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HL 2 EP 2 very good, but very short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

EP 2 is very good. They have redone the weapons, made them better. The game plays very well. Overall a nice little episode, but WAY too short. For the price of the Orange Box I got games I already own and what was left, after EP 2, was not worth it. Portal was OK. It made me laugh, but was not much value added. Team Fortress, yawn. The reviewers that said this was a great value for the money either buy their games on an expense account or did not previously own HL2 or EP 1. Then after Christmas they come out with "own everything source" for not a whole lot more than the Orange Box. I'm jaded. Bottom line, EP 2 is a lot of fun, just too darn short for the price.

Hands down, the best video game package ever.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: October 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Every game in this package is worth buying, playing, and playing again.
I was mostly impressed by Portal and Team Fortress 2. Both are innovative in their visual style and humor, and they both play like a dream. Portal is mind-bending, and while short, offers plenty replayability in it's bonus maps. Team Fortress 2 will keep you busy for days. There aren't a lot of maps to start with, but the multiplayer, class-based gameplay keeps things from getting old.
I can't really review Half-Life 2: Episode 2 here because I have not finished it yet. Though so far, the graphics are amazing and the pacing is spot-on.
The Orange Box is incredible, and for the price that most companies will make you pay for one game, Valve gives you 5.

Great Deal, Great Games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: October 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I can understand why people who already owned Half-Life 2 and Episode One are annoyed that they didn't get to take advantage of this outstanding deal. But Portal and Episode Two alone are well worth the price of the entire set. Easily the best video game purchase that I have made in the last 5 years.

My husband LOVES this!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My husband wanted this for Christmas and he really loves it. He spent many hours on the single player "Portal" and now he's playing with his friends in Team Fortress 2 (on-line).

Some Good, Some Bad

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 23
Date: October 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Half-Life Episode 2: Grade: C
I have just completed Half-life: Episode 2. Honestly, the story is the only reason why I finished it. The game play just felt like more of the same. No new weapons, two new enemies and an extremely short game. It took me 5 1/2 hours to complete, according to my personal game play statistics page on Steam, and I spent some of that time lolly-gagging around and exploring. If I stuck to plowing through the game, I probably could have beaten it in 3 to 4 hours. The story is Episodes 2's saving grace. Now that TF2 has finally been completed, lets hope the team can put more energy into the third episode.

Team Fortress 2: Grade: A
I started playing this during Beta testing and I've been addicted to it since. The graphics, characters and balanced game-play is a vast improvement over the first Team Fortress. The Orange Box is almost worth it just for this.

Portal: Grade: B-
Decent game with puzzling maps to exercise your mind. I finished it relatively quick. There are bonus maps that take the game-play a little further. It has an interesting story that adds to the Half-Life universe.

The Package Overall: Grade: C+
It's a good thing Episode 2 came in a package of other games. Here's hoping that Episode 3 is a stunner. TF2 is amazing fun. Portal is decent fun with quirky game play. Half-life 2 and Episode one have been out for a long time now. If you are new to the Half-life experience, then you have hours upon hours of game-play. If you are already an experienced Half-Lifer and Episode 2 was what you were waiting for, then you may be in for a disappointment.

Fantastic value for money.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: October 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Orange Box has to be the best value I have ever known in my 20+ years of playing video games on many formats. There are five games in the Orange Box all of which are brilliant in their own right. I already owned Half Life 2 and HL Episode 1 but I was still more than happy to pay the US dollar equivalent of £30 for the three games that I didn't own.

The five games that you get in this pack are:

1)Half Life 2 - Probably the best FPS ever
2)HL 2 episode 1 - A rather short expansion pack for HL 2
3)HL 2 episode 2 - The second expansion pack for HL2
4)Portal - A physics based puzzle game
5)Team Fortress 2 - An online multiplayer FPS

All three Half Life 2 games are graphically excellent with a really well told story and immersive gameplay.

In Portal you wake up in a lab and must solve increasing difficult puzzles to escape. What makes this game unique is it's use of the portal gun that enables you to open 2 portals at a time. When you go through one portal you emerge from the other. What makes it tricky is working out where and at what velocity you will emerge. For instance, if you jump from a ledge and enter a portal in the floor you might emerge from a portal in the side wall at the same fast speed. You must solve the puzzle for each level to get to the elevator. Anyway, it's tricky to describe but is indeed good fun.

My favourite though is definately Team Fortress 2. I just love this game. It's an online shooter involving two teams over six maps. You can choose from nine classes of combatant such as the engineer who can build turrets and teleport points to assist the team, the Heavy who carries a large chain gun, the spy who can camoflage himself as the opposing team, the soldier with his rocket launcher and five other distinct characters all with their own unique gameplay altering traits.

Overall the Orange Box has something for everyone and is worth every penny. I highly recommend it.

Another Steam Burn

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 21
Date: October 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Amazed that I had to buy a bunch of games I already own as well as others I do not want in order to get Ep 2 (what a scam). I bought orange retail and while installing/activating through Steam I kept getting server errors and told to try again later. Maybe it's just me but when I lay $50 hard earned dollars down for a game, I want to take it home and play it (after all I own it right? - wrong). Valve's Steam software dictates when I can play. Well, when I finally got Ep 2 up and running (the next day), it was OK - nothing special and certainly not worth $50 (maybe $20) but at least they gave me a bunch of other games I could care less about. I've finally come to the realization that my Steam days are over. Valve's Steam has become more oppressive than the Combine.

this RIP OFF !!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 25
Date: November 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Steam is the worst. If you want a hassle after you have paid, but before you play, try Bioshock, at least it is a better game. Pass on this Pumpkin, kick it in the face instead and throw it into the street.......

The best value priced gaming experience EVER!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: November 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thought HALF LIFE 2 was the best game ever so when buying this I had high expectations, and I am glad to tell you all that I was not disappointed. This has to be the best value in gaming that I have ever seen.

I already own HALF LIFE 2 and HALF LIFE 2: EPISODE ONE so I initially wasn't that keen in buying the ORANGE BOX set (because these two games are in the ORANGE BOX). However when I logged on to my STEAM account, to buy PORTAL, EPISODE 2 and TEAM FORTRESS 2 separately, this would have nearly trebled the price, so buying the ORANGE BOX is the cheaper option, even though you get more with the ORANGE BOX! Valve works in mysterious ways...

Plus, if you already own HALF LIFE 2 or EPISODE ONE then STEAM will let you give them to a friend!

I bought my copy from amazon.co.uk and for value it ended up that I paid five pounds (around 9 dollars?) for each game, which is unbelievable value when you consider that some mediocre console game costs up to 40 pounds.

Here are the games in the ORANGE BOX:

HALF LIFE 2 - arguably the best game ever made! I won't review it as I think that most people who will but the OB will already own it or at least be aware of its reputation.

EPISODE ONE: The next chapter from HALF LIFE 2.Very short game (around 4 to 5 hours). To me, this part is the weakest in the three made so far(HALF LIFE 2, this and HALF LIFE: EPISODE 2). The game offers little new from the original and even the environments and bad guys are the same. However it is still a great game.

EPISODE TWO: A whole lot better than EPISODE ONE. The environments are different, this being in lush forests and underground caves with new monsters (radioactive spiders that spew radioactive mush at you). The graphics are really superb and seem to be improved on the already fantastic looking EPISODE ONE. You begin to realise why VALVE had taken so long in bringing this game out.

The game is short as well, but I think a bit longer than EPISODE ONE. The script is quite impressive for a game (gives a lot of Hollywood movies a run for their money) and the characters are so familiar and believable that you have empathy for them, similar to characters in a favourite movie. This game is the main reason why I bought the OB and I was not disappointed in the least. One of the highlights is a Rourke's Drift like siege and antlions are coming in every direction. In this game you work with others more.

PORTAL: This is a strange game, and to be frank I have never seen anything like it! It is basically a puzzle game, and whilst it is fun and compelling it also has far reaching effects on gaming. The physics and complexity in making a game like this shows how serious games have become in the past few years. Portal is about a hand held device that creates holes in walls and then you create another hole in a wall somewhere else, and this lets you, the character, to walk through the first `portal' and exit the second `portal'. The child like female-electronic voice, a sort of HAL with the added craziness, adds to the quirkiness of the game. The puzzles get steadily harder and harder. I think this is a game will either love or hate but when you first play it is definitely something totally new and fresh.

TEAM FORTRESS 2 - a multiplayer game that is fun, fast and simple. The graphics are very cartoonish (in a good way) and it basically two teams (red and blue) with each team achieving a task to win the round. Players can be sniper, medic, engineer or even a spy, among others. The game is very addictive and because it is an online multiplayer this game has the most repay value of all the games in the ORANGE BOX. I still prefer COUNTER STRIKE: SOURCE to this game but this game is still a great buy even if it was on its own.

STEAM gets a lot of bad credit from fans of HALF LIFE but I have never had any problems, well, I had one problem: if you are new to STEAM you may get an email/IM chat through STEAM by another user pretending to be from STEAM. He/she may say that your account is being used somewhere else (you need a STEAM account to play these games) and that STEAM requires your password and username to verify your account. DO NOT give your details to anyone as STEAM would never ask for them themselves! This is not very relevant to the actual game review but it is the only problem with STEAM that I have accounted (so far!)

You do need a fairly modern set-up pc to play all the games in the ORANGE BOX. It recommends at least 512mb RAM and 128mb graphics card. Though to be honest, at least a 1 GIG of RAM is needed and a 256mb card to enjoy the games. Games are to be enjoyed not played with sufferance as it takes he fun out of the games.

Episode 2 - an oustanding game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: November 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I didn't not purchase orange box since I didn't much care for Portal or Team Fortress 2, however I did download Episode 2 via Steam. An outstanding game. Rich in story line, fine voice acting, tons of action (the ending scenario fighting the striders is WAY too much fun!), and a graphics engine that not only looks great, but delivers outstanding frame rates on a mid level system (AMD 64FX, ATI X1900XTX, 2 GIG RAM). Never a dull moment and well worth the $30 price off Steam. Took me about 8 hours to play through. If you want Portal and Team Fortress, then the Orange Box would also be a smart buy.

I already look forward to Episode 3! Hurry up Valve!

P.S. I personally like Steam. Keeps my games updated, let's me buy games from the comfort of my home. I don't think it should prevent you from playing one of the best games ever made (HL2 + episodes).

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