Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

Brink Strategy Guide Review

By Leave a Comment

Brink Strategy Guide ReviewBrink is the kind of FPS that some gamers may really want to buy a guide for, as Splash Damage has changed many of the typical rules of the genre. For instance, no single weapon is capable of killing a player in one shot (even if that shot is a headshot), players can change classes mid-match, and the game is completely objective focused. The Prima Official Game Guide for Brink does a good job of trying to help players adjust to the many changes introduced by this innovative title.

In the introductory sections, the guide details the pros and cons of each body type available for the player’s characters, tips on how to use the Mirror’s Edge-esque SMART movement system, and a breakdown of what each ability for each class does. The guide also provides much needed perspective into Brink‘s backstory, which really isn’t provided as much through the game’s cut scenes prior to each match. The introductory sections will help some gamers trying to get used to Brink be able to find their way around the game’s changes to the usual FPS formula.

The guide has two primary sections for maps, one for each of the game’s factions (Resistance and Security). Each section is broken down with sections for maps. Each map section opens with a map overview that details specific areas of interest, such as optimum placement for turrets and mines. The next page details the objectives, the best number of each class to succeed for each objective, the story briefing, and a list of the important locations in each map. Then, the guide moves on to primary and secondary objective descriptions with tips on how to approach each objective.

The layout and visual design of the Brink guide is too busy at times, with big tip boxes and screenshot boxes showing specific areas populating many pages throughout the guide. The guide also puts several pages of important locations before the primary and secondary objectives pages, making flipping through pages quickly to find information difficult. If the player isn’t familiar with a location listed in the primary or secondary objectives section, they must flip back and forth to find the name, description, and location. Also, the pages of the Brink guide are blue with black text on them, which is somewhat like the instruction booklet (blue pages with white text), but not the easiest to read.

The advice in the Brink guide is sound, but some strategies were difficult to test. The difficulty was due to not only having teams that are comprised differently and changing classes to different ones than the guide advises, but also due to teams not always going through the guide’s advised best routes for some of the maps as well. The team largely dictates the pace and direction of Brink, as buffing your team and helping them is often the best way to success and victory. If a team with voice chat played regularly practiced the guide’s strategies, though, they would likely have an upper hand.

The Prima Official Game Guide for Brink is a solid strategy guide that will be able to help new Brink players better understand the game’s rule changes and will help hardcore Brink players build strategies to gain the advantage against their opponents. The guide’s biggest hindrances are the black text on blue pages color scheme and number of pages between the first page of a map section and the objective strategies, which hurt the guide’s readability and accessibility factors. Overall, though, the guide is a solid companion to Brink that anyone who intends to be playing the game on a regular basis should consider picking up.

SGR Grade: 3.5/5

Authors: David Hodgson
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

L.A. Noire Strategy Guide Review

By Leave a Comment

LA Noire Strategy Guide ReviewL.A. Noire is a new and different kind of game that combines open-world and adventure game elements, testing the deduction capabilities of gamers as much as their action game skills. For such a game, an exhaustive guide is required and L.A. Noire has quite the official game guide from BradyGames that will make playing a breeze for anyone who might be having trouble. However, the same near-perfection that will help any gamer play through L.A. Noire may also end up telling some gamers a bit too much.

The L.A. Noire Signature Series Guide from BradyGames leaves no stone unturned. Every single process gamers will need to help them solve each and every case is written out as precisely as possible. Every vital piece of evidence is detailed and shown in screenshots when possible. Every interrogation choice is spelled out one hundred percent correctly, down to the details of each response to each question. The guide even details how to approach each chase or action sequence that may occur in a case.

The only problem with the guide isn’t actually a problem, per se; the guide does its job a little too well. Playing L.A. Noire step-by-step with this guide is like playing the game on autopilot. Everything is spelled out in the guide with so much detail that nearly no guesswork is required by the player. Giving this much information is necessary to help a gamer get through whatever part of L.A. Noire that they’re having problems with, but at the same time, the level of information makes playing the game too easy. Admittedly, saying that a guide does its job too well is a rare Catch-22 for strategy guides.

Also, the guide has a few minor inconsistencies. In one case, the availability of a view outside a window (not necessary to solve a case at all) is available after an interrogation, not before. In two cases, evidence marked at C or B are mixed up with each other. The guide also incorrectly lists an event from a character’s past as happening in Sicily, when the game describes the event as happening in Syracuse. Again, the inconsistencies are minor and mostly affect nothing at all, but are a little noticeable in an otherwise perfect guide.

Visually, L.A. Noire‘s official strategy guide is well designed, with easy to find information. The guide has tons of boxes in the form of torn pieces of paper–consistent with the instruction booklet’s design–which list everything that needs to be done. Interrogation sections get their own formatting so that they stand out more. Locations on maps in other guide sections are labeled as close to spot-on as they can be on L.A. Noire‘s enormous map. The guide has high quality screenshots that show exactly what the player should be looking for, down to the faces of persons of interest during interrogations so L.A. Noire players can get a feel for Truth and Doubt or Lie faces.

L.A. Noire‘s guide from BradyGames is of great quality and will help any player of any skill level who wants to play L.A. Noire and beat every case with a five star rating. Using this guide as a companion or as needed instead of following the guide’s advice page-by-page is recommended, as part of the fun of the L.A. Noire experience is solving the cases for yourself. However, anyone challenged by L.A. Noire who just wants to play through the story and not have to worry about messing up a case will find this guide to be exceptionally helpful. BradyGames’ guide is written well, well detailed and the best resource a gamer could have to get to the bottom of each and every case Cole Phelps is assigned.

SGR Rating: 4.5/5

Authors: Tim Bogenn and Rick Barba
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Killzone 3 Strategy Guide Review

By 1 Comment

Killzone 3 Strategy Guide reviewAuthor: Future Press
Publishers: Future Press and BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback and Collector’s Edition
Acquired by Publisher

Strategy Guide Review Policy:

My goal for these strategy guide reviews is not to discuss whether one needs the guide to complete the game. Every gamer has different strengths and skills, and one may need every bit of a guide, another may need to look up information for quick assistance once, and another may laugh at the idea of ever using a guide, even the online freebies. My goal is to determine whether the guide is 1) helpful in the first place, 2) does it encompass gamers who need hand-holding as well as those who need a quick reference and 3) how much information does it really have.

Review:

Calling Future Press’ Killzone 3 Collector’s Edition strategy guide a strategy guide isn’t enough to express how cohesive this guide is. The term I prefer to use is “Encyclopedia Helghastica.”

What gamers who purchase this guide will first notice is the high level of craftsmanship throughout. This guide was made with care, with a nice, smooth hardcover, glossy pages, nice layout and a significant ease of finding information. The interior of the Killzone 3 guide really does feel more like a reference book, with a professional layout designed for finding whatever tips you need as quickly as you can. Scanning pages for information is easy, simple, and straightforward.

The level of detail throughout is simply astounding. The Killzone 3 Collector’s Edition guide was clearly written by someone who is extensively familiar with Killzone 3, if not a FPS pro in general, and the author explains everything with such detail that even Killzone newcomers can learn the game. Even just the basics of figuring out how to play Killzone 3 are covered. If the player’s looking for something more advanced, they can turn to the game’s extensive amount of tables throughout the guide that provide what appear to be exact measurements of damages, distances, and more. The guide even gives recommendations for controller settings for the DualShock 3 and PlayStation Move. The Killzone 3 Collector’s Edition guide clearly is meant to take even the most inexperienced of Killzone gamers and help them get far better at the game with a combination of tips, statistics, and practice.

The single player campaign walkthrough tells the player everything they need to know, from the best weapons to use to get through particular situations to the best positions to attack from and how to get Trophies in specific areas. The positions are mapped out on overhead view maps and screenshots of specific areas are included to give the player an idea of where they should be in a specific area of the game. The only problem is that the overhead maps, while marked, can sometimes make finding where the guide wants the player to go awkward because they are so zoomed out. A zoomed out view is not how the player experiences Killzone 3‘s world and the screenshots can be more helpful in terms of finding exactly where you’re supposed to be.

If the player needs even more help, they can register their guide at Future Press‘ website to view videos of the guide’s walkthrough being played in Killzone 3. Not all of the videos are up as of this writing, but the ones that are clearly were captured in high quality with good sound. Commentary with the videos would’ve been nice, but Killzone 3 is a pretty straightforward game and even has a button to show you what direction you’re supposed to go in, so this is just a minor nitpick.

As for the multiplayer, the Killzone 3 Collector’s Edition guide multiplayer section weighs in at somewhere shy of two hundred pages. No, that’s no typo; nearly two hundred pages of this guide are dedicated to Killzone 3‘s multiplayer and again, everything is covered. All of the classes are covered, with details on exactly what abilities do, what weapons the classes utilize and how each class can function best in multiplayer. The maps section, though, is perhaps the most impressive achievement in the whole guide. The maps section includes descriptions of key tactical areas with tactics players should use to take them, Warzone objective locations with offensive/defensive strategies for those objectives, what each class can do to contribute to a team victory, and the best strategies for each mode of multiplayer (Guerrilla Warfare, Operations, and Warzone). Medal and ribbon earning strategies are also detailed.

The Killzone 3 Collector’s Edition guide from Future Press is a must own for anybody who wants to get better at playing Killzone 3 or just likes playing Killzone 3 in general. The Killzone 3 CE guide was clearly built to help anyone with any degree of experience in FPSes get comfortable playing Killzone 3 and then get better at the game, in addition to helping existing Killzone 3 players improve their skills. Add the level of presentation and ease of finding information into the mix and Killzone 3 gamers honestly couldn’t ask for a better strategy guide.

Final Score: 5/5

Top Posts & Pages