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Batman: Arkham Knight Strategy Guide Review

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Batman: Arkham Knight strategy guide reviewIt’s almost eerie how closely the strategy guide for Batman: Arkham Knight mirrors the game itself. Like its namesake, the guide is super-sexy and packed full of delightful surprises. Unfortunately, like the game itself, the book starts to fall apart in the third act, holding it back from being one of the all-time greats.

The Collector’s Edition of the Batman: Arkham Knight strategy guide is elegance personified. There’s an air of mystery and sophistication with the simple black cover, and the lithographic title adds a dash of playfulness and fun. It’s said you should never judge a book by its cover, but when the cover is this nice it at least deserves a nod. The book also comes with lithograph prints of some of the game’s characters, as well as the Batmobile, all of which look absolutely stunning. They’re of a quality that it wouldn’t be out-of-line to proudly hang them on your wall, they look that good.

Things only get better as you start digging into the content of the guide itself, which is chock full of gorgeous art from the game and in-depth descriptions of both Batman’s abilities, as well as the foes he’s about to face on this particular Halloween in Gotham. As you progress through the game’s story the guide pulls out character profiles in order to quickly bring you up to speed and build a bit more color into the experience, as well as doling out tips and tricks for new abilities and gadgets as they unlock. All these little touches add to an expertly-paced, informative walkthrough that does just enough handholding without being condescending. It’s a fine tightrope, and the guide walks it expertly.

Another small but appreciated flourish is the guide’s ability to largely avoid spoilers throughout. Arkham Knight is a twisty, turny game and there are a lot of impactful moments that could be potentially ruined if you read ahead in a book that plays fast and loose with the story. Impressively, the guide largely sidesteps this, so even if you flip to the wrong page or read ahead a bit it’s unlikely you’ll have any part of the game ruined.

Beyond the main story the strategy guide also meticulously details each of the game’s Most Wanted side-missions, listing locations, strategies and special considerations for taking out each of Gotham’s most-dangerous villains in their respective multi-part quests. While the guide is comprehensive, this is also where the first imperfections start to show, as it sometimes fails to point out that specific quests cannot be completed until certain points in the game. If you’re the type of player who likes to take a break from the story in order to knock out some missions along the way it can be frustrating to hit a hard stopping point in certain missions because they’re functionally impossible to finish until later. It would have been helpful if the guide had broken down the missions by chapter in which a certain section could be completed, because as it stands now it just assumes you’ve finished the main story and are doing everything after Gotham’s primary threats have been thwarted.

As I tore through the guide I was debating whether this might be one of the best ever created, in spite of its minor shortcomings. I found myself happily opening it up every time I booted up the game, keeping it close for reference, and sometimes flipping to the Arkham Universe preview in the back, which contains even more great artwork and a look back at the series as a whole. It was all going so well, at least until I hit the Collectibles chapter.

In most games the collectibles aren’t that big of a deal, typically amounting to little more than an Achievement and maybe an XP boost if found. However, in Batman: Arkham Knight, they play a key role in the Riddler’s Most Wanted mission, which in turn must be finished in order to see the game’s full ending. Therefore, I was crestfallen when I turned to this section in my hunt for Riddler’s 240+ collectibles and found a slapped-together, painfully unhelpful guide.

First off, rather than utilizing the in-game maps and icons to list out where the various riddles, trophies, and destructibles are located, the guide instead opts to create its own maps with numbered, colored boxes to denote locations. This is already slightly confusing, as you have to juggle in your mind what the various shades stand for, and flip across multiple pages to find the corresponding entry in the guide.

More egregious than the lackluster maps is the barebones entries for each of the riddles, which are practically useless. Each entry is comprised of a tiny screenshot that provides absolutely no context, alongside maybe a sentence-long explanation of how to attain a given trophy, and that’s if you’re lucky. The entries are vague, cramped and mostly unhelpful, and the entire section is a massive disappointment. I very quickly gave up on this section entirely, instead opting for an IGN wiki since it actually provided insight on how to solve the trickier puzzles.

The Batman: Arkham Knight strategy guide does almost everything right, with a big emphasis on the almost. Still, it’s one of the more informative, helpful and ridiculously good-looking books out there, so it’s easy to recommend. The Knight is dark and full of terrors, but this guide will light your path.

SGR Rating: 4/5

Author: Michael Owen & Joe Epstein
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions available: Paperback and Collector’s Edition
Acquired via publisher

SGR Coffee Break 23: The Prima Games and BradyGames Merger

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Wait, we are actually talking about something strategy guide related on this episode of the SGR Coffee Break? The world must be coming to an end. That’s right, we tackle the Prima Games and BradyGames merger. This is all adult talk and such.

Oh and we might have info on how to win The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Collector’s Edition Strategy Guide for Free Guide Friday within.

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Prima Games and BradyGames Officially Merge

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PrimaGamesThe writing has been on the wall for awhile, but today marks it as official: Prima Games and BradyGames are now one entity. There is now only one strategy guide publisher in the United States, as Double Jump and numerous others I have forgotten folded years ago.

As part of the merge, the name of BradyGames is also melding into Prima Games. My orange books will soon be a classic as all of my strategy guides will have the red branding.

We’ve seen this in the works for quite some time. BradyGames was under the Penguin Books publishing umbrella, which is owned by Random House. Random House also owns Prima Games. Then BradyGames’ online e-guides merged with Prima Games’ website a few months ago. Really, this was a matter of time.

I’m mixed in how I feel about this. I really like the idea of competition for guides, because to me, that’s how things improve. If there’s not much competition for best quality strategy guides, then the only motivation for improvement is via the dollar. Granted, BradyGames and Prima haven’t exactly had much competition between the two, as they do not publish guides for the same game. The only competition they really had was in convincing publishers and developers to work with them over the other.

But no point in complaining about what is. This is how it is, and this is how it may stay. Maybe we’ll see more competition in the future with smaller publishers or perhaps with the online market. It’s an interesting time for strategy guides, and to be reviewing them, that is for certain.

The entire press release is below.

Prima Games, an imprint of Penguin Random House Inc., has joined forces with the team at BradyGames. Uniting these two iconic strategy guide publishers brings together over 40 years of expertise, creativity, and passion for the video game industry. Whether in print or digital—from traditional strategy guides to map apps, video content, and eGuides—Prima Games helps players get the most out of their games.

As the premiere provider of official, expert strategy content, Prima Games has the largest catalog of detailed strategy delivered in the most convenient and easy-to-use formats. Products include interactive web-accessed guides, iTunes/Google Play apps, console strategy apps, cheats and codes databases, and traditional print guides. Web-accessed strategy guides (eGuides) are available 24/7, directly from primagames.com with no download or DRM required. Print guides feature complete walkthroughs, detailed maps, instructional screenshots, and a free eGuide for access to updated content. Collector’s editions go even further with exclusive extras such as posters, interviews with game developers, lavish art sections, lithographs, and even in-game DLC.

We Are Prima Games. We Are Strategy. Visit primagames.com for more information.

Evolve Strategy Guide Review

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Evolve strategy guide reviewI was, and still am, excited about Evolve. The premise of four hunters taking down a giant monster totally has my interest. While I enjoy the game, sadly it’s already on the pile of “Games that Died Too Soon” thanks to a dwindling online community. Sadly, this will also be the case of the Evolve strategy guide by BradyGames.

This is a fairly easy guide to read and understand. As I was new to the game, as in I was kept away from spoilers and such, it was nice to learn how the various weapons and skills worked. This helped me form a plan as to what hunter I wanted to concentrate on and get the most unlocks for right at the start. This is true for the monsters as well as their attacks are spelled out and easy to know what monster fit my style of play. It was also handy to know what perks to pick for both sides, as those do make a big difference.

Could we get a bit more detail here. Like PRETTY PLEASE!

Could we get a bit more detail here. Like PRETTY PLEASE!

I found the Hunters and Monsters sections to be detailed enough to help me pick a favorite hunter and monster. Having the hunter combinations that utilize their loadouts against specific monsters was a nice touch. There are tips on how each character operates and what makes them tick. However, the tips are rather basic. Telling readers that a healing class should sit back from the fight and only swoop in when needed is pretty much Gaming 101 at this point. Having more advanced strategies would have made this guide a lot more useful.

The maps are a mixed bag. I like knowing where the monster spawns in relation to where the hunters drop and the power core. The various map effect details (dependent on game mode) will help new players as they are not only fighting one another, but also the environment as well. Knowing what a man eating plant looks like will come in very handy when running away from the Goliath in hopes of living to fight another round.

While the maps are good for an overview, there isn’t much else to them. There are no prime routes marked for hunters or monsters. The lack of detail, outside of spawn and drop zone location, is very disenchanting. Having markings of where the bigger wildlife spawn points are, bird flock locations, and vantage points would have made these maps that much more useful.

Now this is full of win!

Now this is full of win!

For those who want to get all the accolades, badges, and achievements will find the guide is very helpful here. Accolades and badges come in spreadsheet form and contain all the info that is needed to obtain these. The nicest part about this section is that the achievements are more than just a table with the name and point value. This guide actually details out what is necessary in order to snag every achievement available. That is not something we see in a lot of guides, and it is something I’d love to see more of.

As with any guides for a game of this nature, take all numbers and stats with a grain of salt. Patches, balance tweaks, and so on can easily render the numbers in this guide useless in one fell swoop. This guide also can’t be updated with future maps and hunter releases, and so the value of this information is rather limited to the game launch window.

Overall, the Evolve strategy guide is a great introduction to what players can expect from Evolve. I found that it was easy to read while drinking coffee or over a lunch break. I then was able to plan out what I wanted to focus on and unlock during my future Evolve play sessions. However, seasoned veterans will find this is more of a Sunday read than anything that is going to actually detail out solid strategies to make one a better hunter or monster. As is the game, pick your side and determine the value of it for yourself.

SGR Rating 3/5

Author: Michael Owen and Will Murray
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

The Order: 1886 Strategy Guide Review

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The Order: 1886 strategy guide reviewWhen I first heard that there would be a strategy guide for The Order: 1886, I was rather stoked. The game appeared to have so much potential as a combat-heavy shooter featuring steampunk weapons, a deep story, and werewolf fights. I have a feeling that BradyGames thought the same thing, hence why they proposed creating such a strategy guide for Ready at Dawn and Sony. After playing the game the first time for review, I formulated three reasons why there would be a The Order: 1886 strategy guide: 1)collectibles, 2) stealth sections, and 3) trophy hunting.

For the most part, that is exactly why the strategy guide will be used at all as all of the combat is very straight forward and simple. At least what it does is rather spot on with minor, minor complaints.

When I say it’s spot on, I mean that I was able to obtain a Platinum trophy in the game. Doing so not only requires completing certain combat feats, but also finding every single gosh-darn collectible. And these collectibles are not straight forward and easy to find, unlike the firefights. I found several on my own, but some are way off the beaten path in areas I didn’t know I could even get to until the strategy guide pointed them out. Plus a few of the phonograph cylinders could be easily overlooked in one scene in particular, because if you searched certain spots before locating the cylinders, a cut scene would trigger and force you to move on.

Collectibles! (And lots of screenshots)

Collectibles! (And lots of screenshots)

As an added bonus for completionists, all of the collectibles are listed in an appendix as well as the walkthrough. I do have to caution users that you do have to follow the strategy guide verbatim for the collectibles, as once you pass through one area, there is no going back to retrieve that wayward collectible. You’ll have to wait until you complete the game, which will unlock all of the individual chapters to play.

When I looked through the appendices for the trophy list, as I always do, I was initially disappointed that the list did not include advice for where it is best to obtain these trophies. Some of the trophies, the “Brilliant!” trophy in particular that requires shooting an airborne grenade during Blacksight, seemed impossible for me to achieve without a smidge of help. I honestly thought I would never get all of the trophies, and I focused on getting what I could my second time through the game as well as the collectibles. I really, really wanted to make sure the guide was 100% accurate on the collectibles.

My fears were unfounded, as some of those more “complicated” combat trophies were mentioned in the game’s walkthrough, such as that Brilliant! trophy. And yes, that’s exactly how I obtained that specific trophy; it was 100% with the strategy guide’s help.

Thanks for the lack of stealth help.

Thanks for the lack of stealth help.

With the final need for the strategy guide, the stealth portions, the strategy guide was a bit lacking. There are two distinct sections that require stealth, and only one properly guided you. In the first section, which took place on the airship, the guide told you exactly where to hide, showed you with screenshots, and even marked it on maps for efficient stealth kills without getting seen. In the United India Company gardens, you’re simply told to go take down the six roaming around. Oh, okay then. A suggested order for taking them down would have been great, or even marks on the map of their patrols would have been useful. My first time playing was a nightmare as I didn’t have help (and the QTE mechanics with stealth kills only made it worse).

At least they were very detailed in how to survive each werewolf encounter, whether it’s a werewolf boss fight or fending off the regular Lycans. In fact, it was because of the strategy guide’s recommendation to equip the Falchion for its stunning ability that I was able to develop a quick rhythm when it came to putting them down.

Other than the collectible and trophy hunting, The Order: 1886 strategy guide kind of ends up as a glorified art book. Each page is just covered with screenshots, because if you had to rely on words to fill the pages, the guide would be thinner than it already is. There is no bonus art section in the back, because the book is already crammed full of screen shots and character art. If they added any more, they might as well create a flipbook depicting all of the cut scenes in the game.

Other than the lack of assistance with one stealth area, The Order: 1886 strategy guide does an amazing job at helping players cover every nook and cranny of the game. The game is short as it is, so you might as well try to get as much out of it as possible. Not to mention, if it can help me of all people obtain a Platinum trophy, it can help absolutely anyone achieve the same.

Rating: 4.5/5

Author: Rick Barba
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

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