The Orange Box (Xbox 360)

The original team fortress was a true triumph and had me addicted for many, many hours.

Team Fortress 2 doesn’t really re-invent the original, it doesn’t give us new classes to toy with, it doesn’t bring a whole host of new maps. What it does do is take the original and refine it. The adjustments to each class are subtle in places and more noticeable in others though each one is executed with perfection.

Instead of building on the violence expected in the FPS genre TF2 brings a different art style that significantly lightens the mood. The art style is quite cartoony and is heavily influenced by ‘early 20th century commercial illustrations’. The art style definitely holds the game away from its counterparts and really adds to the sense of enjoyment.

Whilst I’ve said that the maps haven’t changed, they have had a new lick of paint. In fact the map 2Fort despite being virtually identical to the same map in the original felt completely different due to the new artistic direction. I actually got a little lost on a few occasions. In fact the maps are more restrictive than you may expect. Rather than choosing a map and a game type, each map only supports one type of game. This has allowed the maps to be tweaked so that you get the best possible results from each map. Choke points are expertly placed and after a few games I forgave the developers for restricting the play types. Each map is specifically designed to be great in only one game type.

For me Team Fortress 2 is the highlight of the package and I have put a lot of hours into it. The developers do seem committed to the project as a patch came out shortly after release which significantly improved net performance.

In summary The Orange Box is worth buying. Sure some elements feel a little dated, but on the whole it is a great experience. The game could have been split up into its separate components and each sold as an individual title and all parts would have sold well.