StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Bradygames Signature Guides)

I purchased this after completing the campaign on casual (I didn't want to risk the story line being ruined) in order to go back and pick up the extra achievements I skipped out on, as well as to read about unit strengths/weaknesses. Overall, I rate this as a worthwhile purchase, however I was a little upset when I began to actually get into the specifics of the campaign.

Although my qualms with this product could certainly be due to Blizzard tweaking the game through updates or last minute changes after this book was published, it is still worth pointing out there will be some slight changes/omissions which I would have assumed were included/accurate. Two which I will point out for reference, are to the "Piercing the Shroud" level, the achievements have the wrong difficulties associated with them, and the maps don't always include locations for all of the achievements (ie, all of Tosh's units for "The Devils Playground").

Overall, it is worthwhile since...Read more

This guide covers the campaign elements decently. The maps and mission briefings are useful, though you can get much the same thing free on the Web. Don't count on it to help you with the achievements, since all the Hard ones are much more difficult than anything this guide covers. The multiplayer section is interesting but again won't replace real experience. The game gets hard quickly, and this guide is relatively basic.

You'll also find plenty of instances of sloppy editing. Sentences are strung together with commas all over the guide. The editor really did a bad job. But on the bright side the visual layout is great. The color photos may inspire you to fight great battles. It's just that nowadays a paper guide has to really shine to out-compete the stuff that's freely available online. That's why I give this one 3 stars.

There's no shortage of info on-line to play SC2, but it's helpful to have it in one spot and be able to reference it occasionally while you play. The information on the campaigns is decent but more specific step-by-step guides are available from Starcraft 2 Liquipedia. Nevertheless, the campaign sections are well laid out. However, the multiplayer section of the book is excellent. It has some helpful pointers on how to play better. I've found the Tech trees very helpful to have in front of me while I play each race randomly in the Co-operative and 1vAI games. Playing Zerg, Terran and Protoss is important to properly understand their strengths and weaknesses. Eventually you won't need it but for new players this book is easily worth the money. As you play, many of the pointers and suggestions it provides will resonate with you better the more you've played, so I find myself referring back and re-reading the player vs player section. I think anyone other than an expert will...Read more