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Soul Calibur V Strategy Guide Review

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Soul Calibur V Strategy Guide ReviewSoul Calibur is a series near and dear to my heart due to spending countless hours playing the first game on my Dreamcast with a college buddy of mine. We once sat there kicking the snot out of one another for three hours straight, and we loved every minute of it. Fast forward a few years and Soul Calibur V improves on the original formula while bringing back that hook that was so addicting all those years ago.

Future Press must also love this series because they made a small bible to help players become the master of duck, dodge, and stab. Their Soul Calibur V strategy guide is friggin impressive to say the least. The amount of work that went into this book shows the moment you peel the cellophane off and crack the spine.

So much detail!

The first three chapters are dedicated to how to play the game and the abundance of mechanics contained within it. That is 91 pages of learning about things like the difference between a crouching throw and air throw, character fighting styles, stance transitions, just guard, evasion, and a bounty of other useful information. I took my time with these sections because they helped me develop strategies for the different characters I enjoy playing. These also helped me acquire a deeper understanding of just how complex the fighting system in this game has become over the last few years.

The Game Modes section was particularly useful due to it breaking down strategies for each character. Following this up is a key attack blurb that pretty much defines the character. The coverage of the Story Mode provides a good idea of how to handle every chapter without chucking the controller across the room in frustration. Heck, even the Character Creation section goes into great depth on how something as simple as stickers work and how players can utilize them to further customize player made characters. Seriously, prepare to spend a great deal of time in the first 100 pages of this guide!

The VS Play chapter is where most will spend their time, as this is where Future Press dives into each character in massive detail. It even begins with a few pages on how to use the section as well as defining the terms used throughout. Each character starts with a small blurb about who they are, overview of their fighting styles and where they excel versus where they are weakest. From there each attack/stance/throw/combo gets the meticulous detail treatment. Anyone that wants to know if the Hwu Dye maneuver is worth executing for Leixia will find plenty of insight in this guide.

Besides all the info on moves, Future Press tackles both offensive and defensive strategies. Following this is brief blurbs on how to fight against the character, like letting readers know that Leixia struggles in mid-long range. This is a beautiful piece of info for those that spend any amount of time battling other players online or want to tackle the game at higher difficulty settings. Finally, each character section is followed up with a chart that shows every command and its damage, impact, hit, and property. This is a no frills chart that makes for a fantastic quick reference guide.

Two of the most useful pages in the guide

The last portion of the guide goes to all the extras of the game. Unlockable characters, achievements/trophies, character profiles, equipment and titles all find a home here. The unlocked characters are not as detailed as those of the main game are, but there is still a nice amount of info in here.

The guide does falter in a few places however. One of the biggest letdowns is that the cover art for this book is simple yet elegant, but that does not carry through the rest of the guide. There are a few pieces of art scattered about the pages, but this feels more like a textbook than something dedicated to a video game. Where other guides bring in elements of the game to help make it feel as though the guide is part of the game, this feels more like something one would use to cram before an 8AM exam. It is a bit of a lost opportunity to show off some of the fine artwork this series has.

Continuing with that textbook feel, this is not a light reading type of guide. This is going to be something that gamers sit down with, read, digest, try out the newly acquired info, and come back to in order to verify various aspects of the digested knowledge. Let’s face it, 480 pages of combos, blocks, and moves is a lot to dig into and make proficient use of. You are warned now.

Despite a lack of continuity between guide and game, along with a massive amount of reading, this sets a high standard for fighting game strategy guides. The lack of artwork is forgivable when one realizes useful items such as a quick reference chart of moves replace the missing eye candy. It also looks damn good sitting on a coffee table. Anyone new to the Soul Calibur franchise need this book, veterans will find it rather useful too.

SGR Rating 4/5

Publisher: Future Press
Editions Available: Hardcover
Acquired via Publisher

The Witcher 2 Strategy Guide Review

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The Witcher 2 Strategy Guide ReviewIf I had to describe The Witcher 2 strategy guide in one word, it would be efficient. The guide itself is efficient to be sure, but that’s not just that. The strategy guide provides users with the most efficient way to play the monstrosity that is The Witcher 2. If you follow it closely, or even relatively closely, you will literally shave off hours of game playing time. The hours you save aren’t even fun hours you’re missing. They’re wasteful hours that will mostly consist of running to the same places repeatedly for little experience value (after all, you really don’t get true experience just for killing things) and cause great annoyance and frustration. Oh and the strategies it offers for living longer than ten minutes are rather spot on as well, if you’re into that kind of thing.

The Witcher 2 is overwhelming on two counts. One, it’s a huge game with lots of choices that you can’t foresee the outcome of right away. For instance, in games like Mass Effect and inFamous, you can somewhat predict what your decisions will lead to. They’re rather obvious that one is the good choice and one is evil (or renegade). In The Witcher 2…not so much. I decided to save some elves being burned to death rather than go after this crooked mayor. I assumed that one of my companions who was chasing after him would catch up with him and either kill him or arrest him. In the closing cut-scenes, I learned that nothing happened to the bastard, and he did awful, awful things to the people I left behind. (That crushed me.) If I had read the guide’s discourse on how my decision would affect this and that more closely, I probably would have decided something different. This is one aspect that I greatly appreciated with the guide, since I know I won’t be playing it more than once and because I obsess over these decisions. I was a basket-case when trying to make my decisions in the Mass Effect series, so this nearly put me over the top.

For each decision that is presented, the guide explains the following:

  • what the decision entails;
  • what the outcomes are;
  • what Geralt earns from it;
  • Achievements earned, if any; and
  • how this decision affects decisions and the plot later down the line.

The Witcher 2 Strategy GuideIf the decision has no bearing on anything, the guide points that out as well. It also gives a similar discourse on all dialogue trees that Geralt can unlock. Thanks to those, I avoided a nasty brawl and only had a one-on-one encounter in one situation.

As another part of its massiveness, the game has lots of sidequests that take hours to complete–each, not total. Here is where most of the strategy guide’s efficiency shines brilliantly. Before sending you off on a particular sidequest or even a main story quest, the guide will lump together quests that can be achieved at the same place or along the way and at the same time. If you haven’t unlocked that sidequest yet, it will order you to and tell you how. As the user, you have to ignore the fact that oftentimes, these quests don’t sound like they could ever be completed together. But lo and behold, they can be. Hours instantly saved, and there was much rejoicing on my part, especially since there is no fast travel option in the game (grrrrr).

The second reason why The Witcher 2 is overwhelming is the complicated combat that is thrust upon you from the get-go. Most games ease you into the gameplay by teaching you a few combat techniques at a time. This game, as a friend once said, gives you a spoon and kicks you out the door to fight a dragon. You have all of these combat methods at your disposal and no real way of learning them other than by failing and dying a lot. With the enhanced edition, there is a brief tutorial that somewhat explains all of the traps, spells, and sword techniques Geralt has, but there are so many and the tutorial is so quick, it’s impossible to learn everything and master it before your first real fight. It doesn’t help that Geralt can do a lot of things. (And I mean a lot a lot.) I play a lot of action-RPGs, but I rarely think beyond sword thrusts and spells. Adding traps, bombs, and sword-enhancing potions to the mix while trying to survive ten people stabbing at you at once–there is no bushido here–was a little too much for me to sort out within the first ten minutes of the game.

As a result, when I say I wouldn’t have survived my first fight without the guide, I really, I really mean it. Obviously as I grew accustomed to the vast combat, I got better and didn’t rely so heavily on the guide’s suggestions. However, I often checked out the guide’s tips for rather unusual ways to kill enemies and bosses. There was always something completely random tucked away in there that made me laugh.

If I had to name one RPG that really needed a strategy guide more than others, I would have to say that would be Dark Souls. But if I could say two games, The Witcher 2 would be a very, very close second. Thankfully, The Witcher 2 strategy guide lives up to all [needed] expectations. It’s an absolute must when you absolutely, positively have to kill every monster overnight. (Seriously, overnight. This guide won’t let you run around on a wild goose chase for hours on end.)

SGR Rating: 5/5

Author: Alicia Ashby
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Strategy Guide Review

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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Strategy Guide ReviewIf you’ve played Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning for five minutes after the prologue, then you’re well aware of how massively huge this game is. You literally cannot take two or three steps without some NPC asking for help. Even if you have no interest in sidequesting your heart out, you may take part in the Faction quests. It’s insane and overwhelming, especially to someone like me who can’t resist sidequests. What’s even more overwhelming is the fact that you as a player can completely forge your character’s destiny. Want to be a mage? No problem. Have you changed your mind? No problem! Want to be good? You can. Want to be evil? You can do that too. The world of Amalur is at your whim, and it’s really up to you to determine how you will play. And really, this is the dichotomy that the strategy guide for Reckoning has to face. While it does its best with guiding players through the mire of sidequests and main missions, it kind of feels like it “gives up” when it comes to effectively providing strategies for the boss fights.

The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning strategy guide does do one thing very well, and that is how it organizes the overwhelming mass that is Amalur. The walkthroughs are broken up into three sections: Area Guide, Main Quests, and Faction Quests. This layout could be good or bad, depending on the player. If you decide to do everything at once, then you’ll have a lot of flipping back and forth. For example, if you’re traveling toward the next point in the Main Quest and run into a sidequest or six, and you drop what you’re doing to immediately focus on these quests, you’re going to give your fingers a workout. Combine a Main Quest with a Faction Quest and sidequests…you get the idea.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Strategy Guide

Can't ask for a better page layout than this.

However, if you take things a bit at a time, you’ll really see the perfection in this guide layout. For instance, if you choose to join a Faction and focus just on those quests, then you can fast travel to any area you unlocked while performing those quests and use the Area Guide portion to complete all sidequests in that area. This method is far more efficient, and it honestly helps the game become less overwhelming as well as distracting. My biggest problem with the game was that I would get so sidetracked by so many quests that I would forget what I was doing in the main storyline.

It helps that the page layouts for each of the walkthrough sections were absolutely flawless as well. I really can’t ask for anything better when it comes to page design for strategy guides. Maps that are well marked with easy-to-find legends? Check. Screenshots that accurately depict what the written portion is saying? Check. Written walkthrough is broken up in clearly defined sections that easy to discern your character’s progress? Check. For the latter, this guide went one step further. If you can see from the scan above, each section is labeled with a number and reference to a particular map. From there, the user can pick out exactly where they are on the map that is conveniently placed above or near the written content. I was never confused about where I was or where I should be seeing what. It is positively brilliant.

In terms of the strategy guide providing accurate information as to what is going on and what to expect in upcoming battles, it succeeds. In terms of providing strategies for defeating bosses, it lacks. My picking on this isn’t entirely fair, I admit, as the game gives players so much freedom in how they choose their combat and defense. However, I wish the guide had given some direction, such as listing boss weaknesses to particular magic or weaponry. It starts off offering direction in the beginning, which is most likely due to the character having very few powers early on, but then it fizzles out. At least the boss fights are rarely hard, especially if you have plenty of potions at your disposal.

One feature I really, really enjoyed in the book was the History of Amalur section in the back. Over 20 pages spans the 1000-year history of Amalur, complete with mythology and concept art. I love reading the history behind fantasy, so I ate that up with glee.

Overall, I do highly recommend the strategy guide, especially if you are a completionist. The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning strategy guide literally leaves no stone unturned, whether the stones are sidequests or collectible lore stones. It’s the perfect companion to something as massive as Reckoning. It’s also so pretty on the outside and inside, it makes a damn fine coffee table book.

SGR Rating: 4/5

Authors: Bruce Byrne, Govindpal Karra, Philip Mackenzie, Saurian Dash, and Usman Niazi
Publisher: Future Press
Editions available: Hardcover
Acquired via Publisher

Binary Domain Strategy Guide Review

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Binary Domain strategy guide reviewI had zero expectations for both the game Binary Domain and the e-guide Brady Games released. I’m not a huge fan of e-guides thanks to experiences with the horrific writing in GameFAQs guides and the current disappointment that is the IGN wikis. But this is Brady Games, so it should have some sort of high quality standards that’s different from the usual online guides, right?

RIGHT.

Unlike most e-guides on the market, this is a PDF download that you can use on your computer, your iPad, or even your Kindle Fire (as I did). I actually couldn’t use my Kindle Fire for very long, because a lot of the PDF file didn’t survive the transition and conversion. On the iPad, however, iBooks converted the links perfectly. Score one for iBooks. No content was lost, so don’t think I mean that. All of the inner document links, however, were. I couldn’t interact with the maps, tap forward to different chapters, leave bookmarks, etc. On the iPad though, there were zero problems.

The most important of these links were the map links. At the start of every scene, the guide had a mini-map of sorts that was clickable. Once it was clicked/tapped, it transported the user to the back of the guide that had more detailed and large-scaled maps for each scene. These maps displayed all of the collectibles and stores in the area. Normally I would hate this, because that requires some unnecessary and inefficient page flipping for something that should be all together. However, since the maps also had a nifty in-page link back to the chapter, at least it made the back-and-forth tolerable.

Binary Domain strategy guide Binary Domain strategy guide

Overall, the guide was pretty fantastic. If I had been following the guide closely enough, I would have earned more achievements than I did, such as the SECURE-COM packet collectibles, finding and shopping at every store, and finding every piece of DNA. At least now I know I can definitely do all that when I play it again at a later date.

Binary Domain strategy guideThe walkthrough was particularly useful when it came to boss fights. There were a ton of boss fights in Binary Domain, and not all of them were that obvious in how to defeat. The idiocy of your team at times didn’t ever help matters. The last few boss fights were by far the worst (as usual), so several of the guide’s tips were absolute lifesavers.

I never want to see paper guides disappear, as even though I love my e-readers, there’s still just something about holding a book in your hands and flipping pages. That said though, I’ll complain less if e-guides turn out like this one–more of interactive PDFs than anything else. It’s what separated it from GameFAQs and the IGN wikis. It’s true that the wikis have videos, but none have interactive maps.

SGR Rating: 4/5

Authors: Rick Barba and Tim Borgenn
Publisher: Brady Games
Editions Available: PDF
Acquired via publisher

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Strategy Guide Review

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Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City strategy guide reviewIt is funny how in every iteration of the Resident Evil series we have always been fighting the Umbrella Corporation. Well, that is about to change in Operation Raccoon City. Here we take up the role of an elite Umbrella agent tasked with various acts of corporate shenanigans. It is fun to play the enemies’ side for once, and even better that Dan Birlew enjoyed it enough to document it for us noobs. Yup, even the bad guys can benefit from the work put forth by BradyGames.

This is one of the better laid out strategy guides from BradyGames. It begins with a small breakdown on all the characters along with each playable class. Considering there is a need to pick a character to stick with relatively early in the game, this info is handy in speeding up that decision. From there a full on breakdown of the game follows with even the differences in the 360 and PS3 control scheme getting some attention.

Following the mechanics and nitty-gritty of the inner game workings, enemies and weapons receive some attention. While the weapons have minimal stats, the enemies are nothing more than pictures with small descriptions of what they do. It would be nice to see some vitals here, but knowing that the zombie dog is going to pin you to the ground is better than nothing.

Love this little throwback to the game's roots

Upon completing the formalities, the main story walkthrough begins. Each chapter receives a map breaking down various weapons, ammo, and monster locations. From there it dives into what to expect as you work your way through the mission. I didn’t have many issues here and found the flow of the walkthrough worked well and provided enough to aid me on my undead slaughtering tasks.

I ended up using this guide as though it were a textbook for the game, meaning I would study small portions of it and then go take the zombie-slaying quiz. I would study the maps to get an idea of where ammo and data packages were while getting a clue of what enemies to expect or traps to watch for. I did this in small chunks as to not spoil any of those “spooky” moments, but yet just enough to keep getting me from checkpoint to checkpoint.

One piece of design I really enjoyed, and this may seem minor, is the little table of contents printed in the upper corner of every right hand page. Being able to close the guide and pick it back up later while still quickly and easily finding the section dedicated to where I was is pure awesomesauce. It honestly made navigating through the pages a breeze. In addition, noting how collectables like the typewriter were used to save games in the older Resident Evil games added some nostalgia to the guide while showing the author was up on his lore of the series.

Helpful, but not that helpful

My biggest issue with this guide was in the security camera location maps, although I cannot entirely lay blame on the book for this. The mini-map in the game and the broken out floor structure of the guide just do not work well together. I was lost more often than I was shooting out the watchful eye in the sky. I eventually just gave up and went about finding these on my own and forgetting about the maps unless I was completely clueless and needed some guidance on general locals.

I am glad I had this guide to hold my hand through the game, because it is scary and such. The maps can be a bit troublesome, but they were good for study material and did come in handy in the Versus mode. There are just enough helpful hints and tips to get players through the game, but nothing that are so glaring as to take away from the experience. Those who are stuck or just need to know where the flamethrower is, this is the strategy guide for them.

SGR Rating 4/5

Author: Dan Birlew
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

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