Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

Unboxing Video: Xenoblade Chronicles X Collector’s Edition Strategy Guide

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I’ve been waiting to play Xenoblade Chronicles X once I received the strategy guide, which showed up late yesterday. And it happened to be a Collector’s Edition strategy guide for the game! Hooray! I love these big beautiful things.

So is the big beautiful book worth the extra price over the paperback guide? Well for starters, this is the only one available. Secondly, here is what you can expect with the strategy guide.

Brief warning: I get rather overwhelmed by the amount of information in the book as I realize this game is bigger than anything I’ve ever played.

Monday Gaming Diary – Just Cause 3 Just Cuz

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I played an absolute load of Just Cause 3 over the weekend. The game doesn’t take itself seriously, and it’s fun to play a game that encourages mass destruction. There’s even a line in the game where Rico’s friend tells him they can rebuild anything he destroys. Thanks for the free pass for as many explosions as I can handle!

I really wasn’t prepared for how big the game is, however. I knew Just Cause games were large, but my jaw fell open when I zoomed out to see the size of the map, including how many extraneous islands were just hanging out kilometers away from the large islands. This is going to take quite a while to clear out, but it will be a lot of fun to do so. Many claim that it’s repetitive, but it’s the same style as an Assassin’s Creed or inFamous game. If those type of open world games don’t appeal to you, then this certainly won’t either.

Me? I’m having a blast, a literal blast, mapping out where I need to go next to make things go boom. Even my eldest loves watching me play. He likes to point out what I need to shoot next, asks what I can blow up, and laughs at my crazy stunts and deaths.

I’d love to say more, but I’m supposed to be reviewing it tonight/tomorrow, so I’ll have to share what I think during this week’s podcast/vidcast.

Also played a bit more of Dragon Quest Heroes before my reviews director yelled at me for not playing Just Cause 3. It’s definitely DQ meets Dynasty Warriors, just with some RPG elements thrown in, including crafting and side quests. It’s a delightful game, and I’m having tons of fun with it.

The strategy guide for Just Cause 3 came in on Saturday (UPS has been horrible this last week with my deliveries, so who knows when I’ll get the guide for Xenoblade Chronicles X), and I have used it a bit, especially with the maps. I hope to get that guide done and reviewed this week as well.

It’s December, but the fun ain’t stopping yet!

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes Strategy Guide Review

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Tri Force Heroes strategy guide reviewTri Force Heroes may be the most unusual The Legend of Zelda game yet, even over Majora’s Mask. It doesn’t have Zelda present, which has happened before in these games, but it’s the lack of true open world exploration and dungeon crawling that really sets it apart. This was obviously designed to make it easier for multiplayer games to jump in and out with little time dedication, not to mention help with replayability. The Tri Force Heroes strategy guide therefore has to be as choppy and dissimilar to any other Legend of Zelda strategy guide. As such, it’s one of the thinnest Zelda strategy guides I own, but the information inside is invaluable for saving Princess Styla from the Witch of the Drablands.

Walkthrough

Like nearly every other Legend of Zelda guide, the Tri Force Heroes strategy guide opens each level with a map, although the maps are typically so small, they aren’t need. When I say small, I’m talking smaller than the smallest dungeon in the original Legend of Zelda game. They’re often just a few screens with little to no backtracking across rooms needed. The only way to go from room to room or screen to screen is by solving various puzzles. Sometimes the puzzles include a boss fight, sometimes they require a precisely timed throw, jump, or arrow.

Tri Force Heroes strategy guideDifferent outfits the Links can wear will give different abilities, but you often won’t know which outfit will be needed until after you try the level and fail gloriously. At the start, right along with the map, the strategy guide lists off the recommended outfit, with the most recommended for single-player at the top. As such, at the end of a level, if a particular outfit requires farming for materials to make it, the strategy guide will strongly suggest that the player take the time to farm and craft it. After replaying one level seven times, I was ready to call it quits and forget ever getting Serpent Fangs to craft the Cozy Parka. Surely it wasn’t as needed as Garitt Rocha insisted it was. I could get along fine without it. I tried one more level without it before I went back to farming. Once I crafted the parka, I begrudgingly admitted that he was right; the Ice Cavern requires this damn parka. After that, I listened to all of his outfit suggestions, no matter how much farming for ingredients I had to do; he was always so infuriatingly spot on.

Where the advice faltered a little bit was with the boss fight strategy. The strategies offered were either flawless, or virtually impossible to follow without two other players in your game. When those sad travesties happened, I happily skipped them (yes, you can skip the levels). It wasn’t worth the frustration in either throwing my 3DS or the book or both.

Challenges

Once a world is completed in the Drablands, challenges for each individual level are unlocked, and each level has 3 challenges. These get the player to replay that level, possibly for the 50th time, but with different parameters. Sometimes the player can’t get hurt, can’t fall, can’t be hit by a snowball, can’t pop random balloons that appear, etc. The Tri Force Heroes strategy guide details every challenge imaginable, and lists which challenge appears where, along with the prizes for completing them. Yet, no specific strategies are provided for the specific level challenge. Obviously some would be rather straight forward, such as the don’t fall or don’t get hurt challenges, but surely there is some advice for the speed run challenges or the challenges that require a sword to never be used.

Appendices

As expected from a Prima Games Legend of Zelda strategy guide, the appendices are pristine, easy to follow, and leave nothing to chance. All outfits are listed, including when they unlock, which materials are needed, and where the materials can be found. Every material item is also listed with every location where it can be found, including which challenges will yield the material as a prize.

Final Word

If you need help getting through Tri Force Heroes solo or even with friends, the strategy guide will point you in the right direction and give you all the prep you need. If it dug a bit more into the challenges, it would get a higher score, but somehow I doubt challenges are in this audience’s wheelhouse. Seriously, the levels are hard enough without extra prerequisites.

SGR Rating: 4.5/5

Author: Garitt Rocha
Publisher: Prima Games
Edition available: Collector’s Edition and Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Strategy Guide Review

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Assassin's Creed Syndicate strategy guide reviewThe Assassin’s Creed strategy guides have always been done by the Piggyback publishing group in Europe and then distributed by Prima Games in the US. I had a rough start with the AC guides, but with each game, the guide presentation and information improved along with the gameplay. Well, except for Assassin’s Creed III, which had a fantastic strategy guide to accompany an abysmal game. When I heard that Piggyback would not be supplying the US edition of the Assassin’s Creed Syndicate strategy guide, I was nervous about it. Would they take from the pages of Piggyback’s guides and continue with that format of maps, parkour strategies, and collectible hunting? Why yes they did, and if you use the Assassin’s Creed Syndicate strategy guide, I can personally guarantee you will have all the tips and tricks to get that 100% synchronization, including all of the collectibles.

Did I achieve 100% synch? Oh hell no, but that’s because I thought some of the challenges were stupid. Get through this mission without killing anyone? What? Is this Pacifist’s Creed or Assassin’s Creed? I don’t play this game to NOT stab people. Come on, seriously.

Walkthrough

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is roughly half main quest, half side quest and collectible hunting. I spent more time collectible hunting than doing anything else, but that’s simply because there are so many. Plus it’s easy to get distracted while on the way to a mission when more blips suddenly appear on the mini-map. That said, the main missions are rather meaty and long, and they were no menial task. For the most part, if you keep your levels above and beyond what is suggested, you can easily coast through most of the missions. However, if you want to do more than coast, such as accomplish all of the challenges for that 100% synchronization or find the easiest routes for accomplishing the task without trial and error, then the strategy guide is definitely your friend.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate strategy guide

DON’T kill any policemen? Eh, okay.

It’s particularly perfect in giving tips for all of the challenges for each memory. Sometimes the way to complete a challenge isn’t entirely obvious, such as using smoke bombs to avoid killing police for one mission, and the strategy guide illustrates them both figuratively and literally. The challenges are always set in their own bold headers, so the reader can’t miss them when using the guide for the walkthroughs.

For any missions that may require particular paths to be taken, the Assassin’s Creed guides have always presented these pathways with a screenshot and a red arrow that kindly marks the way, complete with jumps and places to hide. Prima has adopted this established method, and they’ve thankfully made each screenshot with the designations as large as they need to be. As such, they aren’t uniform in size, but who cares when you can actually see where you need to go. From a document design standpoint, it isn’t visually appealing, but in this case, usefulness wins out over aesthetically pleasing design.

In addition, several end missions for a Sequence have a major assassination for Evie or Jacob to commit, and each one has various opportunities available. Each mission presents unique ways to infiltrate the compound, different methods of getting close to the target, and additional targets and challenges. The strategy guide lays out what each alternative consists of so the player can easily decide which method suits his or her personal gameplay preference. Believe it or not, I preferred the stealth way of getting to my targets instead of the combative method, and if I couldn’t figure it out on my own, then the strategy guide was a lifesaver.

Side Quests and Collectibles

Roughly half of the strategy guide is dedicated to both of these elements, and no stone was left unturned with either of them. Most of the side quests are little missions you can do for your Associates, such a raiding boats on the Thames or participating in a race, many others are in regards to clearing out Boroughs of Blighter control, and a few more are extra London stories that can be completed at any time.

Each Borough activity is explained, various methods are provided for accomplishing them, and all challenges are also detailed. The Templar Hunt section is particularly useful, as it lists each Templar, where they are, and the easiest way to kill them via the challenge prerequisite. Most of the other Associate activities are fairly self explanatory, such as the Fight Clubs and the Races, but I was downright awful at any Cargo Hijacking for Ned Wynert. The only way I could successful steal cargo was to stumble onto it and kill the Blighters before they manned the cart. If they were already driving down the road, I was never going to get them. The Assassin’s Creed Syndicate strategy guide, however, provided some tips into successfully taking down an already-moving caravan. Although as the guide points out, it’s far easier to hijack cargo before it goes into a caravan, tips or no tips.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate strategy guide

No excuses for not finding everything.

As for the collectibles, this game probably had more collectibles than any other AC game before it. There are the Helix Glitches, the chests, locked chests, pressed flowers, letters from the Queen, World War I letters, Secrets of London, posters, and beer bottles. For this strategy guide to win the prize, it would have to help me find all of them, especially the Secrets of London and letters, as there are no maps I can buy with in-game currency (the Helix Credits do not count as in-game currency). Yes, you can use the Progression Log for clues where to find the Secrets of London, but who has the time for that? I know I certainly don’t. Thanks to the guide, I spent only an hour scouring London for each Secret, netting Evie her Legendary Armor. For each collectible, they are marked on different maps of the regions (the chests get their own map because boy howdy there are a ton) and then each has exactly where it can be found, such as on the rooftop, under stairs, etc.

This right here is exactly why the Assassin’s Creed Syndicate strategy guide receives as high of a score as it does.

Appendices

The appendices are decent, although I have to admit I never really used them since everything in the appendices can be found in the main menu to begin with. However, if there are some weapons or gear you want crafted that are grayed out and therefore don’t know what they are, the appendices has them all listed and how to obtain them, including those that can only be unlocked via uPlay.

The most important appendix, of course, is the one that lists all of the Achievements and Trophies. Not only does it list all of them and the requirements, but the book also gives tips for obtaining each one. I wish this was precedent for each and every strategy guide.

Final Word

Prima Games has undoubtedly carried on the fine tradition that Piggyback progressed to with the Assassin’s Creed Syndicate strategy guide. I couldn’t be more pleased with this strategy guide, and in case you didn’t notice, I had zero complaints about this one. That could be a first for AC strategy guides.

If you want that 100% completion and Platinum Trophy, then this strategy guide is your perfect personal assistant for doing so. I cannot recommend it enough for any fan of the series.

SGR Rating: 5/5

Authors: Tim Bogenn and Will Murray
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Collector’s Edition and Paperback
Review copy acquired via publisher.

Monday Gaming Diary: Finished Game Blues

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Since school was closed all last week, I had plenty of time to wrap up Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, which I did for the most part. The only things I haven’t done are the Queen Victoria missions you receive after completing the game, and the Dreadful Crimes DLC. Other than that, all collectible blips are complete.

Farewell, London. For now.

Farewell, London. For now.

On the one hand, I’m pretty darn stoked, because that means I can finally write up the review of the strategy guide, but on the other hand, I’m super bummed my time is pretty much over in London. I could do the Dreadful Crimes DLC, and I know I have other DLC coming with the Season Pass, but it’s time for me to move on. Jacob and Evie stopped the Templars’ evil plot, the present day story set up future games, and all secrets have been unlocked. There’s nothing major left for me to do.

When I realized it was pretty much over, I instantly became sad. I’m typically thrilled when I finish a game, but I enjoyed this one so much, I’m not ready for the overall story to be over. I have my fingers crossed rather hard that the Season Pass includes more story-based DLC, like Ubisoft provided with the Dead Kings DLC for AC Unity.

Although I suppose I should just suck it up and move on to Dragon Age Inquisition, The Witcher 3, or Mad Max, the other three massive open world games I have just waiting for me to finish. So many blips in those as well, and I have this mighty need to clear the blips. I did go back to DAI after Thanksgiving since I was kid-free for three days, and the desire to remove blips was strong once again. However, I was getting ideas on how Chris might approach certain situations as Vlad the Heartless, and the thought of starting a playthrough as a heartless bastard made me giggle. I may do that later as a Qunari, since they don’t seem to have many fucks to give. Naturally, I’ll be doing this with all of the spare time I have.

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