Prima Games Archives

LEGO Batman 2 Strategy Guide Review (console)

August 23, 2012 By Keri Honea 1 Comment

Every LEGO console game has two parts to it: the mission chapters and the hub world. The chapters provide the traditional campaign mode of a game, and the hub world is the place for exploration and unlocking numerous collectibles. While the chapters have plenty of collectibles, nothing can compare to the large number in the hub worlds. LEGO Batman 2 has quite possibly the largest hub world of any LEGO game I’ve ever seen, and I thought the hub world for LEGO Star Wars III was massive. This hub world spans across Gotham City broken up into three large regions and includes 12 red bricks, over 150 gold bricks, several vehicles, and numerous citizens in peril to find. The LEGO Batman 2 strategy guide definitely had its work cut out for it, and I have to say, when it comes to the hub world, the guide was spot on. Unfortunately, the guide for the chapters portion suffered from a number of inaccuracies.

When it came to the hub, the guide really went above and beyond the call of duty for finding all of those darn collectibles. Each Gotham City region was separated out with its own section, and each region contained the following:

a map of the region with every collectible numbered and color-coded;
a legend with each corresponding collectible along with requirements for obtaining said collectible;
legend checklists for the user to mark off collectibles; and
detailed screenshots and walkthroughs for obtaining each and every collectible.

Oh yes, I wrote in my strategy guide this time.

To be honest, the map and legend checklists were all I really needed and expected, but the fact that it included detailed walkthroughs for each one greatly surprised me. It really came in handy when I needed to make sure I was in looking in the right zone or was about to embark on the right obstacle course.

Then, in case those weren’t enough, there were appendices in the back of the guide that were nothing but checklists for all of the collectibles. No matter which method you preferred to keep track, you had a few ways to do it.

The checklists themselves were so incredibly appreciated. There are an obscene number of gold bricks scattered across Gotham City, and many of them are found in similar-looking places. Being able to check off each gold brick found prevented plenty of back-tracking later. Considering how massive Gotham City is, well, these checklists alone make purchasing the guide worth it and are the guide’s biggest asset.

If only the chapter sections were as accurate, then the LEGO Batman 2 strategy guide would have set the new bar for being absolutely perfect. All of these inaccuracies with the chapters could be considered very minor. For example, some of the Super Hero Stud requirements had the wrong numbers. In another instance, the instructions for finding a minikit in Freeplay Mode left out a couple of steps, including the need to switch to a certain character. It was lucky that the character was not one that the player needed to collect outside of story mode, otherwise it could have been a frustrating situation.

It’s a shame that the chapters were not as perfect as the Gotham City hub section, because they are what keep the guide from earning a perfect score. However, they definitely don’t mar any recommendations for purchasing this strategy guide. If you want to 100% this LEGO game, I can’t recommend Prima Games’ LEGO Batman 2 strategy guide enough.

SGR Rating: 4/5

Author: Stephen Stratton
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Purchase

Prima Games’ Darksiders II eGuide Includes Print Guide DLC

August 17, 2012 By Keri Honea 2 Comments

One of the perks to buying a copy of Prima Games’ strategy guide for Darksiders II is the inclusion of an exclusive weapon, the Crowhammer. It seemed at first to be a perk over the publisher’s e-Guide, which is also for sale. But according to the lovely email that landed in my inbox this morning, this is most definitely not the case!

If you prefer an electronic guide over a printed book, then you can still acquire the exclusive Crowhammer weapon. So if you were conflicted as to which guide to purchase because you really wanted to smack around some enemies with a giant hammer with crows, then be conflicted no more.

I prefer printed books, so I was always in the clear. [Insert Nelson laugh here.]

Death Rocks Free Guide Friday

August 16, 2012 By Keri Honea 8 Comments

I honestly cannot recommend that you get into Darksiders II enough, even if you were as meh about the first game as I was. Prima Games agrees with my sentiment so much, they’ve sent me an extra Darksiders II strategy guide to give away. Included with the strategy guide is a code for an exclusive weapon, Fletcher’s Crow Hammer. Normally you’d have to buy the strategy guide to get this code, but Prima Games loves all of you just that much to let you have this code along with a free guide.

Oh and I also have to point out that a guide will be needed a bit more with this game than the first just for one word and one word alone: sidequesting. Have I sold you into entering yet? Then let’s get into the nitty gritty!

Here is how you enter (notice that it’s the same as the last Free Guide Friday):

Leave a comment here on this post saying that you want to enter.
Follow me on Twitter and tweet at me that you want to enter.
Like our Facebook page and comment on the Wall post that links this post that you want to enter.

Each of these counts as one entry, so you could enter up to 3 times. On Friday, August 17th, I will draw a random entry from my almighty N7 hat. Once again, US contestants only, please, unless you are willing to spring for shipping.

If you win, please thank Prima Games either via Twitter or on their Facebook page. This is their first Free Guide Friday with us and we want more, right?

Game of Thrones Strategy Guide Review

July 9, 2012 By Keri Honea 7 Comments

The Game of Thrones books may be as long-winded as Stephen King, and the game seems to match it evenly, but fortunately, the Game of Thrones strategy guide cuts to the chase. In fact, this guide reminds me a lot of the strategy guide for The Witcher 2, both in its layout and its efficiency. And thank God for that. You really don’t want to sit through these cut scenes more than once, trust me, and this guide will really help you avoid repeat viewings (in case you aren’t aware, you can’t skip through cut scenes…AT ALL).

I greatly appreciated the extra assistance the strategy guide provided when it came to making decisions for leveling up. Characters level up very similarly to what you see in Dragon Age or Kingdoms of Amalur. However, at least in those two games, you are very aware of what you are, whether you are a warrior, a mage, a rogue, etc. In GoT, classes are named from titles in the books, such as sellsword and water dancer. Even if you have read the books–like I have–it’s not immediately obvious how you should be leveling up your character, especially if you have taken a breather in between gaming sessions. The strategy guide helps alleviate this confusion by giving suggestions of abilities each class should focus on in order to be more effective. I typically play similar classes in every RPG I play, but even I wasn’t sure if my Landed Knight was more of a warrior or a brute. The difference? One has skills with a sword and shield whereas the other prefers two-handed weapons. The skills offered and needed for these types of combat vary greatly, and once you choose a skill, there’s no going back.

I only wish that the guide had implemented these suggestions throughout the walkthrough. For instance, before big boss fights or large encounters, offer suggestions on what skills your character should have at this point in time. However, on the flip side of the coin, the guide never recommends class-specific abilities during your battles, so in that regard, making such skill suggestions seems unnecessary. At the same time, the strategies for the boss battles come across as very generic and provide little beyond “don’t die.” Instead, it explains the boss’s tactics and makes suggestions how best to use Mors’ warg abilities and Alester’s R’hollor priest abilities. Everything else is left up to the player to determine.

You can get in fights with virtually anyone at any time, whether you’re investigating, looking for a fight, or just wandering around a village. Sometimes this is a good idea, and sometimes it’s horrendous. The strategy guide was always quick to point out where I should go first before picking a fight with a particular group of disgruntled peasants. If you didn’t want to fight, and it’s possible to avoid it with words, you are always given a heads up beforehand. I absolutely hated the combat system in GoT, so I was all for talking my way out of confrontations. (If you’ve played the game, you know which character I absolutely hated working with. He died a lot.)

Like any good RPG, Game of Thrones is inundated with sidequests. Like any good RPG strategy guide, the Game of Thrones strategy guide keeps the sidequest walkthroughs separate from the main walkthrough. All sidequests are noted when they can be triggered and where/what it takes to trigger them, but all details of the sidequests are kept in a separate section, away from the main walkthrough. It helps alleviate the potential clutter, which is always greatly appreciated, especially if you have little desire in completing all of them or even any of them. For instance, one of the first sidequests you can unlock involves a statue hunting fetch quest, which sounds just as fun as it really is. If you want to skip it, you can easily do so because that sidequest walkthrough isn’t smack dab in the middle of your main walkthrough, forcing you to read ahead and find which page you now need.

The guide’s largest fault is its spoilers. The plot of the game is very succinctly laid out for you, so if you glance ahead either to look up something in particular or inadvertently, chances are great that you will see a plot spoiler. The strategy guide even goes as far as detailing each possible ending down to what is said and includes screenshots. On the one hand, some users may appreciate this so they can make the most well-informed choice possible toward the end, but this is downright overkill. By the end of the game, I felt like I didn’t need to have played at all; why bother discovering the story for yourself when you can read it line for line, whether you mean to or not?

The Game of Thrones strategy guide is definitely a great tourist guide for those looking to survive at any length of time in the treacherous world of Westeros. That said, all users must be prepared for little guidance when it comes to boss battles and prepared to avert eyes to avoid spoilers as much as possible.

SGR Rating: 3/5

Author: Michael Searle
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Ghost Recon Future Soldier Strategy Guide Review

July 3, 2012 By Nicholas Michetti Leave a Comment

Ghost Recon Future Soldier is a different kind of game than some might used to be playing, featuring components of squad shooters, tactical shooters, and stealth action games. Gamers who are new to this blend of gameplay–especially those new to the Ghost Recon franchise–may find playing through GRFS a bit daunting at first. Luckily, for those gamers, Prima has created a pretty extensive strategy guide for the game that should be able to help them take down their heavily armed opposition. While not without a few trouble spots, gamers should be able to use this guide to find exactly whatever it is that they need to get through the game.

Prima’s GRFS guide excels in giving many great general and specific gameplay tips for the tactical squad shooter. Players might not initially realize what options they have to spot enemies, or how efficient their teammates are at taking orders and subsequently taking down enemy soldiers. The guide is also mostly spot-on at enemy counts and helping players to arrange “sync shots” to take down groups of soldiers. Even some of the most difficult missions in the game, including ones where there are no alerts allowed, are made at least a fair bit easier by the guide laying out what’s coming and what players can expect as they progress through the mission. The game’s tactical challenges are spelled out with the criteria to meet and fairly good advice as well–I was able to accomplish a few of them because of the guide’s suggestions.

However, every once in a great number of pages, the guide includes some puzzling advice. Not necessarily wrong advice per se, but advice that seemed a bit difficult to pull off or not the easiest way to proceed. For instance:

In the mission “Noble Tempest,” the guide advises that players take out four mercenaries playing soccer before taking out some other guards in the area, when an alert can be avoided with a careful series of sync shots used prior to taking out the soccer players.
The latter half of “Noble Tempest” has an alternate ending with a chopper battle that isn’t mentioned.
In “Gallant Thief,” the advice for taking out the guards stealthily before rescuing the prisoner was generally too vague. Plus, by being careful and patient (the process takes a while and possibly multiple restarts), a player can opt to forgo stealth and use a weapon to take out a number of guards in the area, freeing up the lift needed to evacuate the prisoner from the presence of guards nearly completely. The guide does mention that an SMG could be used in the area, though.
Finally, in “Shattered Mountain,” the guide advises to leave the guards standing behind the barn area in favor of going after a high value target first, when the guards can be carefully taken down with sync shots prior to engaging the target. If the player has taken out the guards behind the barn, then takes out the high value target and accidentally triggers an alert, they only have to deal with a select few enemies inside the barn.

Other than those instances, though, the guide’s advice for the single player campaign is mostly very useful and quite accurate.

The guide’s advice for multiplayer is overall very general and will be helpful to beginners, but won’t help with any specific trouble spots. The guide calls out noteworthy areas and marks all of the places on the maps in which objectives appear, which are very useful inclusions (especially the objectives locations), but does not really recommend any course of action for what to do when on offense or defense and encountering heavy resistance in a particular area. As for Guerrilla Mode, I was only able to test the infiltration run of each map, as the mode is built for four players and does not include a way to go through the mode with four random players–players can only play online with other friends who have the game. I only found one problem of note with one of the initial infiltration runs (the “Mansion” map), as the guide advises players to take out a soldier who spends plenty of time facing the player. By taking out the guards in a different order (taking out a patrol guard who stops next to a car, then taking out a guard patrolling the mansion’s front, then taking out the facing guard by coming up from behind him by vaulting from cover and finally the other two), the process was much easier, albeit lengthier.

The official GRFS game guide is a mostly accurate guide with a few trouble spots. Gamers who need the guide shouldn’t let the trouble spots mentioned bother them, as they are the rare few exceptions to an otherwise very useful guide that gives players plenty of important details about their enemies and their locations. The single-player campaign’s missions have some really tough spots to get through–which may be even tougher on higher difficulties–and in those instances, the guide really does offer some very good advice on how to get through as easily as possible. The multiplayer advice not going deeper is unfortunate, but again, having the locations of objectives alone provides a fairly decent advantage at times. Prima’s Official Game Guide for Ghost Recon Future Soldier may not be flawless, but it has more than enough vital information to warrant a purchase by anyone who thinks that they’d need it.