Arguably one of the best PC games ever made is Half Life 2, surprisingly many gamers today may not even be familiar with the title as it was released some three years ago. Unfortunately for people that have not played through the game it is one hell of a first-person shooter and during it’s time made some huge leaps in gaming technology. Developers Valve and Publisher EA are betting on the fact that it will still attract console owners in the year 2007 as they have included it in their brand new multi-game package titled The Orange Box. Other than the original Half Life 2, The Orange Box also includes the two episodic downloads, Episode One and Episode Two. Each of these additions was released on the PC over Steam but now, for the first time ever, are available in one package. These three games alone would be enough to warrant a purchase but Valve threw in even more, a puzzle game made by a couple college students called Portal and the follow up to one of the best team-based online multiplayer games ever, Team Fortress 2. That makes a total of five games for the price of one ($60), read on to find out why The Orange Box is easily one of the best Xbox 360 games to own this year.
As you start up the game you will be given a choice, a choice of five different games to play. The menu system is simple enough but has a touch of elegance that makes it feel like someone put a lot of work into making this game look good. The developers gave gamers the option of skipping whatever they want and diving straight into any of the five games, my opinion is that they should be played in order, you just get the best overall experience that way. Half Life 2 is the largest of the five and the one that needs to be tackled first. If, on the other hand, you have played through HL2 you may want to jump straight into Episode One, which continues the story of Gordon Freeman and likewise with Episode Two. Personally having beaten HL2 some two years ago I decided it would be a good idea to refresh my memory and run through it again. After doing so I am very happy I made such a choice, the game actually looks better than it did on my maxed out PC and the rest of the compilation wouldn’t have been nearly as good as it was had I not played Half Life 2 all the way through again. The easiest thing to do is break down this review into five parts, one for each different game.
Half Life 2:
For fans of the Microsoft gaming console this is not the first time they have a chance to play Half Life 2 on something other than a PC, two years ago HL2 was released as a standalone game on the original Xbox. It was a great game on the PC and a great game on the Xbox, but the best version is right here on the Xbox 360. The storyline is pretty basic for people familiar with the sci-fi genre. The main character is Gordon Freeman, a badass scientist that is not only smart but also dangerous with a crowbar. After saving the planet in the original Half Life, Dr. Freeman was frozen away until he was needed again, that time is the beginning of Half Life 2. City 17 is the main setting for HL2 (although the game will take you all over the planet) and the core of the storyline; the city needs to be saved from the communist style takeover of the Combine (elite army). The storyline is told through different interactions (in-game) with key characters throughout the progression of the game. If you are not totally drawn into what is going on in the world of Gordon Freeman there is something wrong with you. The Half Life series features one of the best overall storylines available in the gaming medium today and HL2 is no different.
Gameplay wise Half Life 2 is a lot like any other first-person shooter out there, except for one huge difference, the physics system. Everything in HL2 can be picked up, thrown, and used for puzzle solving; something on this scale has never been done before in a game. At first objects can only be moved with Dr. Freeman’s hands but as the game progresses he obtains a “gravity gun” that changes the entire game as you know it. Now saw blades become weapons, boxes become steps, and gas containers become long-range grenades. The gravity gun is not the only thing used to kick-ass in Half Life 2, there is also the crowbar, pistol, shotgun, machine gun, crossbow, etc. With this huge assortment of weaponry I still found myself going back to the gravity gun time and time again, it’s just that cool. Dr. Freeman will traverse through the story mainly on foot but will also go behind the wheel of an airboat and a dune buggy. These levels are quite involved and not as short as some may expect. The game pretty much leads you where you need to go and there is little to no back tracking. The PC controls transfer over to the 360 controller fairly well and after a few hours I felt just as comfortable playing on my Xbox as I did with a keyboard and mouse. Newcomers to the Half Life 2 scene will spend around fifteen hours completing the game while veterans can zip through it in about ten.
Graphically Half Life 2 looks a lot like something made two years ago, which is pretty accurate considering it was. At the time of it’s original release nothing compared but these days it is considered below average. Some of the more popular character models have been re-done for the 360 version as have some of the textures and lighting effects but overall it won’t blow you away. The number one complaint I have with Half Life 2 are the loading times, they are so obtrusive and annoying it just bothered me time and time again. Instead of loading up an entire level the game will load at the most strange times, right as Dr. Freeman is walking into a tunnel or climbing down a ladder. It’s understandable since the game was originally designed for the PC and I doubt they could have re-written the entire code but I still thought it should be mentioned. Another small complaint is the AI characters that help Dr. Freeman throughout the game, sometimes they seem brain-dead and others like geniuses. The frame-rate is constant throughout the game and it looks good in high-def so don’t think this is the same game, looks (gameplay it is) wise, that was released three years ago.
