The Orange Box: Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (PC)

This just in! Gordon Freeman still doesn't have much to say.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 2

It all gets tedious long before it's over. By the time your buggy (which is a muscle car this time) is fitted with a radar display to help you find supply caches, there's a crushing sense of futility. This is what Valve expects you to do for the next hour of Half-Life 2: Episode Two? Drive along a single road, stopping the car every now and then to get out and look for ammo and health kits, which you'll invariably expend during the fights along the way? Why not just drive straight through? Valve has no answer to this question.

To its credit, Valve has included a developer's commentary that lets us peer into the process of making Episode Two. It's a fascinating addition, inspired by the folks at Starbreeze, which introduced the idea with its Chronicles of Riddick game. Here's hoping more developers do this. You get a sense not only for how the levels are carefully built, but also for how the player experience is carefully controlled. In fact, it's almost better not to listen to the commentary, which clearly demonstrates what a confined, linear, and claustrophobic shooter this is. Given that games like Crysis and Medal of Honor: Airborne are breaking out of this type of design, and given how well Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and BioShock are adapting to it, Episode Two feels like 2004 all over again.

This is particularly disappointing since there are people at Valve doing awesome work, infusing the developer's games with clever narratives and sharp style. But those guys are apparently working on Portal and Team Fortress 2. For now, the Half-Life franchise feels like something built from Valve's b-side material.

This review is based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.