The previous Mass Effect guides had several advantages over this guide, so I consider it a step backwards. This guide will indeed help you walk through the campaign and provides some information about different weapons and your squadmates and their abilities, however some of the things that would be the most helpful are left out and the formatting leaves something to be desired, as things are presented as individual pictures when they should be in table form for quick reference.
The biggest weakness is there are no maps other than the ones that are provided in game. The previous Mass Effect guides had maps and locations of where powerups and other loot could be found on the various levels (including side missions). This guide provides no maps. It also has no maps (or even a list) providing you with what you can find with regard to war assets in the various systems accessed from the galaxy map or where you can scan in the system to find them.
The weapons show bar graph stat differences between the first level and tenth level of an upgraded weapon in separated pictures, but no comparisons to each other so you can determine which weapon you would like to use in a list form, which would have been the most useful way to determine what weapon you would want to upgrade and use by the end.
It is completely unacceptable that the only place achievements are listed and talked about are on a single page near the back of the book. The walk-through should provide tips and explanations on how to get them. This guide only lists them with the exact same description as they give in game on a single page, and does not explain the best/easiest way to achieve them.
I completed the game, including all side missions, and only "used" this book twice to make sure the moral decisions I was making would keep characters alive (or not). The index was so poor, that looking up the information I wanted was more thumbing through to the right part of the book than knowing exactly what page it was on. Other weaknesses of the index include not listing any of the systems, war assets, and several other obvious terms that you would think to look things up by (they tie into previous weaknesses as well, such as, I should be able to pick up this guide, look up an achievement by name, and learn how to achieve it).
I only give a star here for the material quality of the book and the artwork and extras provided. It is otherwise a very poor game guide, especially in comparison to Mass Effect 1 and 2 guides. It is not very useful unless you want to read (without maps) how to get from A to B, and no table comparisons of stats to determine what the best equipment and powers are to use.