I recently obtained the Xbox 360 game “The Orange Box” and on it are 5 games, I will be reviewing 3 of these games; “Half Life 2, “Half Life 2: Episode 1” and “Half Life 2: Episode 2.” These games are some of the best first person shooters that I have ever played. It ranks up there with Halo and Doom. The story is much more involved than most any other game and there is a wide variety of objectives to complete. There are plenty of weapons and strange aliens to fight. Though these games are separate they are all part of one continuous story so I will review them as one long game.
I won’t spoil the story for those of you who haven’t played it but I will say that you play as Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who is in City 17, an urban area controlled by the Combine, a race of aliens who have essentially taken over Earth. You are a part of the resistance and a key part of its success.
The game takes a little while to get going, in terms of the first person shooter aspects, you spend a lot of time in the beginning running away from combine soldiers and dodging bullets but you will eventually gather a large inventory of weapons. There are many enemies to fight including barnacles, who have long tongue-like things that stretch down and if you come in contact with it the barnacle will pull you up towards it. There are also headcrabs who will attempt to jump on your head (obviously) and suck the life out of you. Along the way these headcrabs will latch on to dead human and combine bodies creating zombies that you will have to fight. Then there are the standard combine soldiers who are humanoid but are always completely covered with armor.
You will also run into many friends along the way who will help you out in various ways or you will help them out. The story is compelling but confusing at times, especially when the mysterious “G-Man” appears and all of the games like to leave you with a cliffhanger to keep you on the edge of your seat.
The control is fluid while you have the weapons selected and it is fairly easy to learn how to use every weapon effectively. There are some puzzles that you have to solve to move on and many times you will find yourself in crawlspaces and other weird places to get around barriers that are blocking your immediate path. The only control problem that I had was the driving stages, throughout all three games you have several levels where you have to drive different vehicles and this was a little frustrating for me because it wasn’t dual analog stick control. While the right stick makes you look it doesn’t turn the car in that direction, you have to rely completely on the left stick and there are many times when you will find yourself having a hard time controlling the vehicle.
This game has a good replay value because of how fun the action is, regardless of the fact that the story is great, replay value will come from the action in first person shooters and this game delivers. The graphics are very good and I have yet to see a glitch in any of the environments. Overall these three games are incredible first person shooters that any fan of FPS’s should take a look at. The story is riveting, the characters are strong, the action is great, and the control, for the most part, is very good. I highly recommend these titles.
Gameplay 9.8
Story 9.9
Replay Value 9.5
Graphics 9.6
Overall 9.7
I won’t spoil the story for those of you who haven’t played it but I will say that you play as Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who is in City 17, an urban area controlled by the Combine, a race of aliens who have essentially taken over Earth. You are a part of the resistance and a key part of its success.
The game takes a little while to get going, in terms of the first person shooter aspects, you spend a lot of time in the beginning running away from combine soldiers and dodging bullets but you will eventually gather a large inventory of weapons. There are many enemies to fight including barnacles, who have long tongue-like things that stretch down and if you come in contact with it the barnacle will pull you up towards it. There are also headcrabs who will attempt to jump on your head (obviously) and suck the life out of you. Along the way these headcrabs will latch on to dead human and combine bodies creating zombies that you will have to fight. Then there are the standard combine soldiers who are humanoid but are always completely covered with armor.
You will also run into many friends along the way who will help you out in various ways or you will help them out. The story is compelling but confusing at times, especially when the mysterious “G-Man” appears and all of the games like to leave you with a cliffhanger to keep you on the edge of your seat.
The control is fluid while you have the weapons selected and it is fairly easy to learn how to use every weapon effectively. There are some puzzles that you have to solve to move on and many times you will find yourself in crawlspaces and other weird places to get around barriers that are blocking your immediate path. The only control problem that I had was the driving stages, throughout all three games you have several levels where you have to drive different vehicles and this was a little frustrating for me because it wasn’t dual analog stick control. While the right stick makes you look it doesn’t turn the car in that direction, you have to rely completely on the left stick and there are many times when you will find yourself having a hard time controlling the vehicle.
This game has a good replay value because of how fun the action is, regardless of the fact that the story is great, replay value will come from the action in first person shooters and this game delivers. The graphics are very good and I have yet to see a glitch in any of the environments. Overall these three games are incredible first person shooters that any fan of FPS’s should take a look at. The story is riveting, the characters are strong, the action is great, and the control, for the most part, is very good. I highly recommend these titles.
Gameplay 9.8
Story 9.9
Replay Value 9.5
Graphics 9.6
Overall 9.7
2 comments:
yeah the funny thing was ive never even played the games, how about portal? howd that go?
Portal was pretty good too, a little short and almost impossible to do without a walkthrough.
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