Finally, A Great Game Who's Price Won't Leave You With An Empty Wallet!
When it comes to the Orange Box, people go to Wal-Mart, looking for a game and see this 5-in-1 deal thinking, "It's gotta be a dud… it's cheap." It isn't really until you take it home and start playing through all the realistic, phyisics-based puzzles and battle-scenes that you realize, "It's not a dud… it's a deal!… no, it's a steal!?!" , and then you sit there trying to make a bunch more rhymes until your Xbox 360 makes a beeping noise as your controller turns off and wakes you from your poetic awe.
Yep, the Orange Box is a 5-in-1 deal, released by the videogame company Valve. It packs good games with a bit of variety to at least satisfy a bit of every gamer. This awesome quar…err…quintet of sweetness includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, but can pretty much be divided into Half-Life 2 and episodes, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Each of these games varies greatly from the last, but in a great way, and one that can easily be appreciated by just about any gamer.
Half-Life 2 is a sequel to a game that came out in the 90's for PCs (yes, we've waited a long time for it). Luckily, for those of us who didn't play back then, Half-Life 2's storyline is still enjoyable and easy to follow without any knowledge of the previous installments in the series. It's a FPS that takes place in the shoes of a physicist named Gordon Freeman, and is all about his fight to help save humans from an invading alien empire, the Combine ( no, they are not the same thing as the big tractor-like combines that pick oats… don't worry, I got confused too). Luckily, not all physics geeks are weak, which is what you strive to show the enemy as you run/boat/swim/drive through a variety of fun, challenging environments and situations. And when you can't accomplish something with your large arsenal of weapons, you've always got you Ph.D. in physics,cool geek glasses, and a big, imaginative brain to get you through.
Half-Life 2 Episode 1 and Half-Life 2 Episode 2 are both further continuations of the story. Instead of making buyers wait a couple more years for Half-Life 3, Valve decided to break the next chunk of the saga into three episodes tacked onto Half-Life 2, with the third episode not yet released. Both games exercise a couple of new factors, new and original ideas, and a bit of a different feel when compared to Half-Life 2.
Portal, which Valve has commented on being somewhat connected to the Half-Life series, is one of those games designed to get the old noggin working. You run through a bunch of different puzzles/mazes/arenas like a lab-rat while trying to survive and escape the death trap of a lab your stuck in, all the while at the mercy of a crazy A.I. Using a portal gun, you create portals in walls, ceilings, and floors to get past the obstacles that are trying to stop you from reaching your freedom.
And finally, last but not least, you've got Team Fortress 2. TF2 is an online multiplayer in which the player may pick from nine different classes of character, each with its own specific abilities ranging from a nimble Scout, to Pyros with flamethrowers, to Medics with the power to heal, to Spys who get behind enemy lines. Join up with a team and exercise your most brilliant strategies to get to the top.
With good sound, good graphics, great storylines, and brilliant games the Orange Box is definitely one of the greatest deals in gaming, or at least it's a quality one who's price won't force you into poverty.