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Brink Strategy Guide Review

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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

Call of Duty: Black Ops Strategy Guide Review

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Call of Duty Black Ops Strategy Guide ReviewIt’s time to strap up and lace your boots; we’re going in and this time it is with the Call of Duty: Black Ops Limited Edition guide! Real soldiers never enter the battlefield without pre-hand knowledge of the layout and intel of the missions details, this guide will help you with both and then some!

I prepared to play through the game again to properly review the guide because it would be unfair for me to expect you to go into battle without properly testing the tools myself! That’s like me telling you “this vest is bulletproof!” without testing it. That’s no fun unless you’re getting hazard pay.

I am going to break this review up into two parts, the single-player and multiplayer. First let’s start with the single-player campaign. I started this game up again on the games hardest difficulty “Veteran,” so I could really test the guide and see how it helps in situations where you need it most. Starting off with the first few pages the guide has general tips on how things work in Call of Duty: Black Ops such as the obvious advice on taking cover as well as descriptions of the different types of weapons.

Going onward with the missions you are greeted with the name and details of the mission as well as a nice top-down 3D view of your starting point and the point you need to get to. The thing I like about this guide is that it tells you what weapons you started with and when you eradicate certain enemies the guide will tell you what weapon they are carrying and if it is worth it to switch out over your current loadout. I also really like how in most situations the guide advises you on the best place to take cover for that wave of enemies and what to look out for. I completed it already on Veteran when the game launched but I found the guide to be helpful for spots I used to have trouble with where now I know exactly how many enemies are coming and what weapons they planned to use on me and where I needed to be. It really helps to know those details, and I am glad they were able to provide them throughout the game!

I had some trouble with one of the stealth missions where I was going for a trophy where you do not get caught but after referring to the guide I was able to get the trophy as well as silently put the enemies to sleep.

Moving on to something some of you might know, I go for on these games are the Trophies. Yes those satisfying little *dings* of accomplishment you get. I am pleased to report this guide will tell you when you are coming up on a Trophy/Achievement and how to go about getting it which gives this guide some cool points from me. When you are going for the Intel Collecting Trophy/Achievement the guide has that same top-down 3D map as you move through the rooms and shows you where the intel is located. This is really handy so you don’t have to worry about looking for a separate or better guide as this one tells you everything you need to know about the Trophies/Achievements and collectibles.

There are some Trophies/Achievements in the game that make you do the mission a certain way (getting into the relay station without being caught, escape the ship with 2:15 left on the timer, guide the squad through an outpost without them getting killed), if you don’t know exactly what you are doing or if you are coming up on it the guide is sure to tell you how to get the Trophy/Achievement prize on the appropriate levels.

The guide also features a comprehensive tips and strategies section for the Zombies mode. I have never been good at the Zombie mode solo but using some of the tips and the maps it provides have made me a better player at it, for example where to turn the power on and rooms and points of interests and where the Mystery Box spawns in which is a box that can randomly give you some very awesome weapons. I found the maps to be quite helpful as to find out where to make my stand during each round.

Now we move on to this franchise’s probably most popular mode: the online section. Looking through the tips it gives you on Perks and Loadouts are always interesting as well as information on every single weapon and attachment. The guide of course also features maps of every level as well as the hot spots in them and tips on every mode and suggested loadouts to use, but the real surprise with this guide is that it comes with an extra bit of help in terms of a foldout “Multiplayer Tactical Recon Stand.” This thing is truly neat; it stands up and lets you flip to the level you are currently playing and it shows you depending on the gametype the objectives you need to get to as well as the player spawns, flag bases, and everything! This was something I personally have not seen before and it really surprised me how much trouble they went through to produce it at such a high quality. This is not just some cheap poster, but a cool and useful tool if you find yourself wanting to know all of the ins and outs of a level while playing it and feel like a pro.

Overall I could not find one thing to complain about (believe me I tried!), so far the two “Collector’s Edition” guides I have reviewed from BradyGames (God of War III and this one) are both top-notch and deserve a place on your “Shelf of Help” (I need to copyright that) where all of your guides go.

*Guide was provided by Keri at StrategyGuideReviews.com, played through on Veteran Difficulty gathering all Intel as well as scooping up any situational single-player trophies that I missed on my initial playthrough.*

Authors: Thom Denick, Phillip Marcus, and the Sea Snipers
Published By: Brady Games
Editions Available: Paperback, Limited Edition
Acquired via Publisher

SGR Grade: 5/5

L.A. Noire Strategy Guide Review

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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

Portal 2 IGN Strategy Guide Review

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Portal 2 IGN Strategy Guide Review

I admit that I’m not a huge fan of strategy guides that are 100% video. I prefer video to be an optional part of the guide, to help one get through a spot that they just don’t entirely understand how to do from words alone. For instance, back when I was playing Uncharted 2, I nearly rage quit over the Jeep hopping sequence. I could not figure out how to jump from truck to truck without something blowing up and killing me. Thanks to a video of the sequence, I immediately understood that I was not jumping to the correct truck for one jump. After that was corrected, it was super easy. Future Press has also implemented the idea of supplemental videos with their strategy guides for Bayonetta and Portal 2. IGN, however, has made their Portal 2 strategy guide solid video. There are no screenshots. There are very little words. So yeah, I was apprehensive about liking this at all. I mean, it’s kind of like having the entire game handed to you, right?

And here comes the part where I admit I was wrong. While yes, I still think that this many videos kind of gives away the whole game, all of the videos have been done very, very well, and they are broken up by both chapter and Achievements/Trophies. For the chapter walkthroughs, the reviewer commentates on what he is doing, what the player can expect, and even gives the little tutorials on how to do things–such as the double fling–that the game doesn’t really give newbies. Because of the constant commentary, the game isn’t exactly “given away” because the player won’t be able to hear everything GLaDOS or other characters say over the reviewer. If you listen very closely, you will catch nearly everything that is said, but if you do that, you probably won’t be paying attention to what the reviewer is saying or the strategy presented.

In the walkthrough videos, the Achievements/Trophies earned outside of story progression are presented separately. Here there is no commentary, but since so many of these Achievements/Trophies are so off the wall and in strange places, a voice-over would be a little distracting.

The downsides I found are very nit-picky I admit, but they’re still there for all users to consider. The walkthroughs for each chapter are partitioned into one or two videos instead of into each separate area Chell might visit in a chapter. As such, users won’t be able to quickly look for that one spot that is giving them trouble; they will have to either watch the video in its entirety or try to skip ahead where the buffer allows for it. Like I said, it’s nit-picky, but it’s a viable concern in terms of efficiency.

So if you aren’t looking to read about what to do for Portal 2 in terms of well, reading anything, then IGN’s Portal 2 strategy guide is definitely the way to go. Very well done, and the video format is pretty perfect for this type of puzzle game.

SGR Grade: 5/5

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars IGN Strategy Guide Review

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LEGO Star Wars III IGN Strategy Guide
I actually had a hard time scoring IGN’s LEGO Star Wars III online strategy guide, because it does so many things so very, very well but it has a glaring mistake that I can’t ignore. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

Like most online strategy guides, IGN’s guide is set up for those who are looking for quick answers. For example, if you’re stuck in one area or can’t find a particular minikit, you can find your answer in a matter of 2-3 clicks. The top of every page of the guide has a handy, clickable table of contents, so jumping from walkthroughs to Trophies is a snap.

The Clone Wars Guide & Walkthrough - X360, Xbox 360 Walkthrough - IGN 2011-05-27 10-26-50As for the walkthroughs themselves, they are a perfect balance of text and screenshots. The pages themselves are long, but that’s because the writer was kind enough to put a single chapter on each page. There is no bleed over of chapters, so users won’t have to click back and forth in order to find what they are looking for with each chapter. The links at the top that allow for a quick jump over to the Minikits guide is also extremely helpful, although users should be aware that there is a disclaimer on the main Minikits page that says it’s best to use the Minkits portion for Freeplay Mode only.

When it comes to walkthroughs, minikit hunts, and quick answers to gameplay questions, IGN’s LEGO Star Wars III strategy guide definitely has you covered. Unfortunately, there is one element that is missing from the walkthrough/collectible standpoint: the Hub. All of the game’s Red Bricks are scattered across the Hub ships, and none of these Red Bricks have been mapped out in the guide. Granted, the Red Bricks aren’t vastly important to the overall story or gameplay–although they really help when it comes to getting your True Jedi status–but collectible fanatics and completionists will not find any assistance for obtaining Red Bricks here.

The lack of Red Bricks, though, was not the guide’s biggest problem. As I mentioned earlier, the guide does have a horrific mistake, and that lies in its separate 3DS guide. If you’ve frequented IGN’s guide section before, then you know that where possible, they include links to the other console guides. In this case, the guide was mainly for the Xbox 360, but links to guides for the PSP, Wii, PC, PS3, and 3DS were also included. Apparently the guide writer had no idea that the game is 100% different for the DS/3DS version, because the 3DS guide was exactly like the other guides.

So tough break, DS/3DS owners. You’ll have to find your assistance elsewhere, otherwise you’re going to be confused in a hurry.

For those who have a console version of the game, then this guide will definitely help you work through trouble patches and find all of the minikits. If nothing else, the screenshots give a clear point of reference for what to do next, thereby drastically reducing lookup time and time away from playing the game. If only it included the Red Bricks and either omitted a reference to a DS guide or created a true separate DS guide, it would have easily gotten a perfect score.

SGR Rating: 3/5

Author: Anthony Gerhart
Publisher: IGN
Editions Available: Online and PDF download
Acquired Free Online

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