Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain Official Strategy Guide

Rating:
Summary: Useful...if you rewrite the whole thing in your own words!
Review: An open letter to writers Mark Androvich and Greg Off: This is without a doubt one of the worst strategy guides I've ever used.

The consensus is that Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain is an incredibly difficult game, so a strategy guide is essential for those of us who don't fancy spending four hours trying to solve one part of a video game.

To give this book a little credit, I was able to follow 50 per cent of the general directions on when to go where in the game. But the layout and writing are so horrible that I ended up sitting there, with the game on pause, desperately trying to interpret what the writers truly meant when they wrote a certain passage. I'm not talking grammar or syntax here; I'm talking about "right" when it should have been "left"! After about two levels in the game I realized that the writers' sense of direction is plain wrong and began exploring the game on my own, using the book only as a loose tour book, and that helped. They also adore giving you the second-worst solution to many of the activities: Their recommendation to use the K-bar knife on Thae-bok Jon in the Yemen Arms Bazaar cost me 10 replays of the game until I realized you could simply shoot him with a silenced rifle. Aren't strategy guides supposed to spare you the pain by giving you the easiest, quickest solution? If I'd listened to my own instincts, I would have finished the level long ago.

I'm still using this guide to help get past this overly difficult, design-flawed game. Without any kind of signpost, this game is just too nonlinear and confusing to warrant a try. However, having to "interpret" the writing, and wade through the bad advice, is something a reader of a strategy guide shouldn't ever have to do. A very bad job, Mr. Androvich and Mr. Off.

Rating:
Summary: Useful...if you rewrite the whole thing in your own words!
Review: An open letter to writers Mark Androvich and Greg Off: This is without a doubt one of the worst strategy guides I've ever used.

The consensus is that Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain is an incredibly difficult game, so a strategy guide is essential for those of us who don't fancy spending four hours trying to solve one part of a video game.

To give this book a little credit, I was able to follow 50 per cent of the general directions on when to go where in the game. But the layout and writing are so horrible that I ended up sitting there, with the game on pause, desperately trying to interpret what the writers truly meant when they wrote a certain passage. I'm not talking grammar or syntax here; I'm talking about "right" when it should have been "left"! After about two levels in the game I realized that the writers' sense of direction is plain wrong and began exploring the game on my own, using the book only as a loose tour book, and that helped. They also adore giving you the second-worst solution to many of the activities: Their recommendation to use the K-bar knife on Thae-bok Jon in the Yemen Arms Bazaar cost me 10 replays of the game until I realized you could simply shoot him with a silenced rifle. Aren't strategy guides supposed to spare you the pain by giving you the easiest, quickest solution? If I'd listened to my own instincts, I would have finished the level long ago.

I'm still using this guide to help get past this overly difficult, design-flawed game. Without any kind of signpost, this game is just too nonlinear and confusing to warrant a try. However, having to "interpret" the writing, and wade through the bad advice, is something a reader of a strategy guide shouldn't ever have to do. A very bad job, Mr. Androvich and Mr. Off.