Amazon.com: The Orange Box: PC: Video Games

269 Reviews

5 star:		(172)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(40)

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4.1 out of 5 stars (269 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great package for those who are new to HL2, December 4, 2007

By	Yu-jin Chia "Yu-Jin Chia" (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Okay, so I'll admit to being one of the five people that hasn't even touched Half Life 2 until now. I did play through the original Half Life, and its difficulty (especially in the later stages) was a bit of a turn-off. Personally, I think that when the game practically necessitates cheating to complete it, it's a bit too much. That said, seeing this bundle on the store shelf was a bit too good of a deal to pass up, so I picked it up.

First impressions on the game design- the physics is more heavily involved in gameplay than in any other shooter before or since. In fact, in many cases the gameplay seems to FOCUS on the physics, not on killing enemies. To underscore this, you can actually finish most of the game with only the gravity gun, which (except in rare cases) can't kill anything directly but can pick up objects to throw at enemies. This is an interesting departure from the norm, but there are times when I think they took it a bit too far. Typically, you'll start off killing enemies and will have the normal frantic bursts of action, but you'll eventually run into a puzzle. These are usually something as simple as a locked door or elevator, and you simply (or not) have to open it or turn it on. Most of the puzzles can be figured out given a reasonable amount of effort on the player's part, but there are a few that will undoubtedly frustrate to the point where you simply look it up. I guess this is fine, so long as you aren't highly averse to cheating in such a fashion. I will say, when you do get where you're going, you do feel a sense of accomplishment at having figured it out.

The game's graphics are pretty good even for now, and voice acting is well done. The environments are well made and look realistic in a sort of grim alien/post-apocalyptic style. It's nothing that will blow you away after seeing next-gen titles, but it's none too shabby either. Additionally, the episodes feature graphic improvements. If you have bought a machine anytime in the last 3-4 years, chances are it'll run smoothly at max settings. The game is quite stable as well, though it doesn't seem to like being minimized. One thing to note is that the game does take quite a while to start up and has occasional- and sometimes rather jarring- load pauses. These usually take place in a featureless corridor, and I found that after a while I could tell when it was about to stop to load.

The original HL2 is generally a good story and great pace, save for one glaring thing. There are two sequences where you're driving a vehicle around, and it's my opinion (and most I've mentioned it to agree) that these are just WAY too long. It's almost as if the developers were justifying the time they spent making the vehicles work by stretching out these sequences to a ridiculous length. Some other interesting notes are that allies are somewhat useful now, and the variety of enemies is enough that they don't get overly repetitive. Particularly, there is a point where you get to command an endless horde of weak critters to overwhelm a horde of enemies (fortunately, not endless), which is one of the highlights of the game.

The episodes (1 and 2) more or less follow the same style of the original. You lose all your weapons at the start of each one, which is rather irritating, and they aren't especially long installments. They largely serve to drive the plot along, which is actually getting interesting enough that I'm looking forward to the finale. You spend most of your time with Alyx backing you up, which is good if you hate being lonely, but somewhat of a shift in gears from the core game where you're largely solo. There are a few surprises and new enemies along the way, and enough new environments to make things fun.

Additionally, this package comes with Team Fortress and Portal, which are a multiplay shooter and puzzle game respectively. I haven't looked into either extensively since I largely bought this pack to get the Half Life content, but it's a nice bonus.

The only big gripe I have about the Orange Box is something that a lot of other people have complained about- specifically, Steam and the Valve DRM. If you don't have a live internet connection you CANNOT play any of the games since it needs to connect to Steam to authenticate you. Steam also performs updates whenever you launch, so patching is not optional and can eat into your game time when you don't particularly want it to. There were times when I was playing some online game, my internet died, and I figured to just play some HL2 instead... and after a few minutes sitting on the 'Now loading...' prompt I remembered it wasn't going to work either. This, like many other aspects of Half Life 2, is different from any other shooter out there- but not in a pleasant way. Personally, I don't see why it can't authenticate once in 3 launches, or even every other launch. Even that would be preferable to the way it is now.

All in all, the Orange Box is a great value if you haven't already bought HL2 or Episode 1. I'd hesitate to say it's a 'great' value for Episode 2 alone, but this is also available separately on Steam if you already have the rest. For those who haven't tried the core game, it's a lot of fun and good game time for the price, and unlike most new shooter releases you probably won't have to upgrade your PC to run it.

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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing rhymes with Orange..., October 10, 2007

By	drkool "drkool" (south) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

They say nothing rhymes with Orange... but what about PWNage!? I guess that doesn't either. But it should! This game rocks!

Team Fortress 2 is worth the price of admission for this instant classic collection. The team play is deep and instant. You really find people pairing up as medic and heavy to mow down a field of scouts and engineer turrets. Or people switching classes to fill in a defensive gap. THe healer class is greta fun as is the support engineer. They game is very well balanced with each class able to counter another.

The voice acting is hilarious and the charater models are gorgeous. This game will be played years to come, as the graphics are so highly stylized they will age with grace. The depth of each player class and the differing play modes make for a truly engrossing experience. Mix in some achievements, point capturing, Steam's new robust online community, in-game VOIP and you have a stellar game experience worth $50 alone. But wait theres more!

The price is simply amazing. Easily the best deal in gaming available out there! Half Life 2 was great and episode 1 continued that excitement. Portal proves to be great and a fresh take on puzzles, this time in 3D. Episode 2 will be great as well.

I am happy i purchased this game and have been able to play Team Fortress 2 for the Steam beta period. I will not stop playing for a long long time! Great work Valve!

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46 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overall game package....Better than I'd hoped ... maybe even a 'Game of the Year' contender in this group, October 15, 2007

By	R. Nicholson - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Some comments on the 3 new components of this 5 game package.

Episode 2...a worthy sequel to Episode 1...

In fact, qualities good enough (IMO) to think that it might have contended for single player, Game of the Year*, (however, its shorter overall length would probably preclude this honor.)

This game was all that I'd hoped for; it has some great battles, an extended car driving component, an interesting new weapon (towards the end), a compelling story line, a hint of humor and a touching, emotional ending.

In addition, it has smooth flowing graphics, well sync'd voice and lip movement and a few interesting puzzles. Also, the way the other characters (i.e. Alyx, Dr. Vance etc.) watch you and turn their bodies to adjust to your position (Freeman) is remarkable; very realistic.

My only small complaint would be that the first quarter of the game was a little drawn out and repetitious; however this is only a minor concern in an otherwise incredible PC game.

Easily 5 Stars...more if I could.

*****

Portal...quirky and different but fun!

A rather unique, single player puzzle game that involves going in and out of doors; doors you make with (what else), your portal gun. However, this task is not quite as easy as it sounds; to accomplish your goals you must use strategies of lateral thinking, timing and momentum to get through all 19 different levels. Of course the challenges become more complicated as you progress and to win the game (and escape), you must defeat the increasingly neurotic test-facility robotess in the finale. Great fun!

This spacial concepts took a little time to get use to, but once the basics were mastered this was an interesting and fun exercise in abstract thinking and puzzle solving. 4 � Stars.

*****

Team Fortress 2...non-stop action

An excellent addition to the original TF. The gameplay could best be described as multiplayer chaos, with everyone running around like mad trying to survive. It is, however, great fun. 5 Stars.

Conclusion:
Great value for the money; 1 new game, 2 new sequels, plus a couple of old games thrown in (games that, for anyone who likes this genre, has already played long ago). Overall package...5+ Stars.

*other nominees for single player 'Game of the Year' might be 'Bioshock' and "Call of Duty 4', with 'Timeshift' and 'STALKER-Chernobyl' close runner ups and 'Crysis' in a more distant grouping.