The Orange Box Review

Notes about PlayStation 3 version: You’ve no doubt read an awful lot about The Orange Box over the past few months, so rather than make you read through the whole review to find out specifics about the PlayStation 3 version, I’ll summarise them here. Is the game worth getting? Definitely. Is it the best console version available? No.

Compared to the Xbox 360 game this PS3 port falls someway short. The biggest offender is the rather choppy frame rate during the three games in the Half-Life 2 story. None of these run as well as they do on the Xbox 360, and the performance gets worse as you move through the series – with the frame rate in Episode Two being rather dreadful at points. Performance in Portal and Team Fortress 2 oddly seems quite comparable to the Xbox 360 game.

Visually, aside from the frame rate, things are very similar, although the PS3 game seems to have a blurry filter applied to it, which in turn means the texture detail isn’t quite as good. Also worth a mention are the extended load times in the PS3 game, which are especially noticeable during Portal.

The core games are all identical, bar the Xbox 360 exclusive Achievements and the ability to quick save in the PlayStation 3 game. This is performed by holding down the Start button and is a nice addition, although something I didn’t find myself using all that often. Rumble effects are also absent, and the Sixaxis seemed to make for a slightly slippery feeling control scheme. Still, these things are likely to fall down to personal preference.

Online during Team Fortress 2 I noticed very little difference between the Xbox 360 and PS3 games, although on the 360 the large number of players with microphones made for better communication. The number of games available online is also significantly fewer when playing on the PlayStation 3, although I never had any difficulty finding a game.

The PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box is well worth adding to your collection, but not if you have the option to play it on a well-specced PC or an Xbox 360. Why frame rate problems weren’t ironed out is a mystery, but if you can get past them there’s no game available for the system that offers better value for money.

Read on for the full review of The Orange Box.

I completely missed the boat with Half Life 2. Back in November 2004, when PC gamers were heralding Valve’s FPS as the greatest game ever made, I was pumping hours into Halo 2 on the Xbox. When HL2 was finally ported to the original Xbox a year later, it was all too little too late – the Xbox 360 was out and that was commanding my attention. So when I was asked to review the insanely good value The Orange Box for the Xbox PS3, which includes the original HL 2 from three years ago, its two expansions, puzzle FPS Portal and online only FPS Team Fortress 2, all from a console-gaming Valve noob point of view, I felt more than a little intimidated. This is supposed to be PC gaming at its finest after all.

First off, I found it hard to know where to start. I chose the beginning, HL2, although if you played the port of the game on the Xbox you might want to head straight into Episode 1, TF2 or even Portal. But since the name Gordon Freeman meant about as much to me as theoretical physics, I felt like I’d be better off getting as much back story down as possible.

The game opens with a mysterious, suited man who has a strange reptilian voice calling for you to wake up. His name is G-Man, a shadowy, vampire-like figure from the original HL who fans of the series will know well, although I hadn’t a clue who he was at first. You’re on a train – again, I had no idea why. Turns out that in the first game a dimensional portal was opened in a secret lab triggering an alien invasion. The G-Man, who orchestrated a government cover-up of the whole incident, makes you an offer you can’t refuse – work for him or die. The you is Gordon Freeman, HL’s hero. He’s a scientist who, while working at the Black Mesa lab doing dodgy experiments for the government, unleashed the totalitarian alien infestation called the Combine (yes, as in combine harvester). In HL Freeman leads the fight back, and even goes to the alien’s home word Xen to have it out with the slimy buggers.

So, back to the train and the beginning of HL2. You’re one of a few workers being transported to City 17, somewhere in Eastern Europe. G-Man had you in stasis until he needed you, and now he’s calling. The city is a dump, with peeling walls, crumbling ceilings and rubbish flying about the streets. Oppression is everywhere. There’s a looping video of a white-bearded man on a big screen, badgering on about suppressing our instincts and not making babies. There’s these genuinely scary beat-down Metrocop guys all over the place, who have gas-masks for faces and muffled electronic voices. Add to that flying cameras that blind you with annoying regularity and what you have is the kind of environment and storyline George Orwell would have concocted if he had chanced his arm at game design instead of literary excellence – and been born in the 70s of course.

HL2 is quite a slow-paced affair. It doesn’t open with a sprint, instead more of a carefully considered stroll. You don’t even get a gun for about half-an-hour. You’re slowly and subtly nudged in the right direction without arrows or flashing lights or lines on the floor. You’re encouraged to consider your surroundings, take in the atmosphere and feeling of City 17, marvel at the little touches, like when a Metrocop makes you pick up a can and put it in the trash just for his own sick pleasure, and gently nudged deeper and deeper into this engrossing, dark, science fiction nightmare.

You head for the centre of the resistance, meet up with a mate of yours who’s working undercover as a Metrocop and make a break for it along City 17’s rooftops when the Combine come calling. It’s all doomed to failure – you’re surrounded and beaten to the floor, but someone comes to your aid – a woman, Alyx Vance, the daughter of your long-time lab partner Dr Eli Vance. She leads you to safety and a lab where there’s a crazy old doc type with this alien face-hugger thing for a pet messing about with a transporter. You get your HEV suit at this point, providing you with a shield, super speed and other augmentations. In the first few hours of the game you’ll speed away from a stalking helicopter on a sludge-skimming airboat, pick up the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator (also known as the gravity gun), perhaps the greatest weapon in FPS history, and take on the alien zombie horde in the creepy town of Ravenholm. It’s a frenetic, panicky beginning of the game where you never feel fully in control of proceedings. You’ll also quickly encounter the main zombie alien threat, which reminded me a lot of the Flood from the Halo series. Quick-moving headcrabs attach themselves to people, then, with their heads submerged and actions fully zombiefied, they stumble about hell bent on your destruction. It’s freaky stuff – you can even hear their muffled screams coming from somewhere within the headcrab’s stomach.

Console FPS gamers will instantly take to HL2. The controls are classic dual analogue pad layout – analogues to move and look, X to jump, cirlce to reload, back triggers to fire. But one thing that took me a while to wrap my head around is the ability to pick things up with the square button. You can pick up barrels or crates or whatever, which will then appear in front of you, and then carry them around a bit, drop them or throw them. But it’s not until you get the gravity gun, HL2’s ultimate creative tool, that you’ll start to realise why HL2 caused such a fuss back when it first came out. The physics engine is absolutely amazing. Concrete blocks carry real weight, crates drop, fall and tumble as they should and structures collapse into a million tiny pieces. You can pick up flammable barrels, fire them at a group of Metrocops on top of a wooden platform and blow them up just at the right time to see the splinters fly. None of it feels fake. There are puzzles where you have to use the physics engine to progress, for example making ramps by weighing down planks of wood with blocks, or rising submerged platforms with air-filled bottles. Finally, I started to understand why PC gamers reckon HL2 is the pinnacle of game design. This isn’t an all action frag fest. This is a physics lesson playing out in gorgeous HD. HL2 proudly stands up to its younger, more aesthetically pleasing cousins with its chest pumped out even today.

Saying that, you can tell the game is a few years old by the graphics. While the art direction is fantastic, beautifully capturing the feeling that Earth is held firmly in the grip of an evil totalitarian alien force, the graphics don’t compare with say Resistance or Call of Duty 4, which is what most PS3 gamers have been playing for the past few months. That’s not to say they’re bad, the facial textures and water effects are some of the best I’ve ever seen in a game, but PS3 owners coming at HL2 fresh won’t be blown away by the looks. The handles on the hovercraft mysteriously move themselves and turrets seem to move of their own accord too – where‘s Freeman’s hands? There’s also some noticeable pop-up. While the graphics get better in Episode One, and better again in Episode Two (see our full review here), don’t expect anything mind blowing.

There were also a few very frustrating instances where I felt the game suffered from a physics engine that was too good for itself. When sprinting away from enemies I sometimes got trapped for no apparent reason. You’ll frantically look around and eventually discover some rogue piece of wood or stray fragment of a barrel that you’ve snagged your foot on. But it’s too late – you’re dead. Because everything has a place, weight and effect in the game, from hunter helicopter to the tiniest plank, the environments can sometimes frustrate. It’s also quite easy to get lost, since the HUD is so clean from clutter. While this is great for admiring the scenery we could have done with a few pointers once or twice.

The loading is worth pointing out. Whenever you approach a new area, the game pauses and loads. This feels distinctly last-gen, especially compared with FPS of the moment Halo 3, which seamlessly loads new areas without pause. It’s a slight niggle, but 360 gamers who swap Master Chief for Gordon Freeman will notice it.

To those of you out there who, like me, are diving into the wonderful world of HL2 for the first time I’ll say one thing: don’t be put off by its more considered pace, its physics-based puzzles and its three-year-old graphics. Consider them more reasons to play the game. Stick with it and by the end you’ll be glad you did – HL2 has one of the greatest gaming storylines ever, absolutely stunning physics, fantastic voice acting and some brilliant computer-controlled characters. Forget the Arbiter Halo fans, Alyx Vance is the best AI-controlled team mate I’ve had the pleasure of saving the world with. She’s genuinely interesting, actually has a story and never gets in the way. Play through all of HL2, Episode One and Two, and you’ll form the kind of bond with Alyx that will leave her playing on your mind at the most inappropriate of times.

After giving HL2 a good seeing to I thought I’d try something else The Orange Box has to offer – Portal. Two-and-a-half hours later I was damn glad I did. You can read the full review here, but suffice it to say, Portal is one of the most refreshing, interesting games I’ve ever played. You use the dual portal gun to create two portals – going through one will lead you to exit the other. You need to get to the exit of each of the game’s 19 mind-bending levels using this method, but things get increasingly complex, and stomach-churning. It’s pure gaming fun and while a little short is quite amazing for what is essentially The Orange Box’s bonus content. Portal is the game I thought I’d play the least when I bought The Orange Box. It’s turned into the one I play the most. Give it the attention it deserves, Portal is worth it.

So on to Team Fortress 2, the online team-based FPS that will only be of relevance if you’ve signed up to Xbox Live. TF2, which is nine years in the making, has garnered a lot of hype from PC gamers, and now that the game has been released on PC already via Valve’s online distribution service, Steam, all the cool kids are playing it. But 360 gamers, will it be enough to draw your trigger finger away from Halo 3 or Gears of War?

It’s a bit of an unfair comparison. TF2 is unlike any online FPS available on the console. You play as one of nine classes, each defined by its gun or special ability: the super fast Scout is great for snagging the flag and capturing points quickly; the Soldier, with its slow-firing rocket launcher, is a good all rounder; Pyro is the best close-quarters class, burning enemies to bits with the devastating flamethrower; the defensive minded Demoman is armed with a timed detonation grenade launcher and a remote detonation sticky bomb launcher; Heavy is super slow but deals massive damage with the mini-gun; the Engineer builds turrets which are great for mowing down base-rushers; Medics have a Ghostbuster-esqu gun that shoots a healing beam into allies; the Sniper does exactly what it says on the tin; and the Spy, perhaps the class that requires the most skill, can turn invisible, disguise himself as a member of the other team and one hit kill from behind. Once you’ve picked your class, you’re then divided up into two teams, red VS blue, and across the game’s six maps you need to work with your team to complete objectives like CTF and control points to win.

It’s fast, frenetic fun, with an emphasis on team work. The Heavy, for instance, is easily taken out from a distance by the Sniper or the rocket-launcher wielding Soldier. But if you’ve got a Medic pumping points into your life meter, you can pretty much bulldoze your way into an enemy stronghold. The Spy is a great class for lone wolves, but don’t expect to be able to win the game on your own, despite the temptation to camo up, head for the enemy base and stab the Engineer in the kidney. The Scout, while being super fast, has hardly any health. You’ll need to co-ordinate your efforts with your team mates or you won’t have much fun dying all the time. The games we’ve played online mostly begin with offensive (we’ll include the Heavy here since he seems to be mostly played offensively) and support classes like the Medic rushing the enemy base. Snipers head straight for secluded, high positions and the Engineer tends to start making turrets. Games ebb and flow as either red or blue imposes itself, and it’s all over in what seems like a blink of an eye. On the face of it simple, accessible online FPS fun, but it can get very involving as you learn the intricacies of each class.

In terms of looks, the game has a cartoon-like visual style that makes a refreshing change from the gritty realism we seem to be deluged with nowadays. It looks a lot like animated film The Incredibles and includes tonnes of lovely, colourful little touches that help to add to the atmosphere of the game. Valve has tried to tell the gamer how TF2 works through its visual style as much as possible. So, for example, red first aid crosses flow through the medic’s healing beam. The Spy will have a mask showing what class the enemy sees him as when he is in disguise. I’d have to say that I was more impressed with TF2’s art direction than how the game plays.

Reservations? Despite having a lot of fun with TF2, it won’t be stealing me away from Halo 3 long term. For me, I prefer the slightly slower paced, vehicular combat of Halo 3 online. Oh, and there’s no grenades in TF2. I just love grenades. Don’t get me wrong – there’s much more of a fun atmosphere in TF2 (sometimes I wonder if people play Halo 3 for fun or because they enjoy shouting at people), but, in my opinion, it’s not the best online FPS the consoles have to offer. And although I take it for granted, I missed the Halo 3 matchmaking system, which all online games should have now. In TF2, you search for hosted games and join. Clearly, Halo 3 has spoiled us with its online matchmaking. The 360 version doesn’t look half as good as the PC version either – something that was noticeable when we had both running side by side in the office. We also experienced noticeable lag, although we understand Valve is preparing an update to the game that is supposed to fix this by the time you play the game.

Phew. The Orange Box has a lot to take in. Perhaps too much, especially for newcomers to Valve’s work. All in all, we’d say there’s about 25+ hours worth of HL2 gaming in there, maybe four or five hours with Portal, and, depending on whether you like TF2 or not, as many hours as you want with Valve’s online FPS. Together, you’re getting a minimum of over 30 hours of, some would say, the greatest entertainment gaming has to offer. And that’s not counting the inevitable DLC through XBL and PSN (eventually). We’d expect more Portal levels, more TF2 classes and maps and perhaps HL2: Episode 3 as a downloadable purchase – well, we can dream.

I’m a massive fan of FPS games on a pad with shoulder buttons. I prefer it to keyboard and mouse. It was because of this that HL2 passed me by at a time when it should have put both hands on my shoulders and shook me silly. I’m glad The Orange Box has provided me, and other gamers like me, with an opportunity to experience everything PC gamers have been banging on about for years. Will it force Halo 3 addicts to put Master Chief’s heroics on hold? Probably not enough to seriously dent its popularity. But we heartily recommend that you at least try to find some time in your busy gaming schedule for Gordon Freeman’s more thoughtful exploits. If you love FPS gaming you owe it to yourself to get The Orange Box. Hell, if you love gaming, you owe it to yourself to get it. Anyone for cake?