Oct 23, 2:56 pm
The Orange Box makes me so happy! Almost as happy as Terry’s Chocolate Orange, minus the sugar rush. It’s the perfect thing to get me back in my gaming groove.
First up, Half Life 2 (plus the two extra chapters, episodes one and two.) Now, I’ll admit, Half Life 2 is probably my least favourite of the Orange Box bunch… Which is weird, as I expected the opposite. I’ve heard so much praise for the Half Life series. I can’t deny that the Valve guys have created an amazing physics engine, but once I get over the excitement of bending a mattress through a door, I find your navigation through the game becomes a little on the repetitive side. Having said that, it’s still one of the most intelligent shooters around, peppered with narrative touches that create and flesh out a living, breathing, virtual universe. Plus I’ve barely scraped the surface of the original installment, so I have a long way to go! Oh, and I unlocked the Zombie Chopper achievement - YAY!
It was the second game, Portal, that really caught my attention. There seems to be a lot of confusion for many people, in that it’s mistaken for a shooter. And true, it does have shooter elements, but Portal is first and foremost a puzzle game. A very peculiar, short-and-sweet puzzle game, loosely connected to the Half Life universe. As a nameless and voiceless player, you are haplessly plonked within a series of clinical rooms. You soon learn that these are test chambers deep within the Aperture Science facility. To move from room to room, you must use a series of self-created portals. Achieve this, and you will earn your freedom - and the promised reward of cake. Throughout all of this, your only companion (apart from fan favourite, the Companion Cube) is a computer who speaks to you over an intercom, monitoring and directing your progress. So far so straight forward, right? But where Portal excels is within its brilliant written dialogue, written by Old Man Murray chaps Erik Wolpaw (also co-writer on Psychonauts) and Chet Faliszek.
Now before I go further, I must say something. Despite what the critics tell us about how gaming is now for everyone, how far the industry is advancing, all the progress we have made - I feel that gaming is still stuck in the stone age when it comes to story telling. Sure, we have seen some classics over the years - in particular back in the point ‘n’ click age (Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Discworld). But on the whole? Drunken five year olds trapped in a bucket of lard could flesh out more three dimensional, engaging scripting. And it irks me.
That’s why I was so surprised to find myself laughing at the dialogue found within Portal. And the irony, and the wit, and the black humour. Contrasting starkly against the clinical grey and white walls within the compound, the murmurings of my computer companion turned what could be a nice puzzle game into a charming, enjoyable adventure. Hands up who’s thinking of putting Portal finale song “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton as a ring tone on their mobile phone, huh?
Finally, I was introduced to Team Fortress 2 the other night as part of my Frag Doll session. It’s a peculiar game in that the variation of game play is found through the nine character classes - not the modes (of which there are only two - both objective-based.) “Here we go, another multiplayer shooter. YAWNZ,” I thought. But half an hour later I was screeching at the television screen, having found a new best friend called ‘unky herb uk’. He was a heavy gunner. I was a medic. And though we never spoke, together we looked out for each other, battling our way through the Granary map (malted is for n00bs) in Control Point mode. If he took out the bad guys, I’d be there on hand to heal him. If I got attacked, he’d back me up. It was like Romeo and Juliet, except the Montagues and Capulets were sentry guns. Aww! I only hope all those currently suckling on Halo 3 will step back and give it a decent chance on Live.
So there you have it! Three (or five, depending on your perspective) excellent games. The only question on your mind shouldn’t be whether or not you should rush out and buy it, but which of the games you’re going to play first.
