Half-Life 2 (Orange Box): Prima Official Game Guide
by David Hodgson, Stephen Stratton
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Book Summary Information
Author: David Hodgson, Stephen StrattonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-09
ISBN: 0761556931
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Prima Games
Book Reviews of Half-Life 2 (Orange Box): Prima Official Game Guide
Book Review: Great FPS
Summary: 5 Stars
As I stated in earlier posts, I'm in an early phase of teaching myself FPS games. The Orange Box was one of the games I bought to educate myself in the fine art of shooters. I got this along with Bioshock from someone on my AF base used.
All my friends have played Half Life 2 and portal. Most of my friends back in California are science and math nerds, so the physics behind the game made them giddy. They also liked portal because of the physics used. When I was home last August one of my friends showed me Team fortress 2. I had seen all these games before, but didn't pay any attention because they were FPS games. The Orange box comes with 5 full games. Half life 2, Half life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. What better deal can you get on 1 disk?
I started with Half life 2. I read a synopsis of the first game, so i could understand what was going on with the storyline. The game starts out fast paced and action packed, and continues throughout the rest of the game. The weapons, the vehicles, the dialogue, it's all good. The graphics were astounding. I should have played this before Halo 3. The game seems like a typical FPS until the vehicle travel came into play. I have to admit the controls to vehicles in Half Life 2 are tricky to get a hang of. One thing that Halo got right is vehicle travel controls. Once you start driving around it seems like the game is endless. The maps are huge, and it takes hours to get through different sections. There are a multitude of blocks in the road you have to dismount and figure out how to move. The storyline progresses and zombies, robots, snipers, epic boss fights show up. The last boss is about ten times easier than the first boss. Overall the game is amazing. The physics added really make the game. The physics make the game eerily real, and able to have degrees of puzzle solving where mindless shooting would have been. Great game, a must play.
Episode 1 is mostly just a small addition to the game. It barely has any story line besides, you beat the game now get the hell out of the place. This expansion seems to be lacking any original concepts, besides at the end. At the end there is a mission to protect civilians to get on a train to escape. This take a bit of skill, and to get the achievement to save all the civilians is painstaking. The final boss is in such an odd area that it took me about 5 tries to figure out how to kill him. I think this expansion could have been orchestrated with a 10 minute cut scene before episode 2.
Episode 2 however is like a whole new game. There is a deep, well thought out storyline. There is even a bit of drama and suspense. This episode even introduces some new characters, new monsters, and new concepts. You fight a lot of new bugs. There is a huge bug boss battle that is so challenging you'll have to be a pro with the gravity gun to get by. The is a Left 4 Dead like survival scene against never ending attacks of bugs, where you will have to be a pro at turret management. There are new robot battles, and long vehicle drives. So long I got lost. The final battle is better than any boss fight in the original. This expansion is so worth playing. I almost suggest reading a synopsis of Episode 1 and skipping it. Then go straight to Episode 2 and have fun.
Portal is one of those games that looks dumb, but them you start playing it and you can't stop. I've never been very good at puzzle games, or had much interest in them. Though Portal is a FPS view puzzle game. It's really strange walking around in a camera view where you want to pull a trigger and kill some digital people, and you don't. You walk through portals you make in the walls with a portal making gun. You use the portals to make ball, cubes, yourself fall on things and change with the environment. I assume that the guys over at valve made the physics engine and ran some tests. They found a mass array of crazy instances to show to their management for beta testing. Then someone decided to take all the crazy instances and work a puzzle game around it. I don't know if that is true or not, I'm to lazy to research. Though, it feel like Portal would be born from an instance like that. The game is full of humor. I laughed my ass off at all the crazy stuff the computer says to you. It's like working somewhere and the walls start to insult you. The enging of the game is really funny, I'm not going to spoil anything for anyone, it's a must to finish the whole game. Portal has great re-playability. After you beat the game you can try the advanced levels, and then try challenges to the advanced levels. I'm borderline retarded, and it took me days to beat the advanced levels. Portal is totally worth playing.
Team Fortress 2 is only for people that have X-box live. It's a multi-player online FPS that is run off the Half Life 2 Engine, kind of like Left 4 Dead. I watched a friend play this a couple times and tried it out. It was love at first sight. It's not like any other Online FPS. There are different classes with a lot of special abilities. The game is set in kind of a cartoony cloak and dagger cold war spy movie. You can play a soldier, with a large bazooka. A engineer, building turrets and portals. A Scout, running around fast and double jumping. A Big, with a freak'in Gatling gun. A medic, healing others and getting assisted kills. A spy, sneaking around invisible or cloaking the other team. Or a ballistics guy, with a grenade gun. All these different classes makes it easy to not get bored. New comers can easily play a medic and just help out until they figure out the game, or play an engineer and build turrets and hide. I understand the computer version of this has more maps, weapons, and players. If you want to really play TF2 get it for the computer. But, if you don't have a good enough computer, or just prefer console gaming play it on X-bow. I prefer the controls on the x-box over the keyboard, because my fingers get cramped easier on the keyboard. It's nice to lounge om my couch and play TF2 over sitting at a computer desk. This online game is really fun, and the achievements with take you weeks to get.
This box set is an amazing value. The set is easily found on E-bay, Amazon, the bargain bin at most retailers. Go pick it up for around $20. It will keep you busy for a long time.
*****
Game Play: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Music/Sound Effects: 7/10
Storyline: 8/10
Re-playability: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
*****
Summary of Half-Life 2 (Orange Box): Prima Official Game Guide
.Complete strategy for Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2..Half-Life 2: Enhanced biographies and enemy information showcasing all the new entities!
.G-Man locations, hidden item stashes, and more revealed!
.Portal: Tactics for every single level, with incredible, mind-bending shortcuts from the development team!
.Team Fortress 2: Complete information for all characters and insanely advanced tactics for every map.
.Comprehensive list of all Xbox 360 Achievements, with hints for completing them.
.Fully labeled maps of every single level in all five games!
.Raising the Bar: Exclusive artwork and developer interviews for all games!
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