A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides
Our dearth of strategy guides is about to come to an end, and the first one to hit our hot little hands will be the Metal Gear Solid V strategy guide. Piggyback is handling this one, and they sent me a few teaser photos. If the content is as amazing as the book’s presentation, Metal Gear fans are in for a treat.
The Metal Gear Solid V strategy guide will release on September 1, 2015 in both paperback and hardback, collector’s edition formats.
If there’s one thing the strategy guide industry often does well, it’s their collector’s edition strategy guides. I’ve kept strategy guides for games I don’t even have anymore simply because they are collector’s edition guides and are amazing in so many ways. The collector’s edition strategy guide for Dragon Age Inquisition looks to be just as amazing.
They call it the Inquisitor’s Edition, and it includes a hefty bit more than the gorgeous hardcover book you see on the left. The second box on the right includes four leather bookmarks stamped with different faction emblems and a stylized Inquisition pen.
It also includes 3 bonus in-game items thanks to BioWare.
Not going to lie; this is pretty pricey. Its retail price is $119.00, which is a lot for one strategy guide, but at least Amazon currently has a preorder sale going on, allowing you lock it in for $81.88.
Of course I’m interested, but I’m also swayed by shiny things, especially shiny strategy guides. Are you interested?
I must admit, I had no intention of picking up Resident Evil 6 until Keri told me Dan Birlew was part of the review team on the Resident Evil 6 strategy guide. I like how Dan writes his guides, and so my excitement level to review his work once again shot up ten-fold. Sadly, the guide is more fun than the game, but that is a matter for a different day.
Like all good strategy guides, this one starts out with the basics, like a breakdown on the differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 control schemes. From there, all the in-game combat essentials get covered in good detail with screenshots to show what players can expect when executing throws or ducking. As dang near every iteration of the Resident Evil series changes how players interact with the world, this is worth skimming over by anyone jumping into the zombie horde filled city.
Now it is time to dive headlong into the campaign, starting with the Prelude. The game itself is playable in whatever character order one feels like, so the table of contents and color-coded corners is a great help in getting to the specific portion of the guide containing the necessary info a player requires at any point in time. The walkthrough contains easy-to-read maps showing where to find ammo, health, and hidden serpent emblems. I enjoyed these maps and how they cut down my time running all over the stage in order to check every nook and cranny for herbs and ammo. There are also charts at the end of each character section showing the ranking system and what is required to earn top honors.
So an arrow to the knee will not work here?
What I enjoyed the most is how this portion reads. Sure, the authors take you from point-to-point in the mission, but it felt more as if I was reading a book than a strategy guide. Even the boss battles are full of details on beating them, covered in gooey commentary that makes for faster, and more enjoyable, reading. It maybe fluff, but it adds a nice touch to the standard go here, kill this, go there, collect that formula of so many other strategy guides.
The back of the guide is comprised of all the extra tidbits that are crammed into the game. Completionists will want to spend some time scanning over part three as it has all the info on how to obtain every dog tag, title, and Achievements. I found the Agent Hunt very handy in that it lists commands and tactics for each playable monster along with stage and goal details. As for the Mercenaries area, the maps and strategies are a nice touch. This also includes info on all the unlock conditions for characters and costumes, as well as the general guidelines for playing each mercenary.
The last pages go to the appendices. These contain lots of charts on campaign skills, agent hunt skills, and mercenary skills, various in-game items, weapons, and monsters. The weapons and monster portions are of the most notable because they specify who can carry what item and how to bring down various creatures quickly and efficiently. You know, so players can conserve precious ammo! What is particularly cool about the achievement/trophy area is that it not only lists everything to raise that gamer score a few points, but it also explains how to obtain some of the more difficult Achievements/Trophies.
Between the easy guide navigation, story-like walkthrough, and bounty of info, this is a beautiful guide. I loved that the screenshots throughout the pages were actually brighter than the game itself, thus making it easier to follow along when just glancing down to quickly read something. Dan has once again outdone himself with the Resident Evil 6 strategy guide!
Author: Dan Birlew, Logan Sharp
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Collector’s Edition and Paperback
Acquired via Publisher
Chances are, if you’ve bought any of the Assassin’s Creed III Collector’s Edition strategy guides in the past, you’ll be buying this one as well. Piggyback Interactive‘s Collector’s Editions are often worth the extra bucks, even though they often don’t contain much more than the paperback guide outside of the gorgeous hardcovers. This time though, there are a few extras that make the Collector’s Edition well worth the additional $10.
The Collector’s Edition contains an extra 16 pages of “History vs. Story,”which covers the history of the American Revolution and how it was woven into the story of Assassin’s Creed III. This includes commentary from the game’s scriptwriter, Corey May. Even if you aren’t a history buff, it may intrigue you to learn how the game writers used actual history to tell Connor’s story.
Of course, this isn’t the only bonus. Each Collector’s Edition includes a limited edition print of a painting–watercolor, perhaps?–of Connor swooping in to attack a few redcoats (so in the European editions of the guide, does the print depict Connor attacking colonists?).
Each strategy guide includes a large map poster of the region Connor explores, complete with all collectibles marked, but the map for the Collector’s Edition is larger than the one found in the paperback guide, and it’s printed on vintage-looking paper.
Is enough to entice you as a collector? It’s enough for me. But to be serious, I think we all know that the gorgeous hard cover artwork is always enough to make it worth it to me.
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When Kingdom Hearts 2 released in 2005, the guides – both regular and Collector’s Editions – were a HOT commodity. The first guide was so fantastic that everyone naturally assumed this guide would be just as great. As seen from my Kingdom Hearts 2 Strategy Guide review, this was not the case. However, the Collector’s Edition of this guide was the biggest rip-off of the whole ordeal.
For starters, the Kingdom Hearts 2 Collector’s Edition Strategy Guide did not even sport a hardback cover that most CE guides feature. Don’t get me wrong; the artwork on the cover as shown on the right was downright beautiful, but it was on a thin board cover sleeve, similar to what you would see with some DVD sleeves. The reason for the sleeve was that it contained two books inside: the strategy guide and Jiminy’s Journal.
The strategy guide within the CE had four different covers, each displaying one of Sora’s Drive Forms. This was smart on BradyGames’ part, because fans CLAMORED to collect all four of these Collector’s Editions. (When in doubt, always tap into the collector mentality.) It’s just a shame, though, that the other bonus included with the CE was not as fun and wasn’t all that practical either.
The bonus book, Jiminy’s Journal, listed everything Sora has to complete in this sadistic journal, what Jiminy’s minimum requirements are, and space for the user to fill out his or her times/scores for the mini-games. The first two elements are already in the strategy guide, so all usefulness of the Journal has already been included in the cheaper version. Maybe some fans will like to record their scores in the book, but what’s the point when the game already records them for you? Now if the Journal offered tips for meeting Jiminy’s insane demands, then I would take back calling it useless.
But as it stands, this bonus is useless, which effectively renders the rest of the Collector’s Edition as nothing but a prettier version of the regular strategy guide. I pity all who fell for this trap, including myself.