Orange Box PC Review ( 9.5 out of 10 ) ...

April 23, 2008 ... Review by Listener Wil

First, let me say that if you have a PC, you need to get this game. It is the best valued game for the PC, even at the full price of $50. There are 7 games that are a part of this package. Half Life 2, Half Life 2 Episode 1 and 2, Half-Life: Lost Coast, Team Fortress 2, Portal (Game of the Year 2007), and a demo version of Peggle called Peggle Extreme. I have played only about half of the games thus far, so I will go through those for now and the rest as I finish them.

First, I am going to start with my game of the year for 2007 (not that I have say in the matter), Portal. This was a great game in and of itself. I would not spend $50 like all other new games, because this is a short game by video game standards, however if you have the other games on the list and want to just buy this game on its own you can, on Steam (www.steampowered.com) for just $20. When games that are out there like Oblivion, Mass Effect (Chad’s 2007 game of the year), and Lost Odyssey take anywhere from 40 to 90 hours of game play, I was able to finish this entire game in just under 3 hours, and I am not a hard core gamer by any stretch. You are Chell, who has been given the task of navigating through a lab using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (or, “portal gun”). Throughout this task is a voice over the intercom system from the labs main computer, who in essence, has trapped you in the lab figuring you will never be able to get out. This is a game for the puzzle fan as well as the FPS fan. You are given the gun which at first is only able to shoot one type of portal (blue portal), but a few levels into the game you are given the ability to shoot a second type of portal (yellow portal). The different portals allow you to enter one and exit the other. This is done using the left (blue) and right (yellow) mouse buttons. It is a very fun game on its own, but if a searching for value, buy it in the Orange Box. Even at full price, it is a great value.

Next, is my review on Team Fortress 2. This is an action online FPS. You take a position on either the Blue Team or the Red Team in one of 9 different class of player. They are separated into 3 categories, offense, defense, and special…kind of like a Football team. Each player is given what amounts to a long range weapon, a short range weapon, as well as a melee weapon. First we will look at offense. Class 1 is the Scout. He is a fast moving, low damage class. Not only does he deal low damage, he can’t take much either. The upside to the Scout is that he is the fastest class in the game. He has a bat for a melee weapon, but his other weapons escape me. Second is the Soldier. He is just that. Good weapons, can deal a lot of damage, and can take the punishment as well. The downside to the Soldier is that he is rather slow moving. But if you don’t mind being run around by the Scout and want to deal offense, the Soldier is a good choice. Finally in the offense class, is the Pyro. I have not dealt too much with the Pyro, so what I know about him is limited. But he has a cool flame thrower. Next are the defensive classes. We will start out with the Demoman. This is the long range defender. He has sticky bombs that he can plant, a rocket launcher, and a melee weapon for the up close battle. I really enjoy playing as the Demoman if I am concentrating on defense, the rocket launcher is fun and the sticky bombs are powerful. The downside is the lack of damage that Demoman can take. But that is ok given the fun toys he has. Next, is Heavy. He is exactly as the name implies, he has the heavy weapons, the minigun, the shotgun and his fists. Finally on Defense is the Engineer. He does the defensive firepower. He can set up sentry guns for the area, and keep them working when they go down. On to the special teams, first you have the Medic. The medic has 2 “guns” and a melee, first of which is the healer gun. This gun allows you to follow a teammate around and heal him. As long as you don’t get to far away, he can sustain a lot more damage than normal. I personally like to team a Medic with a Soldier or a Heavy, depending on whether you are concentrating on offense or defense. The other gun that you get can shoot syringes. They are not used to heal, but to do damage. The melee weapon is a bone saw. It’s fun to use, but does no more damage than any other melee weapon. Second special team is my favorite to play in TF2, and that is the Sniper. Getting up into a tight spot with the sniper rifle and picking people off is what I personally enjoy. I also enjoy using the little submachine gun that you have, plus the melee weapon is a machete. Finally, you have the Spy. This is a class that I personally have never played with in TF2, what I can tell you are that he is a master of disguise. You get a revolver, a butterfly knife, and an electronic sapper that can sabotage any of the engineer’s buildings. Along with that you get a disguise kit which can be used to disguise as any of the game's nine classes, and a rechargeable cloaking device. Using their covert abilities, spies are able to infiltrate enemy positions and assassinate key enemy players with their knife. He sounds like fun, but I prefer the Sniper myself. This again, like Portal is a great game on its own, but if you were to package it with Portal, $50 is very little to pay for 2 great games. TF2 by itself is $30 so if you package it with Portal it is the cost of all the games together. It’s really a good deal. The only down side to this game is the gore. While the characters are “cartoony” it is still very graphic, and there is still quite a bit of blood. Otherwise, it is a good game.

Finally in this review is Half-Life 2. I just finished this game, and very much enjoyed it. I figure I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 hours. It is a little gruesome at times, so don’t play it with kids around. Otherwise, you are good to go. On with the review...you are scientist Gordon Freeman you have been given, not by choice, to fight his way through several zones and many enemies to get to the Citadel. A facility that is where all the badness began...or so you think. You start with a vision of a person called G-Man. And you end the exact same way, with a vision of G-Man. In the middle however, you are granted several different weapons, including the Gravity Gun, which turns out to be much more powerful than you first realize, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you. I will say this, if you have not played this game, get it. If you don’t want to fork out $50 for the Orange Box, then get it from Steam, I think its $10 or $20. This really is as good as most other critics have said it is. If you are a fan of puzzles and FPS, like Portal, this is a must have.

The final analyses is this, the Orange Box for the PC is a great conglomerate of games. It is by far the best value that I have run across in a long time. I have never bought a game at full price, until Orange Box came along. If you have $50 that is disposable, and you are looking for a new game for the PC...this is it. Outside of the sheer value, it has great games in it

The Orange Box At A Glance
	9.5	The Good	7 FUN games for the price of 1.
		The Bad	Ummmm...hmmmmm...Can’t think of anything...other than it’s not kid friendly.
	Amazing	The Verdict	I would have given this a 10, but I have kids and that is part of my decision, so I give it a 9.5

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