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Game review: ‘The Orange Box,’ 4 1/2 stars

“Halo 3” might be all the rage these days among first-person shooter fans, but those looking for the most bang for their buck won’t find a better deal than the action-packed “Orange Box” from Valve Software.

Available now for Windows PCs and the Microsoft Xbox 360 (and coming soon for Sony’s PlayStation 3), “The Orange Box” jams five games into one box: the previously released award-winning sci-fi thriller “Half-Life 2,” the stand-alone episodic games “Half-Life 2: Episode One” and “Half-Life 2: Episode Two,” the eagerly awaited online multiplayer sequel “Team Fortress 2” and the experimental “Portal,” which lets players manipulate the physics of the game world.

Here’s a synopsis of each game.

• In 2004’s “Half-Life 2,” players once again step into the shoes of Gordon Freeman, a young scientist summoned to help rid the world of a nasty alien invasion. In the game, which is played from a first-person perspective, Freeman uses weapons — including a gravity gun that can suck objects toward him and then shoot them back out — as well as vehicles and allied characters, to aid in the fight.

• In 2006’s amazing-but-relatively-short “Half-Life 2: Episode One,” you continue where “Half-Life 2” left off. Freeman and his attractive ally, Alyx Vance, survive a reactor blast in City 17, only to find the giant Citadel structure is about to self-destruct. As with its predecessor, the game features intelligent puzzles and plenty of gripping action.

• While it starts off a bit slow, the brand new “Half-Life 2: Episode Two” takes you outside City 17 for the first time. This story-driven action game once again stars Freeman and introduces new plot elements, tougher creatures and even higher-definition graphics. No new weapons are introduced, but the vehicle sequences are better, the digital sets you play in are bigger and the story is longer.

• By the end of the multistage tutorial at the beginning of “Portal,” you will get the hang of the tremendous power you’re wielding: a gun capable of creating a portal. Your primary and alternate fire buttons are used to create blue and orange portals: The former is the one you jump through, the latter is where you’ll appear from. As the game gets tougher, you’ll need to send objects through the portals, mind the speed you’re traveling when jumping through them and solve increasingly challenging tasks to finish the game.

• “Team Fortress 2” is the sequel to one of the most successful team-based multiplayer action games and lets you take on one of nine distinct roles: demolitions expert, engineer, sniper, pyrotechnics specialist, spy, medic, soldier, scout and the tough but slow “heavy” — a fighter with arms as thick as tree trunks. By working together, you must play against another team on one of a half-dozen maps and in one of a few game modes, such as the popular Capture-the-Flag.

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“The Orange Box”. Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3. Genre: Action. Developer: Valve Software. Publisher: Electronic Arts Web site: http://orange.half-life2.com. Price: $49.99 (PC), $59.99 (Xbox 360, PS3). Rated: “M” for Mature.

Marc Saltzman writes for Gannett News Service.