Before reading my blog, I must remind you that this is just my opinion, so, you are free to disagree with it, and sorry for any mistakes on my grammar.This is my first blog post about my games opinion. In this blog, I wanted to review one of the best games that I have finished recently; The Orange Box. The first time I look at this game, my first thought is; OMG, this is a very good bargain 5 great game for the price of one, I have to buy this game no matter what. I mean, who would miss this kind of offer? it has Half Life 2 along with episode one and two , a puzzle game Portal and a multiplayer game "team Fortress 2" in it. 5 great games in one box for the price of one. you are either stupid or cheap if you don't like the offer. now, lets begin my review below.
if you are a veteran video game player, most likely you'll know about the Half Life series. I haven't played the first Half life series and I already owned Half life 2 on PC, but it didn't stop me from buying this game. To bad the Orange Box didn't include Half Life 1, because I'm sure you will be a little bit confused with the story on the second installment, but you can open Wikipedia or Nextgenwalkthrough if you don't want to play HL1. basically the story revolves around a young scientist named Gordon Freeman trying to survive an experiment failure on Black Mesa. on the second Half Life, you will be playing as Gordon Freeman again, set in the City 17 few years after the Black Mesa Incident, you will join a rebel group that tried to defeat the combine forces and save humanity. episode one's one story is mainly telling you about how Gordon and Allysa survived the ending of HL2 (I didn't want to spoil the ending, just play and see it for yourself), and escaped from city 17. episode two story is mainly revolves around Freeman trying to save Allys' life.
the other game; Portal is a puzzle game, which is very hilarious and simple. despite the simple look, the gameplay sometimes can be confusing and rather hard on the later part, but it is so addicting to play the game, in fact I have finished the game 5 times. it will take you about 5 hours on your first try, and maybe 3 hours for the second try. you will carry only one weapon during the whole game which looks like the gravity gun from HL2 series which being modified, so it can create a portal to a various place you desire. you can also pick objects like the companion cube to open doors or attack a turret gun so you can proceed to the next level. alongside, you will be guided...or rather misguided by a computer voice. after you finished the game, you will be treated by a very good and probably one the best ending songs ever.
I haven't played portal yet, but from what I heard, it is a very good and hilarious multiplayer game.
all of the orange box's games used the source engine, which is a very good game engine. I played the orange box on my crappy SDtv, but the graphic quality is still superb. there are few frame rate drops here and there when the battle has heated up. the drop was noticeable, but the frame rates are still on the playable rate. one thing that I didn't like is; the HDR lightning is somehow making the game harder, especially when fighting the flying enemy. It makes the sky so bright, I often have a hard time to direct my missiles to the enemy. the Pc version didn't have this kind of difficulties, since it can be disabled from the option menu, but you must have a decent gaming pc to play this game with everything on max and high resolution.
one last thing that I like from HL2 series is the weapon. every other games has their own unique gun like the BFG from Doom and Quake series, Redeemer for UT series, and Half life has the gravity gun. this gun is very unique and original, and very fun to use. this is the only weapon (besides the portal gun, which is the same gun actually) that allows you to manipulate physics and object, and its very important to solve the puzzle on HL2 which involves object's physics (one thing that makes HL2 series great). and with the gravity gun, they certainly worthy to be called the greatest and most unique gaming weapon of all time.
so this is the end of my blog, thanks for reading it, and sorry for all the mistakes that I made. my last comment is buy this game immediately, I'm sure you'll love it.
