Customer Reviews

Starcraft : Prima's Official Strategy Guide

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Strangely enough the people at Prima managed to skew the guide to one of the best games of all time by forgetting the fact that most of the players have already read the manual (and those who have not have not done so either because they don't care for hints or the game was rented). In fact, the guide has even less information than the manual - whereas the manual lists the strengths and weaknesses of the units as well as the buildings. The guide had one paragraph to say about the human's entire architectural menagerie. This would have been completely acceptable had the book attempted to reveal the web of srtategy possible with StarCraft ( defensive unit combinations, strategic turret positioning, formations, expansion rates, among others). The guide remains mysteriously silent on all these topics, instead repeating the information routinely found in the manual, adding - drumroll, please! - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

I have nothing to say but: if you have the manual, you already know what this book says. Think rather than buy.

This book came free with the "Battle Chest" but I really wish they had included the game manual instead. (If you want that, you have to print it from the PDF file on the CD.) The "strategy guide" is really a rehashed reference for the different races which could be useful if not for the choppy, amateurish writing, and just the enormous amount of black ink used in printing this book (I half expected my fingers to get black from flipping through the pages). The maps are slightly helpful, but really close to worthless because of the poor contrast and lack of color. So far, I have gone through every mission on my own without the strategy guide, only consulting it after I completed a mission. I found their "strategies" to really lack imagination and in some cases were completely unrealistic. Their main take on each mission is to do as little as you have to in order to win the mission and advance to the next. I find a lot more fun in exploring all the map area and wiping out any enemy that exists. Anyway, maybe the strategy guide for the expansion pack will be better. I recommend not bothering with this one. (StarCraft, though, is a superb game!)

This is what it lacks (1) It's missing information on the unit table. (2) It has little to say on such matters as multiplayer (battle.net) startegies (4 pages) out of it's 246. (3) It also lacks good advice for map triggers, most of which I (and most people) learned about from basically testing and practicing. It's good if your starting off or want to beat the game legitly. I like the cooldown/range info on the units.

Don't read the other reviews. Authors surely didn't play Starcraft before. Here is a quote from the guide (p. 17): "Vulture is a hovercycle that's fast, powerful, and very effective when quick response time is critical... very effective, when you are defending a sprawling base". Vultures are useless against everything except infantry. The "easy to follow general strategies" are general strategies, which is almost impossible to use against human opponent. No strategy guide gives you info on a building order for fastest development.

When I first started playing this game, the book was a great help. It maps out all the scenarios and makes recommendations as far as how to win each level. Aside from that, it doesn't really help at all. It doesn't teach you to be a better starcraft player, it just tells you the answers to the problems at hand. If you are looking for an easy way to win this game, then by all means buy this book; it helps out alot! But if you are looking for something to teach you general starcraft strategy, then I would suggest you look elsewhere.

What a waste of my hard earned cash! Ive been playing this 5 star rts game since about a month after it came out, and I learned volumes more strategy than this guide provided me with for $20, and I learned it for free! Anyone thinking of buying this book should just sit down and jump on some multiplayer games and watch the different strategies that other people are using. With the combination of the creativity of a good opponent(and there are plenty out there), and your own inspired imagination, you'll go MUCH further than this book or any help guide can take you! Not to mention that following these 'skimpy' strategies that are listed in a book such a bore. There's something to be said about developing your OWN strategy and watching it in its success and glory! Dont buy it, save your money for the Brood Wars!

Thank God I didn't have to pay for it, because it came with the BattleChest.
Most of the book is dedicated to give solutions to the single player missions, as if the game was a tetris-like puzzle.
And the rest is worse. The strategies are good for a novice, but anyone who has played a little can find huge flaws in it. Besides, it has some typos... like when it says Zerg Scourges are good against Terran Carriers...

I found this book to be unhelpful and unecessary. If you want incredibly obvious stratagies buy this book. It does however have intresting tables in the section on Terran building placement is invalueble.

I am a very experenced StarCraft player. When I first started playing the game I looked for as much help was possible. I found this book. This gave me the information I needed to at least survive the first few times I played. From that I have moved to a more dominating player. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know a little more about the game sooner. Also, the most helpful part of this book is the tables at the end. Once you have an understanding of how each unit works, you can use the tables to best fight them.

Just like all "official" hint books, this one has no real help. The only remotely useful thing is the campaign walkthrus. The unit info is basically what you get in the StarCraft Manual. Pick up the Multiplayer guide instead; the unit tips are useful in Single-player as well, and hop on the net for some walkthroughs. Generally a bad purchase.