The Orange Box (Valve/EA)

Five games, one coloured box. For the release of HL2: Episode 2, Valve have gone a little bit mental. Instead of just flogging the latest in the series solo, you get the previously released Half Life 2 & HL2: Episode 1 AND a brand new game, Portal, AAAAAND the long-awaited, much hyped Team Fortress 2. All for £35! See... mental.

So, is this quantity over quality, or the more pleasant mix of both?

The main part of the package, Half Life 2 as the fans will know, is an excellently scripted first person shooter that sees you take control of scientist-turned-global saviour Gordon Freeman in his battle against the alien Combine. To avoid any spoilers for the folk who haven't played Half Life 2 yet: it is arguably the best in its genre, with an excellent blend of narrative and puzzle solving via the business end of various firearms. Episode 1 continues the story, although it fails to be quite as engaging as HL2, with some stilted and repetitive gameplay. Episode 2, while continuing the story excellently and building up the narrative for the third, is somewhat equally hollow. Wider environments and new enemies make for some interesting moments and excellent battles but the game itself manages to feel somewhat repetitive and predictable. Indeed, in terms of gameplay the episodic content is straying from its excellent heritage, with the main reason for current fans to play being to continue the epic storyline.


Portal, however, fares somewhat better. With much fresher gameplay and simple but hilarious narrative it is, in a word, brilliant. A brilliant concept, brilliantly executed, topped off with some brilliant scripting and credits (not oft mentioned in a review, but these deserve it). The aim is to negotiate your way through 19 test chambers, using nothing more than your personal portal gun. Shoot entry and exit portals onto any surface to avoid or disable death in various guises, throw in some excellent writing - turrets that say 'I don't hate you,' as you knock them over and the psychotic compulsive liar of an evil computer being prime examples - and you have a short but oooh so sweet gaming experience that is accessible to everyone.

Finally, we come to the daddy: Team Fortress 2. TFClassic was a multiplayer mod for the original Half-Life, and here, now, in this Orange Box we get the newer, shinier (million years late) version. Valve's original plans for the standalone Team Fortress game were to take it away from its arcade-y gaming roots and make it an ultrarealistic tactical team combat. Thankfully, they gave up on that idea, and proceeded to make a fully fledged, better in pretty much every way, tactical team arcade shooter which has so much style it hurts. Nine different classes, with drastically different play styles, are used to attack and defend a variety of (thankfully quite true to the original) maps. Engineers build badass sentry guns, while medics can make your heavy weapons guys invincible, and the scouts and soldiers lead the offensive capturing points with hectic speed. All of this occurring in a hugely beautiful, Pixar-inspired cartoon world. TF2 is hectic yet tactical, intense and light-hearted, quality multiplayer gaming the way it should be.