Orange Box Domination
I just recently finished up everything in The Orange Box. First I tackled Portal (one of the best games ever in its own right). Then I played through the original Half-Life 2 again. I had played it once on the PC a while ago, but my PC was so shoddy that it wasn’t very exciting. I then beat Episodes 1 and 2 over the weekend. HL2: Episode One was something of a disappointment. It has some gameplay elements that add to the experience of HL2, but overall, I don’t really enjoy fighting only zombies in the dark. Episode Two was a total delight to play, a tremendous improvement over both previous games, in my opinion. The hunters in Episode Two have the potential to be something more annoying than exciting (a la the Flood in Halo…), but they only show up occasionally and actually provide awesome battles. The AI is pretty incredible, they’ll chase you around and if you hide in a certain room of a building they can’t get to, they’ll go outside and cap you through the window. Valve has also proven to be the master of building gigantic set-pieces and immersing you in the action; sometimes you may have control over the scene, others are interactive “cut-scenes” that you’re watching from the ground. Episode Two’s environments also show off the Source engine in ways the first two games couldn’t. Because the setting is mainly the White Forest between City 17 and the research facility you’re trying to reach, and you cross miles of landscape in a bitchin’ ride, Ep. 2 takes the opportunity to wow you with some sick visuals.
Up next: Call of Duty 4.