Book Review: BioShock 2 Official Strategy Guide Special Edition
Alright, first the physical descriptions. The Special Edition is 208 pages of good quality somewhat matte paper in a hardcover, with a pretty nice paper wrap around. Somebody at Brady did pretty good work on the layout and presentation of the book, and it's not your typical full-of-text boring monotonous walkthrough. Well, it still covers all the bases and of course the various tips, tricks, weapon upgrades and locations for audio diaries and such.
The book is present in a sort of 80s comedy style with plenty of little monopoly-seque arts littered through the book. As most of you guys would know, most of the walkthrough and tips for the more popular games can be freely gotten online, so any guide book that professes to be either "collector" or "special editions" has to offer something more than the mundane.
The BioShock 2 special edition guide passes this quite adequately, though not with flying colours. ( My favorite guide book so far is still the Assassins Creed II collector edition).
The tone of the guide is witty and light, unlike the usual dull chatter of lesser guides. There are enough side illustrations to keep it from becoming boring, though most of the awesome art is featured in the art book that comes together with the special edition of the game instead, so don't be expecting the usual concept arts segment at the back of the book. That said, the included illustrations in the book are pretty detailed and well worth the time to appreciate.
All in all, a pretty well detailed and delightful guide. I would have preferred it if Brady had thought to include one of those little "table of contents" on the sides of the pages to make looking for particular segments easier.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
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Comments
This book comes with one set
This book comes with one set of 2 prints - but there are 2 sets, and you get 1 set randomly - so there are 4 different prints, and you will get 2. These prints, as shown on your blog, are from the "Artist Series" as seen on the BioShock community site, Cult of Rapture. It's a disappointing marketing scheme. Yes, it's a nice extra, but there are lots of BioShock collectors out there who now have to buy the guide twice, in order to try and get both sets of lithographs if they're trying to collect everything. No doubt Brady Games knew this when they thought up this marketing, or should I say money-making, scheme.
For any collectors interested, larger (and nicer) versions of these same images are also available to purchase as prints from the Take 2 Store.
I could not get a "mint" copy of this book. I ordered (and returned) several copies to both Amazon.ca and Chapters.ca. Each time, the pages were slightly warped in curves. Normally, I will never accept this for art books, but ultimately I decided this book is not a collector's item, it is a great reference for the game, so I don't mind as much.
You didn't show a picture on your blog of the embossed hardcover, which is worth noting. The shiny dustjacket and the embossed hardcover underneath are both very nicely done and quite awesome.
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