Injustice: Gods Among Us Strategy Guide Review

May 10, 2013 By Chris Nitz 1 Comment

Injustice: Gods Among Us is not the first time gamers take on the role of some of their favorite DC Comics heroes and villains. However, this game is a bit darker thanks to its comic book source material and the story leading up to the game. While the game itself is a rock solid fighter, theInjustice: Gods Among Us strategy guide from Prima does need a few patches to help balance it out.

The first few pages are full of game mechanic basics. Anyone familiar with the Mortal Kombat series will feel right at home. There are some good nuggets of info pertaining to character types and each of the stage transitions. It also helps shed some light on how the wager system works and what interactive stage props make for good ancillary weapons. Give this section a few moments of time before digging into that favorite hero.

The bulk of the guide goes to each playable character. There is a brief intro along with what that character will do with various stage props. Following that is a description of their super move, character power, and a handy screen capture of their power meter. This is a prime location for some backstory on why said hero/villain is playing a role in this new universe, but sadly, that goes to the imagination.

How can I use this while some kid is kicking the crap out of me

From here, things kind of fall apart. The strategy guide doesn’t list out every move, but instead opts to choose what they feel are the best moves from the arsenal. This same idea carries over into the combos. Accompanying the moves and combos is a brief set of frame-by-frame screenshots of the move/combo in action.

Each character receives a strategy section that helps new players understand their favorite fighter. While the strategies covered here are more a star

ting point, rather than an overall how-to, I found them useful in getting through the single player campaign with little to no issues while providing me some ground to start my multiplayer training. The idea here is to take those strategies into the training room and develop them into a fighting style that works for you.

At the end, there are some combo breakdowns, but I found these hard to quickly glance at in the heat of battle. Instead of some sort of easy button-to-button breakdown, they are all spelled out in long strings of text. It is easier to just bring up the in-game moves list and look through the combos there.

But what if I know what is best?

Following the character section is the single player campaign and S.T.A.R. Labs areas. The S.T.A.R. Labs portion is nothing more than a big checklist as all it provides is a synopsis of each goal and the three tasks for obtaining three stars. The single-player campaign is not much better, but at least each fight comes with a tip to help players from being caught off guard by some of the harder battles. These two sections feel more like fluff. The archives after these two portions will aid in unlocking that super cool 1960’s costume!

The last few pages totally stoked my fires. Anyone that knows me knows that I like art sections and this guide did not fail me there. There is some gorgeous game art to enjoy, so take the time to appreciate what the artists are capable of producing. For anyone who is reading the Injustice comic books, you will find a special comic tucked away at the very end. I still find myself thumbing through this area and enjoying the crap out of it.

I want to note that Prima realizes that fighting games go through changes and they appear to address that with a website that will contain updates to this guide. At the time of this writing, there was nothing there, so time will tell how well this strategy works out. What would really rock with this website is if they would include some pro-tips and tricks. Just a thought, Prima!

Oh yes I do!

This is not the best fighting strategy guide to grace my desk, but it is not the worst guide to come across it either. Almost all the info on the pages is found somewhere in the game, and the combos are a bit rough to read through. Diehard fans will find the Injustice: Gods Among Us strategy guide a nice piece to add to their book collections, and anyone completely new to fighting games will find it rather valuable. Veterans, however, might want to just skip this on by.

SGR Rating 3/5

Author: Sam Bishop, Carl White, Emmanuel Brito, Bill Menoutis
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Hardcover
Acquired via Publisher

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon Strategy Guide Review

May 7, 2013 By Nicholas Michetti 2 Comments

Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon is unique for a Nintendo game, in so far as it maybe being the closest thing to a point-and-click adventure title that they’ve ever created. Point-and-click adventure games, though, involve discovery, puzzle solving, and finding secrets. Because of those gameplay elements, I haven’t always been the best at those types of games, so I can very much understand how much some gamers (maybe younger gamers in particular) may need a strategy guide for some assistance with a game of this kind. Prima has a Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon strategy guide though, that will be able to direct gamers through every mission in the game with next to no problems.

Dark Moon isn’t a complex puzzle game or anything–after all, it is a game in a Nintendo franchise–and it seems to have been designed with quite a lot of accessibility in mind, so the game doesn’t have any real puzzles per se. However, that doesn’t mean that the game doesn’t have any occasional moments where it might not be completely clear as to what the player should do next. For those moments and finding just about every secret the game has to offer, Prima’s strategy guide is amazing. The guide doesn’t only point out what players should do, it also directs them on a route through each mission that involves accomplishing all of the various mission goals, discovering hidden gems, and finding Boos as easily as possible. If there are easier or more expedient routes through the game’s missions that involve doing everything possible in a single playthrough, I honestly can’t imagine them.

Gamers who may be having problems with combat will be greatly helped by the strategy guide as well, especially later in the game when the strongest ghosts begin to emerge. The guide goes into as much as detail as possible, letting players know when they’re most likely to encounter which ghosts and also how and when to engage them. The notifications on when group ghost captures may be possible can be especially useful, as group captures can slice combat times into a fraction of what they’d be if the player had pursued individual captures. Speaking of combat, I slightly disagree with the guide’s occasional advice to capture Greenies (the most harmless ghosts) last, as I had tended to have major capture attempts interrupted by them from time to time. However, I also found instances where that advice was correct as well.

The multiplayer section of the guide is designated to just a few pages, which is apropos, since the multiplayer in Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon is very straightforward, with few significant variations. The guide’s advice is as helpful as it can be and offers as many tips as it can, which will certainly be a welcome heads-up to players jumping into multiplayer for the first time or first few times. However, the multiplayer is so easy to grasp that with any kind of regular play, players will quickly learn how mostly everything functions. The guide does cover as much of multiplayer as possible, though, and the advice on some elements that the player might not know how to address at first glance (curses, for one) is welcome.

The layout of Prima’s strategy guide is very easy to navigate, with good-sized screenshots to let players know where they’re supposed to be or what they’re supposed to be doing. Gems, Boos, and general cautionary advice are contained in medium-sized call-out boxes that flow well with the layout of the guide. Big text indicates when the guide’s directions are shifting focus (i.e. from “Find the Poltergust 5000” to “Find the Strobulb”), so the text just isn’t sprawling down the page with directions. The guide has a fun, colorful design and bits of concept art are integrated nicely throughout some of the pages, instead of being gathered into a section in the back of guide. The guide’s design matches the fun/tiny bit scary mood of the game with appropriate bright and dark colors (i.e. green, purple, black, blue, and red) as well.

The guide does have a few minor trouble spots, though. Despite being mostly comprehensive, the guide had an odd few moments where it didn’t mention treasure that was available. For instance, the guide doesn’t mention that a stack of cash sits at the top of the West Garden area of the Haunted Tower and is available for players to collect for at least three missions. Another instance is the drill in The Old Clockworks, which can be vacuumed for coins for at least one or two missions. A strange instance also came up where the guide lists a mini-game in the Roundhouse Brawl mission as being available in the door of the northeast corner of the Canyon Narrows, but I was unable to find it there. Mentioning these errors is certainly nitpicking at an otherwise near-perfect guide, but they stood out because of the guide’s generally very high level of accuracy.

Curiously, while the guide doesn’t list the criteria or any general guidelines for gaining three-star ranks (the maximum rank) on missions, it does mention the factors that weigh in on how they’re graded. I’m not sure if the ranking information was available, as I occasionally found that some missions that I thought I had performed badly on were graded better than I expected and vice versa. (Maybe the game uses some variables to generate the grade?) However, I did generally find that following the guide’s advice and going through missions at a somewhat moderate pace had generally rewarded me with a two-star ranking, sometimes three.

The Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon strategy guide from Prima is absolutely worth picking up, especially for those who might need help. The guide really doesn’t leave any stone unturned for the most part and is as clear and direct as possible with its instructions. From missions to boss fights to combat, the guide is just fantastic at directing players towards the fastest and easiest paths in the game. Plus, the guide’s advice is simple and straightforward, making it accessible to a wide number of players across age groups. Prima’s guide is able to help any Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon player accomplish just about everything they’ll need to in the game and anyone in need of help from the guide definitely will not regret buying one.

SGR Rating: 4.5/5

Author: Nick von Esmarch
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

BioShock Infinite Strategy Guide Review

May 3, 2013 By Keri Honea 1 Comment

The first BioShock took gamers to a disturbing utopia at the bottom of the ocean, and BioShock Infinite took players to an equally disturbing utopia high in the clouds. Both games were filled with well-hidden collectibles and plenty of venues for exploration, which is exactly why I wanted the strategy guides in the first place. The collectibles in both games included audio files that really fill in the overall story, and since I missed a few audio files with the first game, I really wanted to make sure I found them all the first time with BioShock Infinite. As such, I had almost as high of expectations with the BioShock Infinite strategy guide as I did the video game itself. While I was able to find all of the Voxophones in this game thanks to the guide, the strategy guide completely failed me on finding another collectible. Couple this with the fact that I had problems with the strategy guide’s overall presentation, I was almost as disappointed with the BioShock Infinite strategy guide as I was with the game.

Plenty of the strategy guide was absolutely fantastic. I admit that I rarely look through the front sections of strategy guides unless I need help choosing a character or class or if the game absolutely fails in properly teaching me the control scheme. However, as I flipped through the strategy guide one day, my eyes caught two tidbits that made me stop, turn back, and give the front sections more attention. The first was the code players could tap in to unlock the 1999 Mode, which traditionally unlocks after you complete the game for the first time. It turns out you don’t have to wait for the punishing difficulty level; you only need to enter in the world famous Konami Code. A few other websites posted this after the game’s release, but I was blissfully unaware (as usual) until I noticed this in the strategy guide, and yes, it garnered a chuckle.

The second thing that surprised me about the front section of the guide was the breakdown of Gear combinations to create specific builds for Booker. For example, for the Wizard build of Booker, the strategy guide suggests wearing the Storm Hat, the Blood to Salt Shirt, the Overkill Boots, and the Head Master Pants so that Booker can primarily focus on using elemental Vigors such as Shock Jockey and Devil’s Kiss. Since I focused on staying alive as long as possible, I wish I had looked at this section sooner, so I could have tried out the Defender combination, which looks like it would have been far more effective than the combination I used.

I primarily used the strategy guide to ensure I did not miss any collectibles in the game, since this is actually the most challenging portion of the game (unless you’re playing on the hard or 1999 difficulties). The world of BioShock Infinite is massive, and it’s incredibly easy to miss the large number of collectibles scattered about, especially since so many are hidden in high places or only appear after going through Tears. I am very pleased to say that thanks to the strategy guide, I did find every telescope, Kinetoscope, and Voxophone. There is absolutely no way I would have found them all without assistance, as there was more than one occasion that I would have overlooked them when coming through a Tear, while they hid behind signs on top of buildings, or as they popped up during high action sequences that spurred me to move on instead of exploring like I should have.

Infusion Problem with BioShock Infinite strategy guide

Something doesn’t add up…

That said, however, I never found every Infusion the game offered. When that Achievement didn’t unlock, I was honestly confused, as I could have sworn I found every single one the strategy guide pointed out. The game said I found 23 Infusions, and apparently there are 30, allowing players to max out all three levels for Booker. I assumed I didn’t follow the strategy guide as carefully as I thought, so I started to count the marked Infusions, and I noticed something rather intriguing.

Infusions marked on maps–22
Infusions listed in chapter summary (see bottom of image on right)–25
Infusions mentioned in written walkthrough–22

I counted each of these about three times, because I couldn’t believe how they didn’t add up. As I puzzled over it, I noticed that on a few occasions, the number of the Infusions shown on the chapter maps didn’t match the number listed in the chapter summary below the map, as shown to the right. No wonder I didn’t find them all; not all of them were even listed in the strategy guide! I had hoped that maybe there was an appendix in the back that listed all the locations, but no such luck.

I also can’t help but think if the guide writers or book designers had made call-out boxes in the written walkthrough depicting where each Infusion was hidden, like they did with the Kinetoscopes and Voxophones, perhaps the all of the Infusions would be properly marked. Then again, the walkthrough has so many call-out boxes as it is, perhaps it would have worsened the strategy guide’s overall presentation.

The strategy guide is divided by game chapters (which are separated by Achievements/Trophies), then again by mission objective and scene. Each new scene kicks off with its own map and collectible summary with the written walkthrough to follow. Sometimes the written walkthroughs for a scene are placed before the scene map, which makes following along with both the writing and the maps quite confusing. I couldn’t decide while playing if this was a result of how the game is and the book designers did the best they could or if this was just a bad strategy for the book. Sometimes it was definitely the former, the product of the game, and sometimes it was the latter. As a result, I found myself looking at the book more than I wanted, forcing me to pause the game more often than I wanted, just so I could attempt to find out where I was between the walkthroughs and the maps. I do blame how long it took me to finish the game on how much time I had to stop to read the strategy guide. I like strategy guides to make my game times more efficient, and I felt like this one greatly slowed me down.

The BioShock Infinite strategy guide is very, very hard for me to recommend. On the one hand, I found two-thirds of all of the collectibles with its help, unlocked all of the side quests, and I’m certain I found all the Gear in the game even though there was no Achievement to tell me so. I also really enjoyed the extra developer commentary that was sprinkled throughout, and I most likely didn’t die as often I would have without its help. At the same time, I’m really disappointed in the Infusion problem, and I can’t get over how often I got lost in the book, which took away too much time from the game. The BioShock Infinite strategy guide is definitely above average, but it’s not one of BradyGames’ best either.

SGR Rating: 3.5

Authors: Doug Walsh and Logan Sharp
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback and Collector’s Edition
Acquired via Publisher

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Strategy Guide Review

April 16, 2013 By Chris Nitz Leave a Comment

Kerrigan is back and this time players get to guide her on her quest to remove Mengsk from power. I’ve looked forward to this game as the Zerg are my race of choice in the StarCraft universe, and Blizzard did not disappoint me with Heart of the Swarm. Adding to this fun was my opportunity to review the Heart of the Swarm strategy guide from BradyGames.

As all good guides do, this one starts out with some basics on game mechanics. I’ll just assume most everyone knows how StarCraft 2 plays at this point, but if you don’t, take a few minutes to acquaint yourself with this section. Veterans should skim over it as it does provide info on the changes between Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm; however, the bulk of text here is fundamental base management, resource gathering, and combat tips.

Tips, everyone loves a good tip!

Blizzard did make the single-player campaign a bit easier, so I found myself only hitting this portion of the guide when I was trying to complete a few side objectives. For example, I would hunt down the tips and maps on where certain items were scattered about a map so I could quickly snag them before a timer expired or I drove the computer to an early grave. The players who want to tackle the harder difficulties will find some solid nuggets of advice that will make dominating harder opponents that much easier. At the end, we find the evolution of the swarm along with some thoughtful reasons why a player may choose one mutation over another. Also, let’s not forget how nice it is to have maps that clearly show where that third base can go and where the enemy might be hiding! While I may not have relied on this portion too heavily, when I came here for advice, it delivered while it held my hand and gave me that achievement I lusted for.

From here, we move into the multiplayer area where I am still spending a whole lot of time. Not only does BradyGames provide a solid foundation for players to start their ladder climb with, but also there is some rocking advice for those that want to make their way from bronze to masters leagues. Everything from base management to military and economy receive plenty of attention and detail. I found myself relying heavily on the Tech Tree while I honed my skills as a Zerg player, but also to use this info to know what my opponents might be doing and how to effectively counter them. What really took my game to the next level was watching profession level players while studying the units, maps, and tips that fill these pages. Yup, I’m rocking some bronze level players, and I don’t even play that seriously. Thank you, BradyGames!

While I am still using the guide as if I were cramming for a final exam, there is one thing that hinders it, and all strategy books for that matter. This does a fine job of giving players a good foundation for both destroying the single-player campaign and some legs to stand on as they try to climb the competitive scene. What print cannot do is change as patches, or even the meta of the game, ebbs and flows from month to month. Don’t get me wrong; everyone should know their tech trees, basics of economy management, and units, but as players introduce new strategies while changing existing ones, the book cannot stay current. This is just the nature of the beast.

Know thy enemy!

At the end of the day, I love this strategy guide. Just short of the Dark Souls strategy guide, I find that this is one of the most useful books to grace my desk in recent months. I should also mention that I am reviewing the collector’s edition, so it looks really sexy next to my Wings of Liberty guide and I have to keep fighting my wife away from the paper craft toys that came with the guide. While I would have loved an art section, BradyGames did a magnificent job with the page layouts, and bringing the Zerg aesthesis to the pages. Now I am super excited to see what they do for the Protoss expansion!

SGR Rating 4/5

Author: Rick Barba, Phillip Marcus
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Hardcover
Acquired via Publisher

SimCity Strategy Guide Review

April 9, 2013 By Blake Grundman Leave a Comment

Those who are familiar with the most recent entry in Maxis’ storied SimCity franchise are probably just as familiar with its catastrophically terrible launch. Honestly, the only way you couldn’t know about the controversy was if you didn’t have an internet connection. But then again, you wouldn’t be playing SimCity either, right? Regardless of the politics of the matter, at the core of the conflict sits a game that is extremely complex and entirely redesigned from the ground, up. So what could better compliment the reboot of the brand than a SimCity strategy guide? Let’s just hope that the book fares better than its subject matter at culling the rage of PC gaming curmudgeons.

Sometimes it is hard to tread the thin line between being a strategy guide and a glorified manual that the player has to pay for in a bookstore. In many respects, the SimCity strategy guide tends to have a bit of multiple personality disorder that precariously teeters in between the two very opposite ends of the spectrum. More often than not, item descriptions and specific details about elements in the world are torn word-for-word from the game itself. This might be somewhat unavoidable given the style of game it is trying to inform the reader about, but for Pete’s sake, the author should have made at least some attempt to pen original content. However, there are also whole dedicated strategy sections at the head of every city element sub-category such as roads, utilities, zoning, city services, mass transit, etc. Does the yin and yang manage to balance itself out? Probably not. But honestly, it would be hard to suggest solid play strategies to the player, without sounding a bit like a text box written by the game’s developers.

Actually, the developer Maxis’ aid in the creation of this book is very evident, both from a content perspective, as well as in the special features. For one, almost the entire introduction to the game and mechanics walkthroughs were penned by folks who actually designed the game’s core systems and interactions. Also, while it does seem like there is quite a bit of repeated information from within the title’s tool tips, at the end of each city element’s section there is a call-out featuring another member of the development team. In these areas the developer discusses pertinent hints, as well as topics about the items/landmarks being broken down in that specific part of the text. This was a nice touch that somewhat personalizes what could otherwise be viewed as semi-redundant data.

All of that said, there is a fair amount of explanation in each of these areas, talking about why certain landmarks are important to construct and how they can influence the rest of the city’s fragile ecosystem. It is far from the end-all, be-all, but it definitely provides a good jumping off point for those who are not familiar with how cohesively the entire city interacts with itself. The problem is that these extra detailed sections tend to be rather intermittent, depending upon what the writer deemed to be the most critical. There are far too many cases where whole chucks or page are left with vacant white space, accompanied by a literal copy and paste of text descriptions and statistical information straight from within the game itself.

Scattered throughout the text are the usual “Tip” sections that can be found in most current game guides. Though they might not always provide the most practical information, there usually tends to be some nugget embedded within that will tend to be very useful to even power players. Things like knowing to place different forms of mass transit within two hundred steps of each other, because the Sims are not willing to walk any further to make transfers are great clues that may not reach out and smack the player, but could drastically play a role in how one were to lay out a city. While not all suggestions are quite as useful as something like that, (and heck, it may even been something that is brought to the attention of the player by the game itself over time) getting the jump on this kind of information can help build a more thoughtful and appealing cityscape.

Another important section to pay special attention to is the “Disasters” portion of the guide. It may not be overly large, but anyone who has ever played a SimCity title knows how crippling these events can be, if not handled properly. This area outlines both what to expect when one of these disasters occur as well as what can be done to either brace/prevent the least amount of impact or how to recover in the aftermath. Achievement whores also take note, because all of the possible achievements that can be earned from surviving any particular onslaught are listed at the end of this section. Actually this holds true for pretty much every key section in the book, as well as listed in the “quick reference” at the end of the tome.

There are two main drawbacks from using a guide that is this closely tied to the developer. For one, most of the text about specific game elements tends to be borrowed from the source code, which has been mentioned ad nauseam earlier on. Secondly, with all of the sections written by members of the Maxis team, it is hard to distinguish between what is legitimately helpful information and what is PR-filtered fluff, that provides very little benefit for the lay user. With both of those criticisms in mind, what probably stands out the most is that this is a guide that is very much targeted at new SimCity players. Those that have had experience with prior iterations in the series will be able to learn about some of the newer nuances, but in most circumstances the text is regurgitating common sense.

One last unsettling note about the book is that at the beginning of every new section, there is a call-out in the bottom left corner of the page, reminding the reader to redeem their code for the digital guide. Thankfully this is included at no extra cost, with the purchase of the print guide. Given the nature of SimCity being an online-required game, it stands to reason that anything printed on the parchment could be rendered useless by a single update. Reasons like this tend to play more into the hand of electronic guides, and even though Prima already has one, why wasn’t this strategy guide electronic-only to begin with? At the end of the day it would seem that it would be the more logical and economical approach for all parties involved.

Prima’s official SimCity strategy guide manages to be competent enough to benefit the reader, yet not impressive enough to truly warrant a recommendation. Simply put, there are millions sites on the internet that provide far more up-to-date analysis and guidance, without the burden of a making space on your bookshelf for a mediocre work that often reads more like a curated press release than useful guidance. As is the case with most online centric games, readers may be better served turning to the forums.

SGR Rating: 2.5/5

Author: David Knight and Dorothy Bradshaw
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions available: Paperback and Kindle Edition
Acquired via Publisher

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