Customer Reviews

Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Positives

1. This is a sturdy, well put together book. The cover is nice enough but careful handling this book with your bare hands because you will leave noticeable smudges. The pages are crisp and strong with vibrant colors for the art and well sized text. Also, the Bioware team autographs grace both the front and back inner covers. It's a nice touch overall. A note to console owners of the game: this guide features screenshots of the PC version of DA. You will see many screens that are not a part of the console UI.

2. The bonus lore sections (not in the standard version of the guide) contain some fantastic background information on everything from the geography, history and cultures of Thedas to some stunning D&D-esque artwork and concept drawings. I'm not sure how big a deal this is for some as most all of it will wind up on unofficial wikis but it's a nice to have it in book form.

3. The walkthrough presented for the mainline quest is thorough and is made to get you though the game as directly as possible for those who just want to get to the end quickly.

4. The first few sections covering character builds, party make ups, talents, skills and combat tactics offer excellent advice and examples. The section on companion AI scripts alone is worth the read for those who want to get in depth with that.

5. The book's layout is very straightforward. The first few sections cover the basics of gameplay (keep in mind the author assumes you've read the instruction manual packed in with the game) then you have sections covering your companions, NPCs, equipment lists, vendor lists and locations, the main walkthrough, a bestiary, side quests listings, section covering PC achievements as well as a list of console achievements and trophies and the aforementioned Lore sections.

The Negatives

1. This book is rife with spoilers! Way too many in my estimation and they're hard to avoid. In fact, if you buy this book, I recommend you DO NOT read the sections covering your companions. Far too many story points have been ruined for me through casual browsing alone! Worse still, there are no warnings before any of the spoilers so read with caution!

2. The section covering the side quests is very skimpy with practical information. For the most part you are told how to initiate the quest or how to find it. On some of them it will list steps that need to be taken but most are just general descriptions of the quest itself. For many of the side quests there are no listings of enemies, bosses or rewards associated with it. For the most part you're left to figure it out on your own. Personally I can live with this but I would have liked a reference I could go to after I've beaten a quest to see what my other options were.

3. There are many typos and grammatical errors in this book. Not comically so but enough to be noticeable.

4. The bestiary suffers from the same problems as the side quests listings. The information on a given enemy is usually nothing more than it's Codex entry found in the game. Very few of the listings offer practical advice on combat or weaknesses.

Overall Thoughts

Frankly, practical advice and walkthroughs that offer more than this guide does will sooner or later be available on unofficial Wikis and other game sites. That said, despite the negatives, I don't regret buying the guide because, for me, part of the fun with old-school western rpgs is figuring things out as you go and Dragon Age is as old-school as it gets. I don't think the guide is worth the MSRP but at the discounted price Amazon is offering I think it's a good pick up, especially if you've become a fan of the DA:O setting like myself.

I'm shocked; for a Prima guide, this is absolutely worthless. I'll give you the pros first, since there aren't that many: first, if you haven't played much of D&D or WoW (or other such games), this guide does give an indepth look into character creation and gives many tips at most of the types of characters you would play. Second, it has a nice section showing the gifts in the game and whom to give them to. Third, it has a LOT of history in it. Since this game has a lot of story, I will include that as a pro. Oh, and it's hardbound.
Other than that, there isn't much to this guide. The "walk-through" is horrible. Every section has (if you are lucky) a small paragraph that does not go into detail about what you should do. It's like asking for directions, and someone saying, go to (state), then (city), then downtown. If you have questions after that, you're screwed.
The layout is decent, but all the side-quests are in the back. That doesn't sound bad, except there aren't really hints in the main quest that say "you could do (quest) here." You just have to know, or get lucky.

Short Version: Good character creation tips, good history, everything else bad.

Pros:
It's professionally written, with excellent graphics, beautifully bound and presented. You will enjoy reading it, and getting some background for the game.
Cons:
I will give you a quick example, for the side quest in the game titled "Elora's Halla" the game guide informs you that if you use skill X you can complete the quest and receive "an item", if instead you use Skill Y, you can complete the quest and receive "some experience points". Well...which do I want to do? I have no idea what "an item" is, and I have no idea of the relative value between "an item" and "some experience points". What this means, is that prior to completing the quest, I must (1) save the game, (2) perform both solutions, (3) find out what I get for both solutions, and then (4) determine which save game I want to keep. Whatever would I have done without this guide? Well...I would have (1) saved the game, (2) done the quest both ways, (3) received my rewards, and (4) loaded the save game dependent on which outcome I wanted. So whether or not I bought this guide, I am forced to do the exact same thing. I contend, that this means that I, and whoever else purchase this game guide, have wasted our money. This is not an isolated incident. In virtually every case throughout the entire guide, at no point am I actually GUIDED to perform the action that I want. I have no guidance, whatsoever.

Don't waste your money.

First I will say that the book itself looks really nice. It's hardcover and the pages inside are designed to look like an ancient arcane text. That said, that is not why I buy one of these books and all that fluff does nothing but make the book more expensive. In fact, I actually find the old stained parchment type look, they give the pages, annoying. It just makes it harder to read, especially when you are trying to quickly find information.

As a game guide, it is not bad. More often than not, the information you want is in there, and I did refer to it a lot, but it does have some major problems. First note that it's an official game guide, not a strategy guide. This means that they have to tow the company line and not point out the negative things about the game. You will not hear any negative comments about classes or hear that a certain spell or ability is useless. Basically you just get a company defined definition of the class or ability in question with no detail on well they actually work in-game. There is also no class specialization (sub class) specific strategies. They have some general class strategies, but they are scattered between ramblings of what it means to be a warrior, or mage as if you have no idea what the difference might be. Having to wade through all the pages of drivel, to weed out little tidbits of something remotely of use, was simply painful. There was no strategy for using the different specializations, say playing as a Templer vs playing a Reaver, for example. Even worse, what little information there was about the different specializations was scattered all around making you have to keep flipping around trying to find various information on them. This also leads to a bigger problem with the walk through portion of the book.

One big problem I have with the game itself is that you can't just pick your specialization right from the beginning. You start as the basic class (Warrior, mage, rogue) and then you have to learn your specializations later in the game. You can't just reach a level and pick your specialization. In some cases some one can train you, in other cases you can only get a specialization after completing a specific quest line. In some cases, you have to do a certain thing. You have no idea what it is or that the thing you are doing has anything to do with a specialization choice. It's a one time thing and if you do it wrong, your chance is gone...and you don't even know. It can be as simple as a dialogue choice that has nothing at all to do with the specialization itself. The problem is, the guide doesn't cover this. There is a chart that mentions where you can get the specializations, but the "how" is usually buried somewhere in the walkthrough. Even worse is that the specializations are all over and their walkthrough does not even take this into consideration. You could be 40 or more hours into the game before getting to the spot where you can get your specialization. And, unless you are following the walkthrough word for word, it's quite possible that you could miss your one and only opportunity to get that specialization. You shouldn't have to do that. They should have separate sections for the different specializations showing the details of the specializations, which specializations complement each other, and how you should modify your walkthrough to get those specializations. They don't, and I had to get much of the information I wanted online. There is also very little on spending skill points. The way the skill tree is set up, it is easy to gimp your character, but they don't cover this. It's like they were working with very little information and instead filled up the pages with useless fluff.

Another big problem i had with the book was the overall organization. Information was scattered all around, so you couldn't just go to one spot to get the information that you wanted, and there are no page references to where the additional information can be found. you just have to keep searching around until you stumble on it, or give up and look online. For some reason they put the many pages of item/merchant charts and bestiary right in the middle of the main strategy section at the front of the book, making even more pages that you have to flip back and forth through when trying to find information. The charts are typically at the back of the book so that people know exactly where to look for them when they want them, and not be in the way when they don't. I never use the item charts, and their positioning in this book is just annoying, and is poorly located even for those that do. Not only was the bestiary part annoyingly placed, but the information that it offered was basic and useless.

The walkthrough itself was OK on the surface, but it also suffered from poor organization. This is an open game so there is no one way to go through the game, so a walkthrough will never be perfect, but it could have been so much better. First, as I mentioned, there was no consideration given for what specialization (sub class) you want your character to be. They could have spent a couple of pages saying stuff like "If you want your character to become a Champion, do this section first instead", but no. Also, the completely separated the main part of the walkthrough from the sub-quests. They have done something similar before, but at least put the sub-quests for a certain area immediately after the main plot portion for the same area. In this book, the sub-quests are at the back of the book located after the complete main plot line walkthrough of the whole game. Several times I would run into something in an area that I clearly should have been doing something with, but the walkthrough didn't even mention it. Then you have to flip to the back of the book and start scanning through the sub-quest section. You have to spend way too much time flipping through huge sections of the book to find simple answers. More often than not it was faster and easier to find what I needed to know, online. The Balder's Gate books were gems compared to this mess.

In addition to this, there were times where the book was missing information or had wrong information. There were also many times where major spoilers would pop up suddenly, without warning, in what was otherwise generic information. There is no excuse for that. Also, while it does contain small maps of areas with locations listed they are not always accurate or helpful. Now there was definitely some good information in the book, hence the 3 stars, but the negative aspects were just so frustrating. Much of the walkthrough itself is well written out. Unfortunately the poor organization and lack of any detailed strategy information really hurt the book. It's hefty price tag didn't help either.

First off, this guide is presented quite nicely. It's organized in a practical way, and the lore section in the back (exclusive to the Collector's Edition) is a very interesting read. It also includes information on completing the DLC for Dragon Age: Origins. Like other reviewers have said, this guide does have the information you need to make it through the game; however, I've found that much of this information (and even some information not included in this guide) can be found for free online or already within the game. Also, spoilers are littered throughout the guide. If this is your first time playing Dragon Age: Origins, I suggest only using the guide when you absolutely need help in order to avoid spoiling some story elements for yourself.

As mentioned by other reviewers, the sections detailing the side quests are especially disappointing. Never does the guide mention exactly what reward you will receive for your efforts, which makes it hard to determine if completing the side quest will be worth your time. Will you receive a rare weapon or armor set, or will you just get a few pieces of gold? This guide won't tell you. The guide does offer you a complete list of all the side quests though, which is helpful if you want to find and complete all of them.

Another issue I had with this guide has to do with some optional bosses. These bosses are quite a challenge on any difficulty level, but the guide offers this piece of advice for one of them: "Have fun!" That's it? No strategy? No tips on which armor to wear? No suggestions on which party members to bring? "Have fun?" Needless to say, I wasn't pleased with this advice.

If you're a fan of this game, and you're interested in the lore and artwork included in the guide, I would recommend buying it. However, keep in mind that there are many spoilers within. If you're only interested in playing and beating the game, you would be better off using online walkthroughs, many of which offer more comprehensive and useful information (for free!).

Basically, I share the disappointment of many of the 1 and 2-star reviews. Without repeating all their negative points (which are basically right-on), I'd just have to say I had really high expectations set by strategy guides for other huge single-player games like Fallout3, Oblivion, and Morrowind. This just did not approach the level of coverage of those guides.

I remember when playing Oblivion during the holidays a few years ago, a relative couldn't believe that a "computer game" could have such a large volume of info to go with it ("you mean that whole book is just for a game??" he said). Well, I enjoyed that game (still do when I get a chance to play it), and I found the guide helped that enjoyment.

For the Dragon Age guide, it almost felt like they ran out of time getting it to press. It seems like they had a good start with the character development sections and some other background info), and then, for the quests/walkthroughs, they realized "oh, no, the game ships in a couple of weeks, let's just summarize all these notes we got from Bioware and get it to print, quick." I really don't fault the author(s), rather, it seems to me that the team behind this was understaffed and pressed for time.

I just flipped through my Fallout3 guide (just the regular edition, and before they added the DLC), and I was warmly refreshed by the clarify and comprehensiveness of the guide. Everything just seemed "right," from the quality of maps, presence of flowcharts, "Spoiler Alert" sections before leaking critical secrets, etc. This is what I was expecting in Prima's Dragon Age guide.

I won't give it a "1" even though I am disappointed. But a "2" rating is about the most I can muster for this book's mix of it's good and bad points. And most disappointing is that this guide is all we'll ever get for a great game like Dragon Age. I feel like because of it's mere "adequacy" we've been denied the right to purchase a truly great guide.

The collector's version is hard bound and comes with an exta section at the end to give more lore on Thedas, Fereldan, darkspawn, and Grey Wardens as well as a bonus art section. This is really nice along with a large front section on character creation, and these things are the entire reason I gave 3 stars, but it can not make up for the fact that the rest of the guide book is rather poorly put together.

Instead of breaking subjects or quests down to map regions this is one of those guides that's entirely focused on the main walkthrough. Anything that's superfluous to the main story is likely to be missing some pertinent information. To me this makes it more frustrating to read than if it had wholly omited it. For instance, there is a small quest you can get in the Kocari Wilds involving someone's last will and testament and then a sealed lockbox. You have to decide if you take the box to give it to another character later on or if you just loot it for it's contents. The guide doesn't tell you what the ramifications of either choice are! So why even mention it? This type of thing is consistent through all the quests that I've read about so far.

Almost the first 200 pages are spent on character creation, so this and the extra lore and art at the end are excellent bonuses, but in terms of a per quest guide this book is seriously lacking. If you get it as a gift or on sale I'd say it's worth it for the extras, but if what you want is an actual quest guide you'd be better off as soon as IGN finishes theirs for free as compared to this at full price.

I have read several complaints about this book not giving step by step instructions on how to do all of the quests. I agree. This guide does not give step by step explanation on how to do all of the quests. In fact, I don't think it provides a "step by step" on any quest. If you stop and think about how big Dragon Age: Origins is as a game (all the side quests, the different dialogue options that lead to different outcomes and the staggering amount of choices you have to make through the game) then it should be easy to see why this book could not do "step by step". It would take several volumes of books to do that. What this book does have though is easy to read maps and guides. It doesn't hold your hand, but it provides you with all the needed information to find all the quests and get all of the possible outcomes. If you don't want to play this game multiple times then I suggest saving often and making different choices or choosing different dialogue options as they come. To me though, it just seems to zap the fun out of the game. Sorry, got sidetracked a bit. Back to the guide. It is one of the easiest guides to read. The layout could not be better. The information that is provided is all any gamer would need. And the best part for me is the history section in the back of the book which provides back story for the game world.

I was greatly disappointed in this book. Usually Prima is the name in game guides, but this one borders on useless.

The first 70 or so pages are basically an extended version of the instruction manual. It does have maps of some of the zones, but there are also several that are completely absent. The equipment guide offers a decent look at all the weapons and armor, but offers no place they could be obtained or purchased. The bestiary offers short blurbs on the monsters, and hits at different sub sets, but it does not list the subsets. The maps do list monster groups, chests, and three or four plot points, but the scrolls, runes, books, etc., needed to progress some of the quests, are absent from the maps. The descriptions given are about a paragraph in length, and offer no real help. When I looked up a city I had just arrived in, the map told me that there were many side quests to be done, if the player wanted to take a few hours break from the main story line, but it gave no indication of where to go or what to do. The list of quests in the back, offer little help how to start, or accomplish, the quest, as well as don't tell you the reward.

Overall, this is a very poor book, and is well below what is expected from a Prima book. Save your money.

First off, I love hardcover collector's editions so I had this pre-ordered with the game. The binding, pages, and quality of the book are top notch. The Lore sections are a read unto themselves and really show off how much backstory Bioware put into this game. The art section is very nice but too short in my opinion. Where the negatives come is exactly where the other reviews have stated, the content. Now, there is a lot of content in this book. The author goes into great detail writing about the classes and characters but when he get's to the writups on the quests and especially the sidequests he is criminally vague. It's a strategy guide, which means it should have specific answers, not just general "found in the forrest" descriptions. Therefore, as a strategy guide, this won't give you all the info you wanted, however, as a companion guide to the game it is very nice. I would give it 4 stars on the Lore and Character content but 2 stars on the actuall quest walkthrough. If you care more about background info and artwork, go for it. If all you want are hints, go online. Oh and yes, this covers all DLC released so far.