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145 of 146 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prima finally got one right. Buy this instead of the collector's edition, March 23, 2006
This review is from: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Official Game Guide for PC and Xbox 360 (Paperback)
For once, Prima's Oblivion guide is actually worth buying. With full walkthroughs of almost every quest, detailed explanations of skills and skill stacking, map locations, and a bunch of miscellaneous information that can conceivably save hundreds of hours of gameplay it's obviously been extraordinarly well-researched and gives anyone who buys it a leg up. 5 stars for both the guide and the value proposition.
Prima's guides have gone dramatically downhill in recent years. Some of it isn't their fault as their testing often gets crammed by publishers rushing out gold titles that are really beta versions, but often the reviewers just seem harried to write the guide in a week so to get it out in time for the release and aren't exploring in depth the way those who buy the guides do. (Read my reviews of several of their useless MMORPG guides as to how bad they've gotten.) Almost always, online help guides are both far more comprehensive and a far better value.
This one is different. Part of it is that the game itself is structured ideally for a guide like this, with extremely limited ingame linearity and direction, and basically no discussion of skill mechanics. Any guide would help. But this actually is magnificently researched (likely thanks to the long delay Bethesda had in launching Oblivion) and when the manual starts with character building and skill discussions at levels that would take months of experimenting by players to figure out, you know you're in good shape. As you'd expect, another key element is walkthroughs of what looks to be every quest in the game, but what makes this outstanding is that the reviewer actually took the time to figure out what happens if you do a particular quest when a particular NPC is dead or if you've done another quest that might conflict with the first - critical for non-linear play. Everything else you'd expect from a top quality guide (maps with detailed locations, treasure drops, and mechanics) is there. Only thing missing is a vendor list and indexing of more than a couple pages worth of topics, but for something this comprehensive it's a minor oversight.
For once, well done Prima. More kudos on the value proposition. Given how heavily Amazon has this discounted, it's probably worth buying this and the non-collector's edition rather than the collector's edition by itself - you'll get a slug more help and gameplay will speed up dramatically for basically the same price. Expect this guide to be dogeared in a month.
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75 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Completely WORTH It!!, March 23, 2006
This review is from: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Official Game Guide for PC and Xbox 360 (Paperback)
I don't make a habit of buying strategy guides for the games I play -- all too often, there is more than sufficient information online for free, so what's the point, right? But in this case, I have to say I am happy I made an exception. This strategy guide is so comprehensive and in-depth it makes the 'guide to tamriel' that is included with the Collector's Ed. of Oblivion look silly. The in-depth segment on character creation alone is worth half the cost of the book to people like me who found that part of the process somewhat confusing in Morrowind - the information in this guide completely takes all the guesswork out of it, and having read it I was confidently able to make my choices regarding birthsign, class, race, sex, etc. It even includes text on how to create a few 'model-characters' to play or build off of, one for every type of player out there from the pure magic approach to the pure battle approach and everything in between. The background on enemies, characters, and aspects of the game (i.e. crime and punishment) is invaluable. No longer did I feel like I was heading off into this huge diverse and complex world without a clue as to what my approach should be, and this confidence really made the game enjoyable. Do yourself a favor and pick it up today.
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
But this guide today!, March 23, 2006
= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Official Game Guide for PC and Xbox 360 (Paperback)
Oblivion is a HUGE game. If you are like me, you want to try to do as much as possible without help. Explore the world, attempt quests and learn the ins-and-outs of the game on your own. But sometimes, you get stuck, and in a PC RPG this big, a well written Strategy Guide is a welcome relief for the times you get stuck.
This guide helps create characters, defining the attribute scores for the different races and skill types and even giving suggestions on how to make characters with your own customized skill set. It gives detailed listings on items, weapons, armor, spells, equipment and inventory throughout the game.
The first half of the book outlines all the steps needed for the main quest. Then, the second half of the book covers the Guild quests, village quests, skill quests (for your specific character type) and all the other side quests. Since the game is so new, I can't guarantee it covers ALL the quests in the game, but there are maps for all the caves, ruins, mines, towns, and places that you might need to visit.
This book is big because the game is big. There is so much to see and do in this game, it takes a well written and well designed strategy guide to help you through the hard parts. I do not plan to use this for every quest because it would take away from the fun of the game (and trust me, the game is fun). However, I am glad to know it is there when I need it.
The bottom line is this--buy the game. If you get stuck, you should know that this great strategy guide is here to help you, and you will probably need it. Not just to learn about the quest you are stuck on, but to find out some of the other cool things you could be doing in the game world. I highly recommend Prima's Strategy guide for Oblivion.
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