Game Review: 'The Orange Box'

— -- They raised the bar for the first-person shooter genre with "Half-Life" and managed to one-up themselves with the release of the long-awaited and much beloved sequel "Half-Life 2."

Now the video game gods at Valve Software are at it again, this time offering up the holiday season's best value for gamers, which includes one of the most unique gaming experiences enthusiasts have ever been offered.

"The Orange Box" isn't just a video game, it's five. Included on the game disc are the critically acclaimed "Half-Life 2," the game's two minisequels, "Half-Life 2: Episode One" and "Half-Life 2: Episode Two," plus the latest version of the popular online shoot-em-up "Team Fortress 2" and the wholly original puzzle game "Portal."

Every minute of gaming offered up by "The Orange Box" is fun and worth its weight in gold, and while the graphical presentation of "Team Fortress 2" is amazing thanks to the use of "cel shading" to make the game look like a 3-D cartoon, it's "Portal" that stands out in this small, yet distinguished crowd.

When One Door Closes, a Portal Opens

In "Portal," Valve Software's unique brand of digital alchemy has generated a one-of-a-kind, fun and challenging gaming experience like nothing you've seen before.

As a test subject for Aperture Science Inc., it's your job to find your way out of a series of test chambers with only the company's latest high-tech device, the "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device," to help you make your way around.

Though the eerily soothing female voice of your unseen A.I. supervisor, GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), guides you along with a few instructions, some ominous comments and the promise of cake upon successfully completing the test, there's not much story to speak of in Portal, and who cares? The game is so much fun, challenging and different, that a complex story would only get in the way.

When fired at a wall, the "portal gun" creates an opening and when fired again, it creates another. Walk through one portal, and you'll walk out the other. Generate a portal on the ceiling and fire one at your feet and you'll find yourself endlessly falling through the same room -- and building momentum at the same time. Launch one at a vertical wall as you're falling, and send yourself flying across the room.

But Wait, There's More ...

"Team Fortress 2" is a follow up to the popular PC game "mod" -- a game made from the modified code of an existing game -- "Team Fortress." The original title, first made for the id Software game "Quake," was a team-based, online first-person shooter, where players would basically run around and shoot, blow up or knife each other for points.

In this hotly anticipated incarnation of the game, players are treated to a totally new and different aesthetic. Both the game world and the players take on a cartoonish look that's both humorous and a delight to the eyes.

The game uses what's called "cel shading," named after the "cels" used to animate cartoons. The end result is an eye-popping feast that's as much fun to watch as it is to play. Well, it's probably more fun to play than watch, but you get the idea.

And Still More ...

There's not much that can be said about the critically acclaimed, award winning and peer envied game "Half-Life 2" that hasn't already been said.

An almost perfect game by any measure, "The Orange Box" not only includes a full version of "Half-Life 2" for the first time on a console, but when players are done and wanting more -- and they WILL want more -- they can challenge themselves to one of the two minisequels included on the disc, "Half-Life 2: Episode 1" and "Half-Life 2: Episode 2."

It's hard to overstate what a fantastic bargain "The Orange Box" truely is. Had the games makers wanted to, they likely could have seen some financial success from releasing separately "Half-Life 2," "Portal" and "Team Fortress 2." It would have been worth it to plunk down $50 for any one of these titles.

Instead, gamers are being offered a rare treat from the gaming industry: a freebie!

Gift givers and receivers listen up: If you like well-made, beautifully created games and want to get in on the bargain of the season, then this is the game to own.