Product Description

The Orange Box includes all the content of The Black Box for PC, plus the original Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. Innovative games featured in The Orange Box include Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the second installment in Valve's episodic trilogy advances the award-winning story, leading the player to new locations outside of City 17, as well as the pioneering type of single-player action game Portal, which rewrites the rules for how players approach and manipulate their environment, and Team Fortress 2 -- an all-new version of the legendary title that spawned team based multiplayer action games with a daring new art style features the most advanced graphics of any Source-based game released to date.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #280 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 9849
• Released on: 2007-10-09
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Dimensions: 3.00 pounds

Features

• 5 Games, One Box - The Orange Box is the ultimate collection of innovative action games for console, and an amazing introduction to the Half Life series for console gamers
• Epic Storyline - Half Life 2 - Episode Two takes gamers deeper into one of the best-known stories in gaming, following the desperate struggle of Gordon Freeman against the mysterious Combine. In this episode, gamers will leave the confines of City 17 for the first time.
• Redefining Action - Portal delivers an innovative new action gaming experience. Arming players with a portal gun allowing them to create portals from one location to another with the press of a button, Portal will forever change the way that gamers interact with their environment.
• World-Class Multiplayer - Team Fortress 2 is the sequel to granddaddy of role-based multiplayer action games. Featuring nine distinct roles - Heavy, Spy, Scout, Demoman, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, Soldier and Pyro - Team Fortress 2 is one of this year's most anticipated multiplayer games for any platform.

Customer Reviews

Worth it for Portal alone.
In the words of GlaDOS: "This was a triumph." In my opinion, Portal alone makes this game worth buying. Everything else was just icing on the cake....so to speak.

Not all that
I was going to buy this game based on all the good reviews it's received. Fortunately, I rented it and was thoroughly unimpressed after about 4 hrs of play. Maybe I didn't give it a chance. I didn't play Half Life before so maybe that had something to do with it. The graphics are definitely dated. Portal was fun but I don't know why anyone would replay it. COD4 set the bar for FPS's so any shooter I play now is just so so.

This was a Triumph!
Having just recently bought the Orange Box by Valve, I can honestly say that it is a great deal, well worth the $50(£25) for the Xbox 360 or $30 (£15) for the PC. Since the entire collection is really five separate games, I decided to split my review into 3 parts: Half-Life2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

-Half-Life2: Despite their age, the Half-Life games are still some of the best sci-fi games available. Their graphics are still good by today's standards, only being surpassed by the newest games like Mass Effect and Bioshock. The physics are some of the best of any game out today. I have yet to see another game with physics even coming close to Half-Life's in realism. The storyline is good, with plenty of plot-twists and riveting action scenes, and very little, if any, boring romance. My only complaint about the Half-Life games on Orange box is the lack of multiplayer on the Xbox version. After playing through three whole storylines and becoming a master of flinging cinder blocks into enemies' heads, I want to show my skills off to random strangers over the internet! Sadly, all of the multiplayer content is left to Team Fortress, which has a very different feel to it... and no gravity gun.

-Portal: Portal is a very different type of game from Half-Life and Team Fortress, and even other shooters. Using the same graphics and physics as Half-Life, the makers of Portal could focus on building a great storyline and fixing the kinks in the Portal technology. Besides the gameplay itself, which is surprisingly simple, Portal's voice-over acting is perfect for the setting, with lots of quotable lines and hilarious dialogue. Once again, there is a disappointing lack of multiplayer for such a great game, and the fast-moving and spinning camera can make many players, or even spectators, motion sick. Overall, I'm really looking forward to that sequel!

-Team Fortress 2: Team Fortress 2 is a welcome change from games like Halo and Call of Duty 1 where every character has the exact same weapon choices and skills. The different classes of TF2 make it imperative that you put together an effective team in order to succeed. The stylized art makes the different character models and weapon effects much more believable than a realistic game would have. Despite a sadly low number of levels and a high percentage of players who seems to have Tourette's, Team Fortress 2 is one of my favorite multiplayer shooters so far.

In conclusion, sticking five awesome games in a single set for the price of one was a brilliant move on Valve's part. Whether you like puzzle, horror, action, or class-based shooter games, the entire set is worth your money.