It was published by GW Press in 1998, a month or two before the initial release of Unreal,
And the book features unique elements, some which are never seen or heard before about maps and enemies.
If you want to take a look at it: https://archive.org/details/unreal-guide
In this post I'm going to go through most of the odd and different things that's in this book and do some comparison.
Maps:
Vortex Rikers:
- the lift area at the end had a button instead of a rotating switch like in the retail game
Release Version:
February Beta Version:
NyLeve's Falls:
- seems like there was no vegetation on the map yet, no plants or trees
(though it's unseen on the pictures, a beta version, earlier than the GW Press one had plants and trees on the mountains and ground areas)
Release Version:
- the three way waterfall from said earlier beta was gone already
Release Version:
- the Warlord (b)eating the corpse near the cliffs was still there
- the author mentions a Slith on this map, but it was probably a mistake and it was actually just a Tentacle
Chizra - Nali Water God Temple:
- according to the guide, there was supposed to be a Translator at the entrance, next to the Automag
Ceremonial Chambers:
- there was no lava room yet with the Eightball, and the room before that was still in beta version (except for some textures)
Release Version:
February Beta Version:
Harobed Village:
- according to the guide, in the underground cave which leads to the bottom of the well, there were supposed to be planks which the player would had to shoot to obtain the Super Health
- even at the start of Harobed it mentions that the well has a Super Health in it, but in the retail you aren't able to see it since it's so far down
So the planks must had been higher so the player could see it from the village and also, there's actually a leftover ButtonMarker at the well that is speculated to have something to do with this cut puzzle
Temple Of Vandora:
- you were able to get the Razorjack here on this map first instead on ISV Kran 4
ISV Deck 1:
- there were Skaarj Gunners instead of Officers on the map
- the author mentions a "Invulnerability powerup" where the Invisibility pickup is located in the acid pool
(this is most likely a mistake, since Craig Wessel made a lot of strategy guides for many different games, and he probably switched it up with something else accidentally)
Spire Village:
- in the retail game, a brush was added to the mountain side as a last minute addition, but it wasn't in the GW Press or the February Beta version
Release Version:
February Beta Version:
It looks more similar to the February Beta version
(also, maybe it's just me but the hill even looks higher up a bit)
As you can see, even the last version of Spire Village was saved with the mountain side as the active brush
The Sun Spire:
- the opening entry about the level calls the Pupae as “Nali Pupae” as existing enemies on the map
- also, a lot of textures were different all over the map (mostly walls and floors)
Sky Caves:
- in this version all the weapons were placed at the start which usually meant for testing purposes for the devs in coop and such
(except for the Rifle, because the player would get the weapon here first anyway)
- instead of the two Skaarj Officers, there were Kralls guarding the door to Sky Town and a Skaarj Berserker
Sky Town:
- according to the guide, there was supposed to be a Minigun and an Automag right behind the staircase as you exit it at the start
Also, as you see the author says Nali Priest here, but he calls almost every Nali in the book a Nali Priest
- in the house before you open the gates had less decorations
Release Version:
Outpost 3J:
- according to the guide, at the start, there were supposed the be big, rotating fans in the pipe on the way up to the fortress which the player had to shoot in order to progress (another cut puzzle)
- there were two Skaarj in the church near the altar, instead of Kralls
Bluff Eversmoking:
- at the top of the tower, there was a Minigun next to Kira’s corpse
Which makes this the second cut Minigun pickup from the game, because in the retail version, you can only find a Minigun on Sun Spire and on Mothership Lab (from a Skaarj Trooper)
Serpent Canyon:
- the author mentions that some Devil Fish might jump out of the water into your boat (this might had been a scripted event/sequence, but I think it was just an actual lucky fish that got into the boat lol)
- at the boat docks there was a Nali Ghost, and he would lead you to his tombstone
No idea why did they cut this out either. Only Bluff has Ghost Nalis, and the epitaph even says his name
Mothership Lab:
- at the start, the guide says the panel that displays a hologram depicts the ship the player is on, but it is false, since the player already seen the mothership on Demon Crater
The hologram on Mothership Lab:
Mothership Core:
- this level was supposed to have a Skaarj Sniper
This would had been the first appearance of Skaarj with Rifles, but they were cut from the release game
Queen:
- entering the arena, the player had to kill two Skaarj first, once they are dead, Pupae would start spawning all over the room, and after they are dead as well, the Queen would show up
- the description doesn’t mention the rotating mover up in the arena (which is seen on beta screenshots), but the lifts were in this version that you could take to access the upper level/platform
And in this PC Gamer beta preview video you can see a Skaarj Lord and a Skaarj Trooper with a Dispersion Pistol
DM Maps:
- a different version of “SkyDM” was in this version, namely as “Sky 14”.
We only have SkyDM7, SkyDM11 and SkyDM12 versions of this map
Misc/Anything Else:
- strangely, there's no entry about the ISV Kran 4 map
No mentions, nothing. Like it was cut from this version or the author forgot to make a description about it.
- little mistake, the Flak Cannon is called as "Cannon" here
- the jump boots had 3 to 5 charges (I guess the one with 5 jumps was meant for Spire Village to search all the attics)
- some enemies have their beta skins on them in some pictures
I guess this was the "transition version" between the beta and retail skins for the game as some where done and some weren't yet.
(you can also see some enemies with their beta skins on map pictures)
- the Cave Manta had a (probably glitched) black texture, but it was still saved in this version
- there's an entry about the cut Squid enemy at the bestiary section, which was still in this version at least
- the Queen entry mentions that her projectile attack was homing, and also that the player should use their “high end” weapons, such as the Quad Shot (which is another mistake, because there’s no entry about the Quadshot in the guide. The author seems to mistake the Flak Cannon with the Quadshot numerous times)