in their full glory. I recommend this for anyone who liked the music in the games, as it even contains the amazing Still Alive, a song everyone should hear, plus a version of Still Alive sang by Jonathon Coulton himself, the writer of Still Alive.

Still Alive alone is worth the whole cd. Also the Half-life tracks are really unique style of music for Sci-fi. A unique mixture of Rock and Electronica. Totally worth the download price. I do wish they had put more tracks from Half life 2 on the CD.