One of the hottest gaming releases ever has arrived, Call of Duty (COD): Modern Warfare 2 (10 November 2009), and whether you’re part of the Microsoft ,Sony or PC brigade, Bradygames has put together the ultimate addition to your armoury in the form of the official strategy game. There is a choice of editions – the standard signature series edition and the prestige edition hardcover that also includes additional bonus material.
Bradygames has worked closely with developer Infinity Ward and publisher Activision to deliver the signature series guide – each of the books boast 300+ pages and was written by top industry guide author Philip Marcus ably assisted by multiplayer specialists the Sea Snipers. For the purpose of this review we will be looking at the standard signature series guide and trying to convey the quality of presentation, a brief description of its contents and its practical use.
At first glance the book does look impressive, the cover itself is decorated with semi-gloss, khaki coloured in-game imagery. Never judge a book by its cover? In this case I think we can! Bradygames’ call of duty modern warfare 2 signature series guide just oozes quality on every page.
The first half of the book introduces you to the single player campaign section. Beginning with the campaign basics and progressing to the complete campaign walkthrough, the missions are broken down into 3 categories or ‘Acts’. These Acts are subsequently broken down further into 18 subcategories. Pages within the campaign mode section are laid out with coloured panels detailing the different engagements, small maps wherever necessary, useful tips, and whatever achievement or trophies are available for completing the missions. The outside edging of the pages of each act in the campaign section are coloured in greys making them easily distinguishable from the brown edging of the multiplayer section allowing for quick access.
Once you’ve completed campaign mode you are ready for the special ops missions, an entirely new mode separate from the campaign and multiplayer modes, although it does include co-op multiplayer. The special ops are divided into 5 categories each containing a number of missions. The page layout echoes the campaign mode pages in so much that they contain all the necessary imagery, maps and tips with different coloured panels highlighting points of interest.
The multiplayer section dedicates the first six pages to briefing you about your options (or the manner in which you operate), head-up display (HUD), game modes, how to play online, creating classes, deathstreaks,
killstreaks, and your barracks.Moving through the multiplayer warfare, tactical and clans section the most noticeable feature of the book, at this stage, is that it becomes a lot more text based mainly because now you’re involved with other gamers and the game therefore no longer follows a predetermined path. The text will advise you how to best use the tools at your disposal but do look out for the invaluable quick tips from the Sea Snipers – again highlighted to draw attention.
In the Intel section you can find all the stats and detailed information needed to make the most of your deployment and the data is presented in a series of tables and charts .The satellite Intel, on the other hand, provides overviews of all the player maps in multiplayer deployment – these include highly detailed images of both external locations and the interiors of buildings etc.
To complete the contents of the book there is a table of achievements and trophies for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Summary
It should be stressed that Bradygames have taken every care to avoid spoiling any major storyline and has provided this guide as an aid to improve your gaming experience allowing the player to use all tools and options available.
Beautifully illustrated and an excellent user-friendly layout would be enough to appeal to fans of Modern Warfare but it is the sheer attention given to every minute detail of game-play contained within this wonderfully presented tome that will make it the most essential bit of kit as you head off into battle.
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