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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: Sudhakar2k
Updated:03-06-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Great Value, comes with 5 games in one box. Half-Life 2 is one of the best shooting games of all time.
Weaknesses: Lot of fair use issues for me.Must create a steam account to play the game.Must install steam software.Must login to steam account to be able to play the game.Takes up 15 GB of space.
Overall Evaluation: The Orange Box is essentially five separate games: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the puzzle game Portal, and the multiplayer action game Team Fortress 2. Of these I have played Half-Life and its one of the best shooter games I have played. Paid $25 for this so I got an incredible deal for the five games. The only disappointing thing for me is the fair use i listed in weaknesses. I bought the game legally, yet I am forced to install steam, sign up for an account, and have it running everytime i want to play the game. If it weren't for this I would have give five stars.
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: emptyreality
Updated:02-29-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Good value - especially at sale prices; great graphics; low system requirements compared to some other recent games
Weaknesses: Steam (the activation/update software) takes a bit of tweaking; some games require moderately large updates before they can be played
Overall Evaluation: A great value for the number of games you're getting here (and for the quality of the games as well. There's a reason that Half-Life 2 and Portal have topped many "best game of the year" lists!)Portal is a truly unique, think-outside-the-box experience, and almost worth the price alone. Plus, the end theme is possibly the best song ever written for a game.The real reward from this box, however, is Half-Life 2. A first-person shooter on the surface, it actually contains a lot of variety due to the richness of its environment.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: bping
Updated:02-28-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: several games included in box, great graphics, good storyline
Weaknesses: connection to internet required
Overall Evaluation: Wow! Had heard good things about Valve's games, but never thought that it would be so enjoyable to get five games bundled in a box. There is one game I liked the best, called Portal. Won't ruin it for you, so all I can say is that although a short game you will find solving each puzzle a real challenge.Graphics are nothing short of amazing. Computing requirements won't stress your PC and you will get beautiful images. Even the characters show facial expressions. Simply an eye treat.About the only gripe I have with these games is that they will try to authenticate you by connecting to their server. When doing so it will do automatic download to update your games. You cannot control when the updates are done. So if you want to play a quick game, you will have to wait until the update is done. Small gripe for a great game.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: Caliburnis
Updated:02-28-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: *5 great games for around $50!*Long-lasting multiplayer matches*Continuation of the Half-Life legacy*Strong modding community
Weaknesses: None
Overall Evaluation: This package is easily worth $50, though I was able to obtain a copy at Best Buy for $25 during Black Friday 2007, but sales like that are uncommon. Occasionally, other retailers like Circuit City, Best Buy or Target might offer the title for $40. An excellent purchase and a steal at any price below $50. Spanning 5 complete games - Half Life 2; Episodes 1 & 2; Portal; and Team Fortress 2; this package will keep you hooked to your PC. The minimum system requirements are lower than other newer games, as Half Life 2 is a few years old - that means PCs circa 2004 should be able to play a game that's still played heavily online and has a strong third-party modification ("modding") community. Highly recommended - get it!
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: Dufas46
Updated:02-21-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: great game play lots of game play time
Weaknesses: none I can find
Overall Evaluation: Love the games on the DVD's.. Highly recommend, great bargain!!!! will keep me entertained for some time. Hope other game developers follow Valve's lead and put package deals
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: mikeywl
Updated:02-09-08
Duration of ownership:3 Months
Strengths: 5 awesome games in one box!
Weaknesses: None I've found yet.
Overall Evaluation: THE best gaming deal of 2007. I already had HL2 and HL2 EP1, but they can be gifted to a friend. I bought this to get HL2 EP2 when it first came out (great Black Friday deal), and I haven't been dissapointed. Portal and TF2 are an added bonus. Portal is short, but it's innovative and pretty cool. I haven't played TF2 yet since I'm not really into the online game thing, though I'm sure I'll try it out when I've got some free time.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: Unclefunnyman
Updated:02-02-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Value
Weaknesses: None
Overall Evaluation: This is a NO BRAINER. For the price of ONE GAME you get Half-Life 2, the most highly acclaimed first person shooter of all-time, Episode 1 and 2 expansions on that game, Team Fortress 2, rapidly becoming one of the most played on-line FPS, and Portal, which is simply amazing and also highly ranked by every review I've seen. Buy it, Play it, Enjoy it.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: bigassant
Updated:01-28-08
Duration of ownership:1 Months
Strengths: Great value, very good games
Weaknesses: Requires Steam to play
Overall Evaluation: So far, I have only played 2 of the main 3 games included -- Portal and Team Fortress 2.Portal is a very unique game which requires you to manipulate your environment using portals to warp yourselves through different parts of each level, which is designed as a short mini puzzle. Some are definitely more straight forward than others. However, with about 20 puzzles for the main game, it is possible to finish this game quite quickly. Bonus levels and a rehash of the original levels with higher difficulty are included.Team Fortress 2 is of course the newer version of Team Fortress, the latter which is one of my favorite games of all time. In comparison, TF2 is much more cartoony, and offers more game modes than the original. The player classes are largely the same as before, and some of the levels (e.g. 2fort) pay homage to the original maps which made TF so popular. On the maps I played, however, gameplay seem largely dominated by one side, and it felt like there was a slightly larger learning curve with TF2 than with the original.Overall, all the games so far are great, and with 3 completely distinct games (and 2 of the previous versions), this bundle is a great value.On the minus side, however, the use of Steam is required, and so internet access is required to play. It is not unusual to see an ad or popup or two while logging in to play a game. While not a major minus, it is one downside which many other games do not have.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: goldrogers
Updated:01-04-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life and its episodes, great value
Weaknesses: None
Overall Evaluation: Orange Box has been rated one of the best games of 2007. In fact, the only game that can compare, IMHO, would be Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. Orange Box has so much value packed into it: HL2 and its episodes, TF2, and Portal. Portal is great and refreshing, though a bit short. TF2 requires tons of teamwork, but once you get past that learning curve it is a lot more fun that your average "lone wolf" type shooters. The cartoonish graphics also add to the fun atmosphere. HL2 is probably one of the greatest single player experiences ever. If you've played HL1, you'll know what I'm talking about, but HL2 is even better.I picked this up for around $20 on Black Friday from Best Buy, but I think it's worth every penny of its $45 (or $50?) MSRP, if not more.10 out of 10 stars from me.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: dafunkk12
Updated:12-31-07
Duration of ownership:2 Months
Strengths: 5 top-notch games for the price of one; modable
Weaknesses: Takes up an incredible amount of disc space and takes half an hour to install
Overall Evaluation: Valve is really spoiling gamers with this set. First off, there's Half-Life 2 and its two current extra episodes. These are top-notch story-centric FPS, and the characters are far from disposable.Next is Portal, which is a truly inventive puzzle game. You'll have to think like MC Escher to solve some crazy puzzles. Please know, though, that there are some reflex-based areas, so it's not entirely slow-paced. The writing is absolutely hilarious, which is just the cherry on top of an already stellar product.Finally, the set include Team Fortress 2, which does a fantastic job of showing the significance of working as a team. Each of the 9 classes is visually and functionally distinct, which adds a whole new dimension to the way you'll play online shooters.As a bonus, there's also a special Orange Box demo edition of Peggle, a sort of pachinko-style block-breaking puzzle game. You'll likely find yourself purchasing it after trying it out, but the levels included are exclusive to Orange Box, and themed as such.Where the PC version will surpass the equally impressive console versions is in the ability to create and download mods and maps for the game, adding on value through the future via add-ons. If you're hooked on Achivements from the Xbox 360, the PC version also includes them, and Valve has the ability to add on new Achievements to aspire for.
