The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide: Advanced Combat Techniques (Premier Press Game Development (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Halo 2 Junkies this is your guide
Review: I have read this big guide from cover to cover in hopes of being enlightened and it has worked. I have found that every single strategy in this book works great depending on the situation. I have gotten up to level 11 using almost every strategy in the book so whether you are new or a veteran to Halo 2 you will find something useful in this guide.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: Kudos to Stephen Cawood for finally producing decent strategy guide worthy of the Halo name. I agree with other reviewers who note that the UH2BG is a complement to the other "authorized" guides and FAQs out there in that it is dedicated exclusively to the multiplayer game. I don't have the time to spend hours getting good at Halo and the UH2BG is perfect for helping me tackle the steep learning curve so I at least have fun online where newbies are often crucified mercilessly.
PROS:
1) Cawood is a technical writer and it shows. The book is well organized with chapters on Basic Combat, Weapons, Vehicles, Advanced Combat, Solo Strategy, Team Strategy, Multiplayer Maps, Level Ranking System and even Etiquette (something sorely missing on XBL). The text is clear and illustrated with screenshots and diagrams.
2) Cawood put the UH2BG together by drawing on many varied resources, including: members of Crew 116, a veteran clan originally comprised of Microsoft beta testers for Halo 1; MrJukes, a veteran player with mad skills; and military books including Sun Tzu's Art of War. The result is a cornucopia of useful tips and information.
3) The strategies and tactics presented run the gamut from the very basic to the more advanced. I suspect that almost every level of gamer will find something useful in the guide.
4) Included are maps and strategies for every multiplayer map (except Foundation which was probably not available at the time of writing).
CONS: The reason I gave the UH2BG 4* instead of 5* is because I felt it could have been better in certain areas.
1) For the most part topics were well covered. But sometimes I felt the information presented was just common sense or too vague and general to be applied. Examples of this include: Ambushes; Cawood devotes a mere 2 paragraphs to ambushes. I wanted more information on how and where to set up ambushes; Cawood uses the military term "enfilade" but never explains what it means and why it is important. If he is going to go the trouble of using military maneuvers and quote military doctrine, I want more detailed tactics I can actually use instead of general axioms.
2) Sometimes the strategies or tactics presented are just a list of tips. Examples of this were in the strategy sections for the various team gametypes e.g. CTF, assault, team slayer While the tips were valuable, I think a less disjointed and more cogent strategy would have been preferable.
3) The multiplayer map strategies are underdeveloped. They provide a useful diagram of the site and a list of all the important areas e.g. weapon locations, but missing is any overall plan of attack or defense. Cawood provides most of the pieces but the reader has to sit down and put together a team plan. To me a strategy is a web of maneuvers with options depending on how the opponent counters, like when playing chess.

I don't want to give the impression that the UH2BG is poor, it's not and I highly recommend it. But I hope Cawood will produce a second book entitled "The Still Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide: Even More Advanced Combat Techniques".

Rating:
Summary: Complements the Prima Strategy Guide
Review: This book is a good complement to the Official Halo 2 Strategy guide by Prima. While the Prima guide concentrates mostly on campaign play this guide concentrates on XBox Live play. There are chapters devoted to single play, team play, weapons and vehicles. While the Prima guide devotes only two pages to team play this guide has a hefty chapter on team tactics! I highly recommend this book. If you want to become the ultimate Halo 2 master you must get this book along with the Prima book.


Rating:
Summary: Immediately Useful
Review: This guide was immediately useful to me. I'm a fairly average shooter with a really inconsistent track record. I play no more than 8 or 10 hours a week, although sometimes I go on a binge. So it takes me a little time to get back into the swing of things. But even when I play all night, I get very frustrated at times.

As I started to use the tips in this guide, it showed me a new way of thinking about the game as well as new things to look for during battle. I read it all in a day and couldn't wait to get back online. The difference was subtle at first, and then it really started working well. It was like when Neo suddenly started fighting Agent Smith with one hand. I could begin to see how other players were making errors, and as soon as I saw it, I could capitalize.

The two biggest things I learned about weapons also made a big difference. So I have become a great deal more effective with the Battle Rifle and with grenades. Also, exploding the myths about headshots was a great revelation.

Rating:
Summary: Great Resource for Halo 2 Multiplayer Combat
Review: Unlike most of the Halo 2 guides available Battle Guide provides more than a simple overview of Halo 2. The Battle Guide provides strategy guidance, weapon combination recommendations, detailed maps and descriptions of various team tactics and when to employ them. After completing the single player campaign on Legendary, I thought I would dominate on Live. However, I found that the tactics I employed to defeat Halo enemy AI's were of little use in the multiplayer context. The Advanced Combat Techniques was given to me as an early Christmas gift and I was able to use it to good advantage within a few hours. I would definitely recommend this Battle Guide to any serious Halo 2 - Live player.

Rating:
Summary: Finally! - A REAL strategy guide for the serious gamer
Review: Unlike the "walk-throughs" that call themselves strategy guides, this book actually talks tactics. If you want to learn combat maneuvers and have a chance against the best on Xbox Live, you need to add this book to your arsenal.

Rating:
Summary: The best Halo 2 guide there is...
Review: With just a few months since Halo 2 was released I'm impressed that Stephen Cawood (with the help of Crew 116) managed to produce and publish such an excellent Halo 2 battle guide this soon. The guide is timely for us new comers to Halo 2, since many dedicated players are already well advanced in their skills making game play rather frustrating without knowledge of good battle techniques. I really needed to go beyond the basics, learn team strategy and start thinking like a real player. The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide is helping me by giving me concise, meaty tips and pointers with plenty of full color Halo 2 game play screen shots to help visualize the technique being discussed.

But, I'm finding it difficult to immediately translate Cawood's battle tips to actual game combat. It's one thing to describe battle techniques in a actionless situation - it's another to perform those techniques with an opponent blazing his guns at you or teammates that have their own strategy ideas. So, this guide will not give you an immediate edge just by reading it once. What I'm doing is referring to the guide after each game to glean from my mistakes in the actual game. It's a matter of internalizing the techniques - just reading them alone will not do it.

Before I discovered this guide I was looking all over the Net for such tips, which came in a haphazard way mostly in Halo 2 forums sandwiched between distracting trash-talk. A few websites have attempted such a guide, but they fall way short of the content sequence, organization and highly focused pointers that are presented in Cawood's guide. When I start a Halo 2 clan, this guide will be required reading.

This Halo 2 battle guide is a timely, well written, full color, highly focused battle strategy guide that exceeded my expectations. As such it gives me the incentive to stick with the game long enough to get past the frustration curve that comes with seemingly everyone else knowing Halo 2 battle techniques better than I. This battle guide is as important to me as my Xbox controller.

Well done Stephen and Crew 116. I will purchase your next guide without hesitation.