Chris Nitz - 41/47 - Strategy Guide Reviews

Dark Souls II Strategy Guide Review

May 13, 2014 By Chris Nitz Leave a Comment

My love for the Dark Souls franchise runs deep. The amount of hours I have logged farming materials while racking up countless deaths all while getting lost in the beauty of these games is ridiculous. Thankfully, Future press is here to make life easier in this brutal world. They rocked the first Dark Souls strategy guide, and they repeated that greatness with their Dark Souls II strategy guide.

The strategy guide starts with the game basics, and this is not something that even veterans of the series will want to skip. Dark Souls II brought in some new mechanics as well as modifying some of the more basic controls. This section goes into great depth about stats, classes, online play, and even some New Game+ planning tips. Seriously, this does make character development that much easier, especially for those players looking to dive into NG+.

So simple and yet so useful!

From here, the guide goes into the walkthrough of the game. This area will inundate readers with a massive amount of information and handy tips. Each new area begins with a difficulty rating and suggested level. This alone stopped me from exploring too deep into places I had no right in going with my noob destroyer of evil. There are also maps, enemies, and important items referenced right at the start. It makes navigation, both in the game and in the strategy guide, much easier.

Once I dove into the actual coverage for each zone, I found a copious amount of information. Numbers on the various maps correlate to paragraphs explaining tactics for handling certain enemies or cluing me into world events or ambushes setup around the next corner. While Future Press could not save my terrible dodging or parrying skills, they managed to help keep my frustration levels to a minimum, which probably led to fewer broken controllers.

One big change from the first Dark Souls guide is that enemies now show up at the end of their corresponding location as opposed to a big section in the back. Every baddie has a brief bit of history followed by strategies on how to kill it. Rounding this out is a table that shows hit points, souls, item drops, and if the enemy will respawn or not. While I like a big index of enemies, this new layout feels more organic and makes for a lot less page flipping when researching new areas.

For me, the best part of the walkthrough is the boss battle details. These are far more than just the basic watch for this and attack here. Every boss battle contains a crazy amount of in-depth details of the battle. All the attacks the boss can make comes with a blurb describing what it does, how to notice it, how to avoid it, and what might come next. Wrapping all this up is an overall strategy that helps sum up the one to two pages of information and general tactics on how to approach this difficult impasses. This is something I studied long and hard before attempting these brutal fights.

Up next are the chapters detailing equipment, magic, and items. I spent a good chunk of time just reading about various weapons and how to obtain them or what the benefits were from upgrading. Every weapon and armor piece comes with a small description, stats, repair costs, and what materials players need to reinforce it. It also includes a handy picture so readers know what the item looks like. There are many things to find and use in this game, so be prepared to spend a good amount of time just trying to find the right armor and weapon combo to make life that much easier.

SO MUCH INFO!!

Closing out the strategy guide is the extras area. This is not just where to find Easter Eggs or a listing of achievements. No, this area dives into the lore or NPCs, invaders and how to vanquish them, trophies/achievements and how to actually obtain the harder ones, and a great section on the Covenants. For players looking for game history, this is where you will find it.

As was the case with the original Dark Souls guide, this is not something that is going to hold your hand and tell you exactly what to do next. This game is insanely open for exploration, and so the strategy guide is more like an encyclopedia. I found the index was my best friend as I hopped from area to area to grind souls or farm items. I must also caution that this is not something one quickly glances at for tips. I would sit at a bonfire, read what I needed, and then jump into the game. Consider this something you use to study for an exam, not something you quickly glance at and put back down.

I cannot recommend this guide enough. Yes, this does require readers to spend some time digesting the vast amount of information that it provides. However, that time spent researching will easily make life that much better, aaaand probably save a broken controller or two. Now, I have some titanite to go farm.

SGR Rating 4.5/5

Authors: Bruce Byrne, Franz von Eisenheim, Lucas Hofstatter, Marcus Sanders (ENB), Moe Murad, Usman Niazi, Wil Murray
Publisher: Future Press
Distributor: BradyGames
Editions Available: Collector’s Edition
Acquired via Distributor

Thief Strategy Guide Review

April 25, 2014 By Chris Nitz Leave a Comment

I remember my first experience with the Thief series with a lot of admiration and fondness. The game brought on a new way to play the emerging market of first-person shooters. When the new game announcement hit my Twitter feed, I was hopelessly optimistic about this title. While the gameplay didn’t disappoint me, it is clear that this is still not fully optimized. The same thing can also be said for the Thief strategy guide by Prima Games.

The stuff OCD nightmares are made of

There is a fair amount to learn and master in this game. The tutorial period does a fair job of walking players through all the nuances of the mechanics, but I found the guide a bit easier to study and learn. Maybe it is because I could read the whole how-to-play section over my coffee and then dive into the game, or that I could easily reference a move or technique I had forgotten about. Either way, this is an extremely useful area for any master pickpocket.

The bulk of this guide goes to the walkthrough portion. The amount of detail here is ridiculous. For the main story, there is plenty to help players achieve their goals. The tips at the beginning for each new chapter saved me a good amount of time in my mission planning. The screenshots for each new room display all the items that are either intractable or stealable. The last bit of niceness is that for those trying to get through the game without killing anyone, this guide does a great job of warning where guards are and where the tricky spots are to sneak around. For getting from point A to point B, this is the GPS players will love.

So much easier to read and follow

For all the aid that this portion provides on accomplishing the main tasks, the issues drag the greatness down. The biggest problem is the item listings, their counts, and locations. My OCD just wouldn’t let me pass up digging through everything, and I’m glad it didn’t. I ended up finding key items and documents that the guide did not account for. With 398 items to find in the city, I get that keeping track might be a bit difficult, but that is why people buy the strategy guide. I still have not found everything in this game, and I now have to turn to internet wikis just to finish this game to my satisfaction.

One item of note, the maps are confusing to use at first. It took me a few tries to get used to how the connecting arrows and numbering system worked. In addition, the amount of numbered circles (item locations) really clogs up some of the usefulness in the tighter areas. Once I got used to the maps, I found them easier to deal with as they generally follow the path in which I was taking to navigate the busy streets.

The last two sections go to the client jobs and challenge mode. These work just like the main walkthrough. I didn’t have any issues completing a job, and the challenge modes certainly became easier after reading how to do them.

Now I must mention the digital guide. After talking with our fearless leader at SGR, I went through the digital strategy guide and found a few issues resolved from the paper version. The big one is that duplicate items actually say they are duplicates. That is some time, and irritation, saving for those harder to snag pens. The document locations also appear to be corrected and no longer missing some. I also found the screenshots a lot easier to see. While the online guide is still not 100% accurate in delivering everything Thief has to offer, it is worlds better than the paper guide is.

My last issue is more on personal taste. At this point, I’ve come to expect a little extra out of paper strategy guides. A listing of achievement/trophies, some art, pages that feel like they are part of the game and not some ancillary add-on, and just some niceties to make having the book feel worthwhile. Sadly, the paper guide feels as though it were rushed to market. I get that things like achievement/trophy listings are small in the grand scheme of things, but it feels cheap to not even have this basic item in the guide.

The Thief strategy guide is a very mixed bag of a guide. Once I learned how to use the maps proficiently, they became a big aid. Sneaking around and stealing every glass and pen definitely became a breeze thanks to this guide. What this guide nails down, it does it so dang well. However, the fact that some items are double counted, some collectibles are just plain missing, certain tasks such as the talking candles not getting any coverage, and details on how to obtain some of the harder achievements not appearing really puts a downer on this guide. I just might be the first person here to say that the digital strategy guide is better than the paper guide is thanks to the clear updates made post publication. When faced with which to buy, go the digital route.

SGR Rating 3/5

Author: Stephen Stratton
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Strategy Guide Review

April 10, 2014 By Chris Nitz Leave a Comment

Diablo 3 released with plentiful hype, and copious amounts of issues. Thankfully, the Reaper of Souls expansion is a vastly different experience. This expansion feels like a completely different game thanks to the removal of the Auction House, better loot, Paragon skills, and many tweaks to the game itself. Those that have given up on this series might want to take a second look, and the Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls strategy guide from BradyGames is a great place to start.

This guide contains a bit of information for all players, new and old. It begins by detailing the newest sets of changes, such as difficulty settings and the two different game play types. Those that have continued to support Diablo 3 can pretty well skip this area, but new, and returning, players will want to read this section.

Following the basics is the class portion. What I liked about this is that I could finally read up on the Crusader and get some insight into how it plays. Every active and passive skill is listed, complete with what level it unlocks. It provides a small description of what the abilities do and why one might want this in their build. I must admit, this did give me a few ideas on how to tweak my Monk as I drive to level 70.

This needs to be at the very beginning!

The actual breakdown of Act V comes next. I found that this covers the new campaign in good detail, with solid nuggets of advice on how to tackle each objective. It is also a blessing to know how many enemies will bombard me, such as three waves of Boggits swarming me as soon as I load into the next area.

What I appreciate the most is the details on the boss fights. Where Diablo 3 contained bosses that primarily just sat in one location during the fight, Act V sees a major increase in boss difficulty with the simple act of environmental hazards and the enemy hunting down the Nephalem in particular. The boss battles are broken down in fine detail, and should be on the radar for all readers as these just might save a broken mouse and keyboard.

The walkthrough of Act V might seem tiny, but the last half of the strategy guide goes to a massive amount of info on all the extra portions of the game. Items such as Nephalem Rifts, Bounties, crafting, maps and how portals connect the world together, and even a massive index of enemies all receive their fair share of attention. What new players, and those that are just coming back after an extended vacation, will want to do right away is check out the Loot 2.0 area. Why BradyGames tucked this away so far in the back baffles me as it plays a major role in why the Auction Houses are now gone and why the game has garnered a resurgence in players.

The Loot 2.0 chapter goes into how the new item system works, what smart loot is, how magic find changed, and even why there is now only one potion. For any player that has no idea what happened with this system, this is a must read while the game patches.

Oh, that is why he is all whiny.

The last few pages go to all the achievements and skill challenges in the game. I love this, as it is way faster and easier to find a way to add to my banner customizations instead of clicking through all the acts in the game. Some of the harder to obtain items even have small bullet points giving pointers on how to obtain them. For someone with OCD, such as myself, this helped me nail down a few achievements I had overlooked in prior acts.

For all the nice things this strategy guide provides, there is one thing it cannot do, and that is adjust with patches. While reading the class or enemy area, take the cool down, damage, area of effect, and other figures with some caution as they might change depending on patches. Also, this won’t cover any new play areas that Blizzard might introduce down the road.

The Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls strategy guide is a great guide, especially for people that might be returning to the game. For players that have stuck through Blizzard while they ironed out the kinks, outside of the Act V walkthrough, there is not a lot here that will really warrant the purchase. Find this at the local store and thumb through it to see if it applies to your needs.

SGR Rating 3.5/5

Author: Doug Walsh & Thom Denick
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Strategy Guide Review

March 28, 2014 By Chris Nitz Leave a Comment

With so little coming to the Wii U, when a game such as Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze comes along, well, you just have to snag it. I was not disappointed in this title, nor the corresponding strategy guide from Prima Games. Although Prima Games might not be able to compensate for my lack of platforming skills, they did save me a good bit of time! Let us dive in, shall we?

The Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze strategy guide begins with a nice portion dedicated to getting players acquainted with the game. Here, readers find what the various items do, how to spot secret paths, and descriptions on the different companions and how they aid Kong on his quest for saving the island. What caught me by surprise is that at the end of the enemy description portion there is a listing of the bosses as well. I liked this approach as there is a little story and some bonus nuggets of information tucked away in the description. Don’t pass up reading this section.

So this is not the route to Jamba Juice?

The walkthrough is where a lot of time saving happens. Each new island comes with a breakdown of where the stages are, how many puzzles pieces are contained within, and if a particular stage comes with a secret exit or not. From there, each stage is broken down in finer detail.

I ended up studying each stage before jumping into the game for a few reasons. First, the maps will require a bit of memorization. While all the K.O.N.G letters and puzzle pieces are clearly displayed, when the action gets going, it’s hard to stop and look at a map. There are also summaries of various points of interest, places that will test player dexterity, and instructions on how to obtain the harder to acquire collectables. It’s a lot to try to read or glance at when knee deep in action or trying to perfect a speed run of the stage.

The boss battle breakdown comes in rather handy, and boy was it a detailed affair. Before players tackle any boss, thoroughly read through what the authors have to offer. There is a fair amount of info here, such as how the different boss phases work, what to look for when trying to attack, and things to be weary of in the battle arena.

Can’t we just talk about our issues over dinner?

The last few pages go to the bonus content. This is more fan service than anything overly specific such as achievements, special nuances, or where all the little Easter Eggs are located. The concept art is beautiful and fits well with the game and guide. What I did enjoy was the timeline of the game releases. Man, just reading the descriptions of the prior games brought back so many memories. This is especially true when reminiscing how awesome the first game in this series was on the Super Nintendo. It is clearly an area to trigger nostalgia, and it worked….well!

I can’t really find anything to overly gripe about on the Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze strategy guide. The navigation was easy thanks to different colored pages corresponding to where I was at in the game. The maps, while cluttered at times, saved me countless hours of game time. If this guide could have boosted my jumping and timing skills, that would have made this a pure five out of five. I enjoyed this guide and I make no hesitations in recommending it as a solid purchase.

SGR Rating 4.5/5

Author: Nick von Esmarch & Cory Van Grier
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Pokémon X and Y Pokédex Strategy Guide Review

March 26, 2014 By Chris Nitz 3 Comments

It took several months after the game and first strategy guide released for us to receive the last half of the guide for Pokémon X and Y. My first review for the main story portion of this game is right here, but I was not happy that it was half of a guide. Sadly, the long wait was more to test out patience than to provide something full of quality to reward the wait.

The first 92-pages cover the side quests and activities that are missing from the first guide. Yes, 92-pages is all it takes to cover what is left of ancillary fun in the game. It is hard to swallow that little bit had to wait this long and could not be included in the prior guide.

Break out those Excel skills

What is in those first few pages is rather decent. The various events, unknown locations, and egg mechanics are all here. I found the portion on breeding Pokémon completely lacked anything pertaining to the changes made in X and Y. What is listed only pertains to the prior games, Pokémon Black & White/Pokémon Black & White 2. There is no mention of how abilities or Pokéballs pass onto offspring. This is a big oversight and will certainly leave readers thumbing through the pages trying to find information that is not there..

The bulk of the guide goes to the Pokédex itself. This provides a hefty amount of information on the 450 Pokémon found in the three areas of Kalos. Yet it still lacks the information on what is located in places such as Rattata. That means just over half of the Pokémon out of the some 750 known to exist are actually listed.

What is here is detailed enough to help form a good battle strategy. Evolutions, moves, and vital information abound. There are even breakdowns for what each Pokémon looks like (male and female) from the front, side, and rear. There is a small area in the middle of each listing stating where and how to capture it based on based on the game version.

The last part of the guide is chock full of tables detailing aspects such as berries, moves, and items. It’s a nice way to quickly reference questions as they come up without having to flip through two strategy guides worth of information.

So a mushroom thing looks the same no matter the gender?

Much like the first Pokémon X/Y strategy guide, this is only half of a guide. The fact that it took months for this to release and it still lacks information is inexcusable, and not something I can overlook. Yes, this guide is $19.99USD, but that is in addition to the cost of having to acquire the first book for the main quest coverage along with prior Pokédexs. I know that covering every Pokémon and all the nuances of this game might be daunting, but if I am buying a guide to look at EVERY THING I CAN DO, I expect it to be there. My advice, buy the first guide, skip this one, and find one of the plentiful websites or phone/tablet apps to aid you in your quest to collect them all. Most of these give as good, if not better details, on every Pokémon that exists, and are free in most cases.

SGR Rating 2/5

Author: The Pokémon Company International
Publisher: The Pokémon Company International
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

SGR Rating 4.5/5

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SGR Rating 3.5/5

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