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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not angelic, not totally evil, April 10, 2001
This review is from: Black & White: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
If Dean Evans (the author of this book) is a programmer for Lionhead Ltd., he should sue--he isn't credited in the manual...anyway... The Good: You are taken step by step through the quests for the most part, with useful details (like the EXACT locations of all nine sheep in land one). The Bad: Other prime information is left out (like which actions determine the alignment of you and your creature/titan). Considering that raising a creature is at least half the game, one would expect the strategy guide to spend the majority of the time on the mechanics of training, alignment, etc. Instead, only 10% of the book covers creatures, and only superficially. Half of several pages is used for tables of "stats" for creatures, when in fact these "stats" only mildly affect the game. An example: p. 95 "Should you choose [the sheep as your titan], you'll have a lot of work to do if you want to shape it into a more terrifying attacker....Think of it as a challenge." But then on p. 94 "...as _Black & White's_ creatures don't differ wildly in their mathematical genetics, whatever beast you start with can eventually be transformed into a rampaging titan." So which is? Is one creature more difficult to use, or are they the same? This might seem like a minor point, but this is a sort of information I expect from a strategy guide. I expect more than the "missing manual" for a game. The ugly: Is it worth it? Yes, if for nothing else than to aid you, when you are ready, to fully explore some of the quests. Is it a great strategy guide? Not in least. Again, I would call it a strategy guide in name only; it is essentially some information that should have been in the game manual. If you want REAL hints and tips (the sort of thing one expects to find in a strategy guide), check the message boards.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
'Black and White strat. guide', godly or hellish?, April 10, 2001
This review is from: Black & White: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
This strategy guide is useful more for the every-now-and-then gamer than the hardcore one like myself. It has clean cut and usefully headed chapters on some aspects of the game and one chapter for each level, with brief help for every challenge you will encounter. One thing I noticed early on was that most of the information could be found else-where, in the game manual or on the in-game help signs liberally distributed around the landscape. Not much was from Prima actually thinking up their own techniques or tricks. In all fairness, Lionhead had already done so much to help you and so maybe it was a struggle for Prima to find any original material. For example, in Land 3 there is a challenge where you must follow a sneaky Guri-type around the Mountain he lives on to his secret meditation spot. If he sees you he will stop and you will have to start again. At one point he turns round very quickly and I often got caught. Prima's suggestion: Turn around as he does. Yes, I could have worked that out myself! The problem is doing it quick enough. I found out later how to solve this puzzle, but this was not in the guide. In conclusion; A skimpy, half a piece of celery for lunch, guide with hardly any original help. Not worth the money unless your really desperate, but good however if you are new to games of this type and need waterwings to coax you along. Recommended only for more inexperianced players.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not worth it, April 23, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Black & White: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
Save your money. This "guide" offers little more information than what is already provided in the instruction book and in the game itself (with all the help signs, etc.). Probably the only parts that could be considered useful are the walkthroughs of the 5 lands, but even the walkthroughs don't offer much in the way of strategies to consider. Plus, by now the walkthroughs are available on the internet somewhere. As mentioned above, the guide offers little/nothing in the way of good vs. evil consequences for doing certain actions. It is very disappointing to find such a lousy guide with the Prima name on it. I recommend playing the game without this guide (since it doesn't really guide you at all), and if you get stuck then find some help on the internet.
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