Half-Life 2: The Orange Box Review

Finally, if Portal may take one afternoon, and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 a single day or a day and a half of moderately relaxed gaming, Team Fortress 2 will have you hooked for weeks and months. The beautiful Pixar-inspired art and the fantastic balance of entirely unique classes fuse to create a multiplayer shooter experience that feels accessible and appealing enough, and yet has excellent depth once you get serious about it.

The thing I like the best about Team Fortress 2 is that it combines a host of different gameplay styles and this is all tied to the classes themselves. So while playing the Soldier may feel like you're in a Quake 2 match, playing the Scout will definitely have you twitching like in the original Unreal Tournament. On the other hand, the unique execution of roles that the Engineer or the Medic provide, allows you to pull the breaks so to speak and play a more tactical, defensive game. And all of this wrapped up in an absolutely endearing art style with colorful and expressive animation.

In a nutshell, I could've skipped all this talk about The Orange Box and just told you to go and get it. Valve's latest release offers great value for your money and many hours of quality entertainment. The Orange Box is a mix of conceptually different products that when combined, provide great entertainment on so many different levels. Let's hope for more stuff like this from Valve (and other publishing houses for that matter -Ed) in the future. Two orangey thumbs up.