Joystiq hands-on: The Orange Box

by Kevin Kelly { Jul 13th 2007 at 2:58PM }

Easily one of the best gaming values to come out in recent memory, Valve's The Orange Box packs a pretty strong punch in terms of content. We got our grubby little paws on it at EA, and while we know there are other games on this disc, we hard a hard time tearing ourselves away from Portal to play the others. However, once someone smacked us in the head with a crowbar, we moved on and got a piece of everything, culminating with a Team Fortress 2 fragfest.

Seriously, if you're trapped on a desert island and can only take one upcoming title with you, The Orange Box wouldn't be a bad choice. You've got team games, a first person shooter (with sequels), and a really unique puzzle game. Where could you go wrong? Just make sure that island has internet access, because the press notes for Team Fortress 2 dropped a mega-bombshell of information* that hasn't been reported at all from E3. We aren't sure why. Ready for it? Here you go:

* Internet connection required for online play.

We're working on a confirmation on that one. Check out our impressions after the break.

Gallery: Half-Life 2: Orange Box

Let's break it down and see what we thought about what we played. Due to our obsession with Portal, we didn't get to crawl through all of the Half Life episodes, but rest assured it looks good.

Team Fortress 2: It's got cartoony graphics, fun levels, and a slight learning curve for the Team Fortress impaired as far as things like building and repairing turrets and the like are concerned. However, running around and fragging opponents feels natural if you've ever played an FPS before. There are nine different classes in the game: Heavy, Spy, Scout, Demoman, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, Soldier and Pyro. Creepiest of them all? The Spy. He sneaks up looking exremely shady, and will knife you in the ribs before slinking back into the shadows. Ouch. We played it on both the PS3 and on the PC, where we were a bit thankful for the mouse and keyboard, at least at first.
Portal: This is an extremely fun game that we had some problems with at first. We wanted to bang our heads on the monitors and cry when we couldn't get the hang of the Portal gun, but a friendly therapist employee from Valve stepped in and gave us a few tips. After that, we had a much better game. Featuring truly innovative puzzles that you'll have to solve using only the door-opening goodness of that gun in order to get from one end of a room to another, we had the most fun in here. Especially when they showed us how to open infinite tunnels, spy on ourselves from above, and even more tricks with the gun. Here's hoping they're able to put this gun in a multiplayer game at some point.
Half Life 2: The big news here is -- they didn't screw it up. We played it on the Xbox 360, and it's the same Half Life you've come to love, fear, and respect. We played around in Episode Two, where you get to take your show on the road outside of the city. We drove our dune-buggy ish vehicle (very poorly, we dinged it up pretty badly) to some busted up ruins where we'd spotted a radio antenna. Most of the time was spent figuring out how to activate that antenna, while fending off nasty critters. We still love that gravity gun.

Tags: E307, Half Life, HalfLife, Impressions, Portal, Team Fortress 2, The Orange Box, Valve

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Intellectualdiot @ Jul 13th 2007 3:08PM

"* Internet connection required for online play."

Still? Freaking bureaucrats.

Shagittarius @ Jul 13th 2007 3:47PM

Look on the bright side...If you don't have an internet connection you dont have to deal with:

Friend Codes
Live Fees
System Updates

!!

eldee @ Jul 13th 2007 3:09PM

Great value sure.. but honestly I would've preferred to pay $19 for the "episodic" episode 2 about... a year ago. I've already forgotten everything about episode one, I'll have to replay it just so I can remember wtf the plot line was about.

They should have just called this the "Seriously Delayed Pack" since all of the games (except portal) in the package were seriously delayed.

Tony @ Jul 13th 2007 3:09PM

I'm actually kind of glad I've not picked up HL2 yet. Good deal here.

Alex S. @ Jul 13th 2007 3:10PM

I don't think I've seen one Orange Box article that doesn't have the words "Best value in gaming" in the first paragraph.

Zeouterlimits @ Jul 13th 2007 3:11PM

Finally, thank you Joystiq,
I've been waiting for coverage!
That being said... all of it was pretty much old news...
Glad to see it works well on all the platforms, I'm not sure whether to pick this for PC or 360...

Arturo @ Jul 13th 2007 3:20PM

I think I may get both. I know that sounds crazy, but I heart my xbox/live/hdtv and i beefed up my pc a bit w/ a new 8600GTS and a new 500W power supply so yay :D cant wait!

StrangeBum @ Jul 13th 2007 3:39PM

Damn..and here I was really praying that I wouldn't need to an internet connection for the online play..dammit /end sarcasm

But honestly, I'm really excited about this. I will admit it, I never bought Half-life 2, I never had a proper gaming rig up until recently so this should be a good fun way to start off. And I'm still excited about Portal too, it takes what Prey did and totally throws it out of the water.

Shagittarius @ Jul 13th 2007 3:48PM

Time for you to play Narbacular Drop.

Ringo @ Jul 13th 2007 3:48PM

tee eff too eff tee dubblya

Joe @ Jul 14th 2007 1:58AM

It took me about a minute to work out what you were saying, mostly because I prefer: 'eff tee dubbz'.

megaStryke @ Jul 13th 2007 3:49PM

The only game in that package that I care about is Portal. Valve did say that you can download the individual titles via Steam, right?

Arturo @ Jul 13th 2007 3:56PM

Yep!

Jake @ Jul 13th 2007 4:07PM

Yes. Everyone truly wins this time. Well, except Wii only owners. But they wouldn't want a game like this anyways. ;)

Triforceowner @ Jul 13th 2007 4:15PM

BioShock, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Halo 3, The Orange Box, Hell's Highway, and Call of Duty 4 are all on their way; Which do I choose?

therpham @ Jul 13th 2007 4:24PM

Am I going to be able to get the new stuff on my PC without buying the original Half-Life 2 again? That is the question.

therpham @ Jul 13th 2007 4:24PM

Am I going to be able to get the new stuff on my PC without buying the original Half-Life 2 again? That is the question.

paradox @ Jul 13th 2007 4:28PM

Ooh! Ooh! I know! pick the first person shooter!
Seriously, developers, there are other genres to redefine for the next-gen out there.

Ivan @ Jul 13th 2007 4:31PM

Yes, but only through Steam. If you buy retail you must buy the Orange Box for $50.

Jonathan Tran @ Jul 13th 2007 4:29PM

you can probably get it through the power of steam

heat plus water equals steam
the world can be saved with steam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyXUVd2c83c

Arturo @ Jul 13th 2007 4:30PM

"Am I going to be able to get the new stuff on my PC without buying the original Half-Life 2 again? That is the question."

Yes, steam will allow that.

Jose @ Jul 13th 2007 4:33PM

I was thinking a bit, and I can see some people having a serious problem with the fact that none of the games are the same. It's like a variety pack, in a way. Anyone who loves the Half-Life 2 game and setting might be disappointed with the fact that the online game isn't Half-Life 2: Multi-player (which, if you look at HL2: Deathmatch, it blows) but, instead, an entirely different title. I'm not one of these people, but I'm saying, they might be out there.

Personally I liken it to getting Doom 3, Quake Wars, and Prey, all for the price of one game.

Arturo @ Jul 13th 2007 4:36PM

"which, if you look at HL2: Deathmatch, it blows"

umm...no.

Jose @ Jul 13th 2007 4:52PM

Well, okay, you're right. The game does not blow, but no one plays it. Isn't it free if you have an ATI card? Maybe this will raise it's profile so that more people will get online, but we'll probably all be occupied with TF2

Alex @ Jul 13th 2007 5:00PM

does anyone have a tentative release date for the Xbox 360 Version???

Arturo @ Jul 13th 2007 5:03PM

"Well, okay, you're right. The game does not blow, but no one plays it. Isn't it free if you have an ATI card? Maybe this will raise it's profile so that more people will get online, but we'll probably all be occupied with TF2"

No one plays it? are u kidding me? hrrm when i refresh my server list i see quite a few lol

Arturo @ Jul 13th 2007 5:04PM

"does anyone have a tentative release date for the Xbox 360 Version???"

October 9th

Vexorg @ Jul 13th 2007 5:19PM

Come on Valve... I mean, how hard is it to implement smoke signal or carrier pigeon support for online plan anyway?

Borat @ Jul 13th 2007 6:26PM

For $60 you can't do better...

deathneo @ Jul 13th 2007 6:38PM

When will they release this pack on Steam?

You know so Valve can get back to fixing CS:S beta(Valve, dynamic weapon pricing FAILED horribly when every single server turns it off) , and Day of Defeat: 0.5 source. (Seriously adding only 2 maps and no new content in what has to be over a year now, is not good).

I'm on to you Valve! Trying to distract us with Sasha.. Pshh!

Mr. Picklesworth @ Jul 13th 2007 7:06PM

So what became of that HDRified Halflife 2?
I've read no confirmation of that... Is it true? Is it prettier?

tack @ Jul 13th 2007 7:14PM

I still think the Half-Life 2 Silver edition was the best game value.

Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 death match
Counter-Strike: Source
Half-Life: Source
Half-Life Deathmatch Source
Day of Defeat: Source
Half-Life
Half-Life Blue Shift
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike condition zero
condition zero deleted scenes
Day of Defeat
Deathmatch Classic
Half Life Opposing Force
Team Fortress Classic
Ricochet
HL 2 Lost Coast

$59 was well spent.

Dave Silva @ Jul 13th 2007 9:50PM

I never bought HL2, because my computer is trash... but I'm building a new rig soon, and this will be the first title/set I buy. This is an INSANE amount of content for the price. :)

Mark @ Jul 14th 2007 3:40AM

All I am interested in from this orange box is Portal!
It's got innovative and fun gameplay, plus we 'll soon have the modding commnity creating more levels and stuff for it.

The team games are ok, but with UT3 coming out I won't be interested in TF2.

As for what happens next to Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance... who cares?

We all know how this is going to end!
Now that the suppression field is down that they will get involved in repopulating our species in Episode 3! Spoilers Spoilers!