Hi, how are you? What! You have never played Half Life or Team Fortress? Oh, I see, you have been living under a rock on the third moon of Jupiter for the past 10 years, Well, let me start off by saying welcome to arguably the perfect example of what gaming on the PC should be. It started with a little title called Half Life. In it our man, scientist Gordon Freeman, was inadvertantly involved in tearing open a rift that allowed alien beings into our own existence. Seeing that you were partially responsible you decided to help as many scientists and other personnel in the Black Mesa research facility escape from a gruesome death. But since this was a black ops operation and fell under the top-secret levels of our government, a death squad was sent into the facility to silence everyone. It should of been a clean sweep, but into this three-way slugfest you came out swinging and somehow managed to escape along with some of your fellow scientists. Realizing you were a man that could play the odds and win, you were put into cold storage with the idea that should you be needed again, you would be let loose to do so.

So now fast forward an unknown amount of years, Freeman is being dumped into City 17, a blown out, hell hole of a city, where the Combine, a mixture of alien and human oppressors are strip mining the planet for their own greed. Apparantly, the war has raged in your absence and the aliens are winning. Into it walks you, you're not sure what the devil going on, but give our man his HEV suit and a crowbar and watch him work his magic.

 
"Call the Orkin man, those darn striders are back!"

Ok, so what does this mean to you, and why is it called the Orange Box? Well for starters, this means an awful lot. Meaning, the Orange Box comes with five, count em', five differnt games from the same universe. The first is Half Life 2, the full-sized game that is widely regarded as one of the best PC games ever. The next is, Half Life 2: episode 1, this is basically a six-hour add-on adventure that takes place immediately following the events of Half Life 2. The third game is Half Life 2: episode 2, again, our hero is on the run after the events of the previous episode. At this point, the game is easily worth the $50 price tag, There is roughly 25 hours of white knuckle, slam-bam first-person shooter action to satisfy any adreneline junkie. However, the good folks at Valve gave us two more goodies, a new puzzle game called Portal where players find themselves in a very strange situation.

You wake up in a strange little box and must use your brains to figure out how to get out. Well, turns out there's more to the situation than originally thought. You are in my opinion a human lab-rat who is being set through the paces by a company called "Aperture Science". Given a strange gun/device that shoots open two different types of portals, you must jump through said portals in an attempt to free yourself from the maze you are in. Not that it is a maze in the traditional sense, but anytime you need to shoot an entry portal into the wall and an exit portal into the ceiling 40 feet above you, you are going to get a little bit confused. Now what is cool is that this mysterious company is actually mentioned in one of the games giving it a sense of continuity and in my opinion, getting you ready for some portal-hopping practice in Episode three or even Half Life 3. This is one of those games where you have to play it to fully grasp it. It is a lot of fun and although can be beaten in a couple of hours, the experience is worth it.

 
"Yes, you are falling, and when you come out that blue portal,
it will be with the same velocity, hope you studied physics in college."

The final cog in this monolithic gaming package it Team Fortress 2. If online play is your thing then here you go. This is class-based combat complete with an almost eccentric collection of cel-shaded models. The idea is as simple as they come, team blue vesus team red. What makes this such an exciting game, is the character designations. The heavy gunner, the medic, the spy, the soldier and others all have a necessary specialty but also a exact opposite character that takes full advantage of their flaws. You know, the gunner is tough as nails and brings the heavy firepower, but moves slow. Likewise the spy can disguise himself to the other team and sabotage the turrets the engineer placed, but goes down easy when he is discovered. Team Fortress features six maps initially but you know more are coming soon (I hope). If there is a downside it is the lack of maps for such a hotly anticipated title. Six doesn't cut it anymore and only one of those is a capture the flag map, easily one of the most played styles of multiplayer action.

The Orange Box has a pretty varying style of graphics. Half Life 2 and the two episodes remain relatively in line with the look and feel of the game. Graphics are exceptionally detailed from the little machinations in the weapondry, to the gleaming stylized look of the combine fortress. The story of Gordon Freeman is a very detailed and precise looking environment. Creatures move very fluidly and more than once you will be scared by the surprises that pop out at you. The game is demanding on a PC so it helps to have a nice beefy system.  Now the look of the Half Life games is really opposite of what Team Fortress looks like. Where Half Life deals with real physics and smooth textures to give the look of realism, TF has a more cartoonish look to it, the colors are straight out of a cartoon as are the look of the characters and weapons. I said before there is a heavy cel-shaded look to Team Fortress, and it works really well. The level design, too, is fairly smart; hopefully we'll see some new levels soon.

Portal has a definite clinical look to it, there is a few visual surprises but I got the impression that the cold, industrial look was completely on purpose and designed to keep you on edge. Portal looks and plays really well considering some of the stunts your poor character has to do.

Now the one thing I always found weird, was Gordon never speaks, he lets his actions do the talking. However, there is plenty of voicework going on to keep the masses happy. Alyx Vance, the gal that accompanies you throughout the game has a pleasant-sounding voice, which is counteracted by the evil Dr. Breen (voiced by the indomitable Robert Culp). Yes, the voicework is top notch, as is the sound effects, gunfire, explosions, monster noises, heck even the sound of vehicles' engines winding up and rocketing down a water slew. Portal and TF also benefit form strong sound effects and noises, the Orange Box is a visual and audio dynamo.

Gameplay: 9.4
These games are so dialed in with the controls it isn't even funny, it's darn near perfection.

Graphics: 9.5
The three different looks of the Orange Box are varied, yet all of them bring a quality, highly developed look to them.

Sound: 9.7
Again, nobody does it like Valve; this is a game that has all the bells and whistles and does it well. Voicework, sound effects, all beautiful.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
You have at leat 25 hours of single-player game in here, and sometimes, it can get really crazy.

Concept: 9.4
Whoever came up with Portal is a flippin' genius; the game is so original and fun, you really have to experience it. Oh, and Half Life is pretty cool too...

Multiplayer: 9.0
Team Fortress is an excellent multiplayer platform. The downer is the six maps.

Overall: 9.4
The Orange Box is worth a hundred bucks; you will pay half that. So much fun and excitement packed into this collection, it should be a crime.