Brad Hilderbrand - Strategy Guide Reviews

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Strategy Guide Review

September 29, 2015 By Brad Hilderbrand Leave a Comment

Wait, we’re making videos now?! All right, in that case check out my ugly mug as I review the collector’s edition of the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain strategy guide. This is one beefy, comprehensive guide, but is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Watch the video to find out, and tell me in the comments how I’m ugly, smelly and should never be on-camera again. Then I can ignore you and make even more videos, BECAUSE THE INTERNET NEEDS ME!

SGR Rating: 3.5/5

Authors: Mathieu Daujam, James Price
Publisher: Piggyback
Editions available: Paperback, Collector’s Edition (Reviewed)
Acquired via publisher

Batman: Arkham Knight Strategy Guide Review

August 4, 2015 By Brad Hilderbrand 8 Comments

It’s almost eerie how closely the strategy guide for Batman: Arkham Knight mirrors the game itself. Like its namesake, the guide is super-sexy and packed full of delightful surprises. Unfortunately, like the game itself, the book starts to fall apart in the third act, holding it back from being one of the all-time greats.

The Collector’s Edition of the Batman: Arkham Knight strategy guide is elegance personified. There’s an air of mystery and sophistication with the simple black cover, and the lithographic title adds a dash of playfulness and fun. It’s said you should never judge a book by its cover, but when the cover is this nice it at least deserves a nod. The book also comes with lithograph prints of some of the game’s characters, as well as the Batmobile, all of which look absolutely stunning. They’re of a quality that it wouldn’t be out-of-line to proudly hang them on your wall, they look that good.

Things only get better as you start digging into the content of the guide itself, which is chock full of gorgeous art from the game and in-depth descriptions of both Batman’s abilities, as well as the foes he’s about to face on this particular Halloween in Gotham. As you progress through the game’s story the guide pulls out character profiles in order to quickly bring you up to speed and build a bit more color into the experience, as well as doling out tips and tricks for new abilities and gadgets as they unlock. All these little touches add to an expertly-paced, informative walkthrough that does just enough handholding without being condescending. It’s a fine tightrope, and the guide walks it expertly.

Another small but appreciated flourish is the guide’s ability to largely avoid spoilers throughout. Arkham Knight is a twisty, turny game and there are a lot of impactful moments that could be potentially ruined if you read ahead in a book that plays fast and loose with the story. Impressively, the guide largely sidesteps this, so even if you flip to the wrong page or read ahead a bit it’s unlikely you’ll have any part of the game ruined.

Beyond the main story the strategy guide also meticulously details each of the game’s Most Wanted side-missions, listing locations, strategies and special considerations for taking out each of Gotham’s most-dangerous villains in their respective multi-part quests. While the guide is comprehensive, this is also where the first imperfections start to show, as it sometimes fails to point out that specific quests cannot be completed until certain points in the game. If you’re the type of player who likes to take a break from the story in order to knock out some missions along the way it can be frustrating to hit a hard stopping point in certain missions because they’re functionally impossible to finish until later. It would have been helpful if the guide had broken down the missions by chapter in which a certain section could be completed, because as it stands now it just assumes you’ve finished the main story and are doing everything after Gotham’s primary threats have been thwarted.

As I tore through the guide I was debating whether this might be one of the best ever created, in spite of its minor shortcomings. I found myself happily opening it up every time I booted up the game, keeping it close for reference, and sometimes flipping to the Arkham Universe preview in the back, which contains even more great artwork and a look back at the series as a whole. It was all going so well, at least until I hit the Collectibles chapter.

In most games the collectibles aren’t that big of a deal, typically amounting to little more than an Achievement and maybe an XP boost if found. However, in Batman: Arkham Knight, they play a key role in the Riddler’s Most Wanted mission, which in turn must be finished in order to see the game’s full ending. Therefore, I was crestfallen when I turned to this section in my hunt for Riddler’s 240+ collectibles and found a slapped-together, painfully unhelpful guide.

First off, rather than utilizing the in-game maps and icons to list out where the various riddles, trophies, and destructibles are located, the guide instead opts to create its own maps with numbered, colored boxes to denote locations. This is already slightly confusing, as you have to juggle in your mind what the various shades stand for, and flip across multiple pages to find the corresponding entry in the guide.

More egregious than the lackluster maps is the barebones entries for each of the riddles, which are practically useless. Each entry is comprised of a tiny screenshot that provides absolutely no context, alongside maybe a sentence-long explanation of how to attain a given trophy, and that’s if you’re lucky. The entries are vague, cramped and mostly unhelpful, and the entire section is a massive disappointment. I very quickly gave up on this section entirely, instead opting for an IGN wiki since it actually provided insight on how to solve the trickier puzzles.

The Batman: Arkham Knight strategy guide does almost everything right, with a big emphasis on the almost. Still, it’s one of the more informative, helpful and ridiculously good-looking books out there, so it’s easy to recommend. The Knight is dark and full of terrors, but this guide will light your path.

SGR Rating: 4/5

Author: Michael Owen & Joe Epstein
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions available: Paperback and Collector’s Edition
Acquired via publisher

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Strategy Guide Review

November 11, 2014 By Brad Hilderbrand Leave a Comment

I do not envy the folks who were tasked with writing the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel strategy guide. The Borderlands franchise has always been one with sprawling maps, countless enemies, and so many weapon variants that it boggles the mind. Anyone who has agonized over swapping out a gun that deals more base damage over one that fires corrosive bullets knows exactly the pain I’m talking about. With new characters, new powers, and a whole new world to explore (with reduced gravity!) the BradyGames crew does an admirable job delivering a comprehensive, informative guide that serves as a vital companion to the experience.

What originally struck me as funny when thumbing through the guide is that the main story walkthrough is actually a fairly minor section. Don’t get it wrong, the guide does a fine job of walking you through the main story missions and letting you know how to effectively get around Pandora’s moon of Elpis, it’s just that in the grand scheme of the game the primary missions are but a small piece of the overall experience. Still, the guide dutifully takes you from point-to-point in your adventure, complete with extensive maps and helpful screenshots to guide you to those hard-to-find locales.

In a brilliant bit of foresight, the strategy guide also has special callouts at the end of each relevant story mission to let you know which side quests have unlocked. Borderlands titles have always been mostly about losing yourself for dozens of hours completing secondary and tertiary mission’s for the world’s eccentric (and mildly insane) citizenry, and it’s truly helpful to know when and where you can pick up new missions as they become available. Sometimes, the guide even points out that a mission may be unlocked, but it’s more beneficial to wait a bit before starting it because you’ll be in the same area later on doing another task. Having a comprehensive strategy for conquering the chaos of these bonus missions is potentially the guide’s greatest strength.

In addition to the step-by-step mission guides there’s also an exhaustive beastiary, a full breakdown of Achievements/Trophies and Badass Challenges, as well as a great primer for new players and a few handy tips on new mechanics for franchise vets. One of my favorite touches is the recommended builds for both solo play and co-op for each of the main characters, as well as a great analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each skill tree. In previous Borderlands games I always felt like I was flying blind as I built up my character, so it’s great to have a template from which to build.

Some players may be a bit sad to hear that the weapons breakdown is fairly straightforward, merely laying out the different manufacturers and their weapons’ unique qualities. You won’t find an exhaustive list of every possible weapon in the game, but to ask for such a thing is foolhardy anyway. Since weapon/loot drops are random and there are countless possible combinations it would be impractical (if not impossible) to try and list them all. What is offered is perfectly sufficient, and the guide will call out specific weapons that are either granted as part of a mission or as a reward for completing a quest.

I’ll admit that when I first picked up the guide for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel I had no idea how anyone could possibly explain this incredibly huge, complex game in a way that made sense. I was very happy to find that not only can it be done, but done in such a way that feels effortless. Every time I boot up the game I’ve got the guide at my side, not because I have to for the purposes of a review, but because I want it at my fingertips to help me beat every baddie and uncover every secret. I can’t imagine higher praise than that.

SGR Rating: 5/5

Author: Rick Barba and Michael Lummis
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions available: Paperback
Acquire via publisher

The Last of Us: Remastered Strategy Guide Review

August 14, 2014 By Brad Hilderbrand Leave a Comment

With the rerelease of The Last of Us on the PS4, the folks at BradyGames are in an interesting position. On the one hand, the base game is fundamentally the same, so how do you create a strategy guide that players will find useful? If someone already has the guide for the PS3 version of the title, is there value in picking up the new version for The Last of Us: Remastered? Unfortunately, just like in the post-infection landscape Joel and Ellie find themselves roaming, there are no easy answers.

The Last of Us: Remastered strategy guide starts off with some basic gameplay info and survival tips, which makes it invaluable for newcomers but less so for returning vets. The section covers important gameplay elements like scavenging parts and items for weapon upgrades and crafting, as well as a breakdown of the various enemy types and the weapons you’ll be using to stay alive. If this is your first foray outside the Quarantine Zone then this section is chock full of important intel. However, for those who have braved the infected-strewn landscape before there’s nothing really important to see here. The only thing which seasoned players might reference are the tables laying out how much it costs to upgrade the various weapons in various ways so they can easily plan which improvements they want to go for first or if they need to save up for a while to get a critical upgrade for a favored gun.

The guide then transitions into the single-player walkthrough, providing not only general navigation info, but also combat tips and collectible locations. What’s nice about the layout is that each section and set piece is given its own map and walkthrough, so you won’t have to flip back several pages in order to find critical info. What’s less impressive is that sometimes the info is ordered strangely, and missable collectibles and moments aren’t mentioned until after you’ve already passed them.

For instance, in order to get the “That’s All I’ve Got” trophy you have to listen to all of Ellie’s jokes, which only trigger in specific situations. The first of these comes as you get ready to transition from one part of a map to another, right before you climb over an obstacle. The strategy guide will tell you to go ahead and move to the next part of the map, but immediately after will mention that you need to stand in a specific, now inaccessible, area to get Ellie to tell her joke. At this point you’ve already missed your opportunity, and have to reload an earlier save (if you thought to create a manual save at a seemingly arbitrary point) or, much worse and more likely, restart the entire chapter in order to get the event to trigger. Frustratingly, this isn’t the only time in the game when something like this happens, and I found myself missing key collectibles and items because I didn’t read ahead, which you shouldn’t be expected to do in a step-by-step guide.

I also found the combat tips rather hit-or-miss, as the guide is useful when dealing with 2-3 foes, but often falls apart when facing larger groups. The guide assumes you’re favoring a stealthy strategy, which is good considering the relative scarcity of ammo. While you often get specific info on how to eliminate the first couple foes in a group, info on taking out the rest can be vague and unhelpful.

An example, early in the game Joel finds himself in an office building facing a large infected presence, including your first run-in with a very dangerous Clicker. Seeing as it’s early in the game you have little in the way of ammo and no character upgrades, and I’ve always found it to be one of the more challenging battles consider Clickers can kill you instantly if they manage to grab you. The strategy guide provides solid advice on taking out one enemy without being seen, as well as choking out a second. After that though you’re simply told to find some way to finish off the two remaining lesser infected before attacking the Clicker. The thing is, the last 3 enemies are grouped together, and it’s nearly impossible to lure one of them away without also alerting the others. Every time I played this section, even with the guide at hand, the encounter ended with me frantically sprinting around the floor trying to get enough space to reload my gun and shoot the now-alerted foes as they gave pursuit. Similar scenarios played out in other tense situations, and every time I left the fight injured, low on ammo and frustrated by a lack of specific instruction.

One upside to the single-player portion of the guide is that it includes all the DLC missions (which come packed in with the Remastered edition), so you have a full rundown of how to survive the bonus content as well. These stages get the same treatment as the primary single-player campaign, so there are plenty of maps and item callouts. Again, there are shortcomings here. Some enemy encounter strategies are frustratingly vague, and you may once again miss optional collectibles or moments because the guide doesn’t mention them until you’ve moved on.

While the single-player portion of the guide can be spotty, it shines when it comes to the multiplayer. The Factions mode provides a unique twist on traditional competitive multiplayer, and the guide does a great job explaining how it works, its objectives and the events that come up as you play. Factions can be a fairly dense mode and if you don’t understand the metagame you may find yourself winning battles but losing the war. If you’re following the guide though you should be able to cook up a solid strategy to keep your allies alive and survive long enough to “win” the mode.

Accompanying the great overall info is a full breakdown of all the maps and what strategies are most likely to be effective. It’s easily to quickly reference the guide with the map you’re about to play and then tweak your loadout into something that best suits the environment. You’re also given numerous weapon and perk combinations to fit various gameplay styles, so you should be able to find the optimal loadout for whatever class of character you prefer.

As great as The Last of Us: Remastered is, the guide can’t live up to the lofty bar the game itself has set. While the multiplayer portion is exceptionally helpful, the single-player sections are unimpressive. Also, this is a very bare-bones book, with no additional artwork, developer interviews or added content beyond walkthroughs and strategies. While you can debate the usefulness of such things in a book that is first and foremost supposed to be about helping you beat a game, considering this is a title that’s already been released once – and that a large portion of the userbase has already played – you need something more to hook people’s attention. Even some general tips on how to take a great screenshot in Photo Mode would have been worthwhile.

The Last of Us: Remastered strategy guide serves its intended purpose, but doesn’t really find a way to shine. It’s that coworker at the office who does enough to not get fired and be generally reliable, but never sticks their neck out and tries something noteworthy or unique. You may find the guide useful for a few particularly tricky encounters or nabbing all the extra loot, but it’s not one you’ll proudly display on your shelf.