52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Mixed Bag, February 15, 2003
This review is from: Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome (Prima's Official Strategy Guide) (Paperback)
I'm an utter Battlefield 1942 addict, maintaing a FAQ, annotated maps, an extensive tips and tactics page, and a weapons effects page for this game. My feeling about this book is that it's a mixed bag.
The good: the book is surprisingly long (336 pages) and thorough. It covers the basics of how to move around and do things (swim, parachute, use the various vehicles), gives a complete listing of all important objects in the game, and gives detailed maps and tactics for all battles, including The Road To Rome expansion. It points out things you might not have realized, and might never realize. That, to me, is the best thing a strategy guide on this game can do. There are various tactics, such as hitting the "walk backwards" [S] key while sliding down a hill to avoid falling damage, that I personally would have never figured out myself and am happy to have learned from others. This guide gives a lot of ideas for new players to try out, which makes the game more enjoyable. The layout is straightforward and readable. The first 68 pages are an extended manual, then each battle is covered in depth.
The bad: there are some disappointments for me with this guide. It would have been helpful to at least point the reader where to go for fixes to well-known technical problems, i.e. at least send him to EA's support site and fan sites like Battlefield Central, BF42.com, or Planet Battlefield. There's no mention that I could find describing how to set up a joystick for flying, a very common question. While it's possible to use the mouse for flying, a joystick is much simpler (this game convinced me to buy one, in fact). The large variety of console commands are not touched upon at all - these are important, as they're the only way to attempt to kick off a team-killing player, they're how you can show the frames-per-second rate, along with a number of other useful functions. The All-Seeing Eye, a program which efficiently finds servers for multiplayer games (much faster and more flexible than the in-game server browser), is not discussed. The book does mention clans in passing, but does not talk about things like modder developments. For example, Desert Combat is a mod about the US vs. Iraq, is free for download, and is very popular - no mention of it here. A number of important tactics are also not covered, e.g. the "walking backwards" tactic for hills mentioned above is missing from this guide (though in its defense the guide does describe many other tactics). There are also errors, such as the belief that the only way to enter the driver's seat of the US destroyer is by entering the rear position and switching to the front (you can enter by the front turret, even though there is no doorway).
The ugly: there are a number of problems with layout. To begin, the table of contents is incorrect. Wake Island was accidentally left out, but its page number was used for the next battle listed, so every battle listed after that gives the page number for the battle preceeding it. There is no index. The maps of the battles that come with the original game were mostly created from my own online annotated maps, as they contain the same mistakes my maps had until I corrected these a week ago. Unfortunately, the author does not credit my site for the information, so readers do not know to look there for updates. His Road to Rome maps (which he did not copy from me) look to be complete, though there was some printing problem with Anzio that moved flak guns from the island to the east shore of the river, and put a number of US vehicles as starting in the bay. Opportunities to provide the player with useful reference sheets were ignored. For example, there is a radio button command summary, but it was split over two non-facing pages when it could have fit on a single page.
All in all, there's a fair bit of chewy material in this guide. Some might consider such a guide as a spoiler, but for this game it's about strategy and tactics, there really should be no hidden secrets that only expert players know about. On this level the guide generally succeeds, though it sometimes misses some key tactics and also sometimes states the obvious. I was disappointed at what the guide left out: support and fan websites, console commands, joystick setup, All-Seeing Eye, Teamspeak/Roger Wilco, etc. Four pages listing these and pointing at the relevant web sites would have helped many players enjoy the game more. The author knows the game well, but ignores anything that was not included in the box itself.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intense, August 11, 2005
This review is from: Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome (Prima's Official Strategy Guide) (Paperback)
I bought the book, which arrived in Excellent condition, and gave the game and the book to a friend. I didn't care for the game, and the book is very deep and intense, but the guide was very good. Thanks.
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