Customer Reviews

Dragon Age: Origins: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The last Prima guide I purchased was for Fallout 3. THAT guide was excellent. Great maps, full, multi page guides for every quest, excellent pictures. It made it possible to find every quest and item in a huge world.

THIS guide is nothing of the sort. The maps are very small, (3 or 4" on a single page small) and monochromatic, with difficult to follow legends. The quest guides and walkthrough are short, bullet point summaries. They contain virtually no information you wouldn't otherwise know if you're doing the quest.

The sidequest guides are literally a paragraph long, and are basically summaries of the in game quest text. No map, maybe a single screenshot. They are useful only in finding quests you didn't know about. However, in exploring areas, you easily stumble upon all the sidequests. The guide is packed full of spoilers with no warnings. It's easy to flip through looking for something else, and spoil a story point for yourself as you glance over the text.

The "full equipment section" is utterly useless. It contains a full list of unique weapons and armor in the game, but absolutely no location information, so it gets you nowhere. You may see something you'd like to use, but with no location listed, you are left hoping you find it, or looking online for where to get it.

On the plus side, the character creation and class guides are useful, helping you identify the best abilities and where to put your ability and talent points as you start out. The companion guides are also handy, helping you figure out who likes what gifts, how to pursue a romance with a particular character, and how to build them. However, this information is largely available for free on the Dragon Age website and official forums.

In summary, the things you look for in a guide, such as the campaign walkthrough, maps, and item database, are severely lacking. The information that IS in this guide is mostly available for free on the Dragon Age website, forums, or other online FAQ and guide sites. The decent character creation and companion sections do not make up for this guides failure to, well, guide. Save your money for the sure to be upcoming Dragon Age DLC.

Yes I've read the other reviews. I almost didn't buy this because of them. But in the end I figured "something is better than nothing". I'm glad I did!

What's useful to me? How about:

a) A discussion of all the races and classes. Statistics, theories, backstories, descriptions and discussion of different ability choices and so for.

b) Information about setting up a party. A list and discussion of all the NPC's that you can recruit. What's good about them, what's bad, how to influence each one. Information about stuff like possible romances and how that effects the game, and how to pull it off. Suggested settings for the tactical window. Suggested builds (tank, ranged dps, etc) both at a class level and at a party level.

c) Lists of spells and equipment, along with relevent statistics about each one. Others said this is not useful, I disagree. Just having this to read "offline" lets you strategise about how you want to try to equip your characters, and gives you an idea what to buy from merchants and what to "hold out for".

d) The walkthroughs. Ok, so the walkthroughs are high level. I kinda like that. Not useful? Pfft, hardly. For example, I was just in this fight that I had no idea how to win. I walk into a courtyard and seemed to be immediately set upon by an insurmountable force. I had pretty much given up. But the book gives you just enough that now I'm ready to give it another try, with much more of an idea of how I can win it.

e) information about all the quests. One thing that I frequently wonder while playing a game like this was "what did I miss?" when I leave a region. Now I can know that!

In short, I find this guide to be just what I need, and definitely enhances my enjoyment of playing DAO. After reading it myself I really can't fathom why others dislike this book so strongly.

The character sections and walkthrough are pretty good. But if you are looking for more information about spell damage and duration, combat mechanics, etc, you'll find that a large chunk of the guide is simply ripped straight from the in-game tooltips.

Absolutely pitiful excuse for a Prima guide. Lazy graphic design - every single page uses the exact same template / layout, often at the expense of the information. In fact, that's my biggest problem with this guide - information is extremely hard to find and parse. The second biggest problem is that the information provided (assuming you can find it) is extremely vague. For example, most of the information provided for side-quests are exactly what's in the quest log's description. No instructions how to complete them, no map locations, and worst of all - no information on the consequences of your actions. There are a lot "moral" choices in Dragon Age, and this guide gives you NO information on how your choices affect the game. You could make the arguement that this leaves the game more "fun", but there's very little point in buying a guide that gives you no information. VERY dissapointed, especially at a [...] price point.

This is not a very good guide for Dragon Ages. Its more of a written narrative of the storyline full of spoilers. Most of what is in it can be discovered easily without it and the majority of its information is rehashing whats already written in the players journal. The first third is nothing but item lists and character backgrounds. The lists are organized poorly. If thay had put a tab telling you where the item was purchased it would have made it usefull instead you have to flip through multiple long lists to find information. Its a poor design period. The maps in the book are very small and hard to read. It is either too hard to find information or what is there is so vague its not helpful. The book does not provide solid strategies to defeat booses my favorite line was about how the author says Flemeths a dragon wishes the player good luck in the fight. Thats not exactly what I'd expect to pay for as advice from a strategy guide. Its only strong point is that it does assist you with how to get your team members to like you. Save your money and look elsewhere for quality help in playing this game.

First I want to make it clear that my disappointment with the guide in no way reflects on the game. I love Dragon Age and will probably play it through multiple times.

I remember when strategy guides went out of the way to be spoiler free, and had actual strategy information that wasn't obvious. Old Prima guides, such as FFVII, are good examples. I think back then they were "unofficial" guides and were not created by the people making the game while the game was in development. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of independently written guides these days.

I have had so many plot points needlessly spoiled by this guide. It is not necessary to describe in detail the plot point that happens late in the game that your current decision affects. There are ways to get around that. It is also not necessary to actually name the unexpected party member you *might* get based on certain decisions, at least not in the table of contents. But I get the impression they just wanted to pump out a $25 guide book to make more money off the game.

The combat strategy is basic. Most of it is actually just repeating, word for word, descriptions and information found in game or in the manual. The only useful information I found is revealing all ten spell combinations, which could easily be found on the internet.

Even information you would expect isn't there, such as how each follower will react to certain decisions you make in conversation with NPC's. There are only basic guidelines to the followers personalities and a handful of actual conversation examples, leading the player (the OCD player, anyway) to do trial and error to get the desired response, which buying the damn guide is supposed to prevent.

When I buy a guide, I want information not easily available online.The only real good points I can find for this guide is convenience (not having to go back and forth between the pc to look up info) and....that's about it. Unless you don't have regular internet access, skip it. It's definitely not worth $25.

I've been buying strategy guides for almost every RPG I've played in the last 10 years. I have 2 bookcase shelves dedicated to them, so I feel I can speak intelligently about the issue. This guide is useful only for those wishing to go through the main storyline, and NOTHING else. If you have any interest in completing any side quests, this book will not help. Many side quests aren't even in the book, and the ones that are consist of only the name of the quest, the type, and the task (all of which you can find in the game itself). It also contains "quest tips", which are no more than 3 sentences that summarize what the game itself tells you. I also must mention that I'm currently in the first main city, and I've already have 3-4 side quests that aren't even mentioned in the guide. One of them is how to get a companion character in your party!

As I said, absolutely useless.

I was excited to get the Dragon Age Origins game and decided to get the guide to help me get through the game. The game has a large world and allot of quests so a guide is necessary. That being said, this guide seems like the author followed a template and half heartedly filled out the information necessary to complete the guide. The maps are not very helpful, and the guide is not organized very well. The lists included in the guide offer no good information. I found myself trying to figure out which section the necessary information was contained in, and was rummaging through the guide more than I liked. Do not get me wrong I did find some useful information, and I would not have figured it out without the guide. However, I have come to expect more from Prima. The fact that I needed this guide is why I gave it a 3 star instead of a 2 star.

Now that I have completed the story, I am going through the game to complete the rest of the origin stories and trying to complete the achievements. This is where the guide really falls short. There is not allot of information on dialogue choices and how to chance outcomes of the game. I wonder if the author even played the game more than once....

Overall: A poor showing by Prima, Amazon did a good job as far as price and shipping, but not a great guide.

This guide baxically only give guidelines for your character, all different ones, for upgrading them for skills. This guide really doesn't help with the actual game play, as that is really self explainitory. So, if you are looking for knowledge as to how best to increase your characters skills and techniques, this is a good guide. As for the rest, not worth the price. It all depends on what you want from the guide for your game.

Dragon Age: Origins is a big game. It needs a big strategy guide. The Dragon Age: Origins Prima Strategy Guide is perfect for those who are either struggling with a certian area of the game, or are just dedicated fans of the franchise itself. The guide is informative in all areas, except it does seem to be missing several pages of moderately-important information. These mostly pertain to sidequests, romances, characters, and other important areas. However, the most important thing you must realize when reviewing a strategy guide is that all guides are rushed to print to coincide with the release of the game. The authors have limited time to complete such a rigorous and daunting task. Mike Searle, the guides author, managed to produce an informative guide in such a small amount of time that it resembles a guide which would've taken several months to complete. This guide is one of those few guides that should not only be used as a reference source during future playthroughs, but also as a learning guide for general gameplay and character development. After reading through the whole guide, it became apparant that Searle spent alot of time talking to the Dragon Age: Origins development team at Bioware, making sure he had all the right information and knowing every possible combination of choices, classes, and item management. Let me tell you right now... this guide has some of the most in-depth item lists I have ever seen. Lists for practically every signifanct item/weapon/spell is listed in the guide. And it's so much better than it sounds in this review. I would say the statistics for each classes is also worth mentioning. On a technical level, this guide is superb. However, I wish there would have been more information on the characters and the history of Fereldan. Another complaint that I have is a complaint that could almost be said about anything strategy guide, as there is no way of getting around it entirely. It's difficult to read the walkthrough without knowing exactly what's going to happen next. I, myself, never used the guide until my second playthrough as I find it far more enjoyable to figure out these things on my own. The walkthrough is by no means a disaster, it's actually well done and very informative. It needs work on spoiler placing though. Ah, I almost forgot... the guide's theme is absolutely stellar. It completely has a Dragon Age: Origins feel, with the pages offering a background that resembles ancient parchment with mildly visible burns adding to the realism of the feel. The way the information on the pages is laid out is also well done. I could always find what I needed after a a few seconds on each page.

To review things a bit, I would have to say this is one of the better strategy guides out there, ecspecially on a technical level. The information on class specializations, items and weapons, spells and talents, and other important factors are laid out in gorgeous lists that are clear and easy to read. The guides theme is great: rom the artwork, the colors, the fonts, and the mildly dirty parchment background on each page, every detail helps capture the look and feel of Ferelden. The walkthrough is informative and understandable, though it has a few minor flaws like not informing you about certain important (though not critical) information pertaining to a quest or level's outcome, as well as revealing some mild spoilers too soon. But it's a guide, it's supposed to tell you what to do so you can't really be too picky about that. The guide could have offered alot more information on characters and the effect your choices have them. Information on romances is also lacking. The strongest feature I found in the guide was it's ability to appeal to not only the gamer stuck on a sidequest, but also to your average Dragon Age fan. You may not need to use the walkthrough, but the amount of information and lists pertaining to important items in the game is absolutely essential for getting the most out of the game. Ecspecially when your going through for a second or third run (or 28th lol), as it really helps you get the most out of your character on a technical level.

Dragon Age: Origins Official Prima Strategy Guide has its flaws but they are flew, and if you look past these what you have is a stellar, informative, and valuable strategy guide, offering an in-depth approach to getting the most out of your time spent in the world of Dragon Age: Origins, hitting nearly every concievable area of character development and gameplay strategy varieties, while providing gamers with an above average help reference for those stuck on a quest, as well as those returning for an additonal playthrough. Also, this a must-have collectable item for even the most lightweight Dragon Age: Origins fan. After spending several hours reviewing the aspects of this guide, I rate it 8.9/10, or 9/10. Two thumbs up for Mike Searle as well.

WALKTHROUGH: 8.5/10
SIDEQUESTS: 8.5/10
EXTRA CONTENT: 8/10
CHARACTER OPTIMIZATION: 9.5/10
ITEM/WEAPONS/CLASSES: 10/10
GUIDE THEME: 9.5/10
FERELDEN MYTHOLOGY: 7/10
REFERANCE VALUE: 9/10
COLLECTABLE: YES
PURCAHSE: YES
MEAN SCORE: 8.9/10

9/10