Big package

by ERIK LEIJON

What the hell is the Orange Box (X360, PC/Valve, Valve) you ask? Is it the latest plan for healthcare reform from the NDP? Could it be a super secret hi-tech beverage coming from Montreal’s favourite julep stand? Or maybe it’s Youppi’s wife’s...err...

To answer your queries, it’s none of those things. It is, though, a greatest hits holiday collection starring one of the best first-person shooters of all time, Half-Life 2. Included in this one-disc package (which costs the same as any other game) are the celebrated Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One (a continuation of HL2). The three new titles are Half-Life: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal, all pertaining to the HL universe.

Some have been calling this package the greatest deal since Lawrence Phillips pawned his Grey Cup ring in Vegas (the man has a big ring finger), and the value is certainly augmented if you’ve never played the original Half-Life 2. Assuming you have, we’ll move on and discuss the two more interesting parts of this compilation: Portal and Team Fortress 2.

Portal is a first-person puzzle game designed more as a lark by the developers. Players are dropped into a series of creepy-looking rooms, not unlike the death traps in the Canadian sci-fi movie Cube. Armed with a gun that can shoot two portal holes (an orange and a blue) against certain surfaces, the character can freely pass from one aperture to the other. The goal of every room is to find the exit, at which point you’ll be given some backhanded compliments from a mysterious, digitally-altered voice urging you to move on.

As with any good puzzle game, it all seems so deceptively simple at first, but once the game gets tougher the amount of precision that went into level design becomes apparent. By placing portal openings on ceiling or floors, the character can mess around with physical theories of inertia and gravity, creating some neat momentum-based tricks such as causing an infinite loop of portal hopping that will send you flying at incredibly high speeds. Although a first-person game, it isn’t a shooter of any kind and reminded me a lot of PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient for the PSP or the directional hijinx of Chu Chu Rocket for the Dreamcast. Because of the comparisons, I was hoping for a level editor, but what’s included is very satisfying.

Team Fortress 2 is the multiplayer portion of the box. Formerly a Quake and Half-Life mod (meaning a new game made by the public based on the original Quake and HL engines), TF2 is a cartoonish, anything goes first-person shooter with simple rules that guarantee fun for both novices and seasoned vets looking for a break from Halo 3. Team Fortress 2 separates characters into nine distinct classes (similar to last week’s Quake Wars), each with their own unique qualities. It’s rare that an FPS so rooted in multiplayer will include differences between the characters, as finding a correct balance can be difficult (remember the diminutive and hard-to-shoot Oddjob in GoldenEye for the N64?).

Team Fortress 2 also has some of the most detailed post-fight statistics you will ever see, essentially charting your progress as a player. With a Serious Sam-esque, unrealistic graphical style, Team Fortress 2 is simply a fun, rich multiplayer experience without being overly complicated (or dependant on any type of storyline). Counter-Strike remains the gold standard of Half-Life mods, but this is an essential sidebar.

Until next year

The other important holiday title coming from a local developer, EA Montreal’s Army of Two, has been delayed until early 2008. The highly ingenious co-op action game that forces players to work together looked good at E3, so keep it on your radar.