After a long time in development Aliens: Colonial Marines is finally here. The game is developed by Gearbox Studios and published by SEGA. To go alongside the game BradyGames have put together an official strategy guide.
As usual BradyGames have produced another full-colour guide with plenty of screenshots and explanations to hold your hand through the game. There are even some exclusive maps which are a nice inclusion. The guide is one of the shortest we’ve seen from BradyGames at just over 220 pages divided up into the following chapters:
- Meet the Team
- Arsenal
- Items
- Enemies
- Walkthrough
- Challenges & Rewards
- XP Charts & Unlocks
- Multiplayer
- Extras
Unusually the guide doesn’t begin with an overview of the game or its setting. Instead it opts to introduce you to your character, Cpl. Christopher T. Winter and the rest of his team – Cruz, O’Neal, Bella and Reid. Each character gets their own page with a large character render but there is very little information about each.
The guide then dedicates over 20 pages to the various weapons available to you in the game. There’s a small introduction to Loadouts and how they work and before each weapon is shown along with the various attachments and upgrades. These are explained in turn along with the required rank to use them and some helpful tips too. This section also details the skin unlockables with information on how to obtain each.
The next section then briefly looks at the various items available to you such as armour, ammo and health. There’s a small picture with the bare minimum information about each item. This is followed by 6 pages listing the various enemy types that you will face. Each enemy has its own picture to help you identify them and a small description.
The bulk of the guide is set-aside for the the main campaign walkthrough which covers each of the 11 missions. It takes up just over half of the guide, beginning with a quick background on the setting before going through each mission in turn. The mission walkthroughs have enough info to help you through them and there are also plenty of screenshots and some maps as well. The walkthrough also points out the location of collectibles.
The challenge and reward section is comprised of tabulated information that lists each challenge along with its corresponding reward. They are grouped into Global, Campaign and Versus challenges to help you focus on the area you are playing. While these detail the criteria that you need to meet there is no extra information or tips on how to complete each one. More data is included to show you the different ranks available to you as you level up.
The multiplayer portion of the guide is the second largest section of the book at nearly 40 pages. Here you can learn about the various multiplayer modes and unlocks as well as pickup tips on the best loadouts to use. There are overhead views of each multiplayer map which is useful for learning their basic layout or locating a specific item. This section ends with a whole two pages dedicated to the co-op feature of the game. Finally the extras section lists all the achievements and trophies that you can earn as well as explaining where to find various easter eggs in the game.
Overall the Aliens: Colonial Marines strategy guide is a useful reference for the inexperienced player or those who are struggling to get through the game. Most gamers probably won’t get a great deal of use out of the guide though. The guide also feels quite rushed with some spelling errors and re-use of the same pictures.
To find out what EF thought of the game check out our Aliens: Colonial Marines review.
