Customer Reviews

Fable II Limited Edition Guide (Bradygames Limited Edition Guides)

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

 

 

I bought this guide when I heard that it had maps of the different regions in Fable 2. Given that the in-game maps are so poor and unusable, I jumped at the news that there was help available.

I was sadly disappointed by the maps. There is no overview of how all the regions are connected together. There is no listing of how many houses and businesses there are to buy in each area, etc. In addition, for several areas, many of the statistics that are there, such as the number of keys or dig spots or gargoyles, disagree with the in-game statistics that provide the overall count.

I can say that the art book is awfully pretty. If you're looking to be a completionist, chances are the info on gargoyles and keys can at least get you most of the way there. It isn't as though you can't find the rest on your own, especially since the game will tell you which areas you've missed one of those in. The quest descriptions are largely useless though. The quests in this game aren't rocket science, and the game itself shows you exactly where to go more than 95% of the time. On the whole, I was disappointed in the amount of information provided, and expecially disappointed in the maps.

I feel it is only appropriate that I begin with the problems that I had with this strategy guide and move on into the few points that I liked. This strategy guide suffers from several large problems ranging from inadequate indexes to obvious misprints. I am under the impression that the editors did not spend any time reading through their own guide before they sent it to press.

Many descriptions in the guide are printed under pictures that they don't belong to, and this is not an isolated problem. Every other page of this guide has very simple mistakes that could have easily been corrected, but for some strange reason never were. Strangely I haven't found many typos, which means that there was someone around to edit the text, but that the graphic design team didn't bother to check their work when it came to placing text and images together.

The guide also suffers from a problem that I have found in many guides lately, which is that they do not seem to understand why customers want to buy their guides. With-holding information in a strategy guide because you want the player to discover things on their own is hypocritical. If you're going to sell a strategy guide you should accept the fact that your players aren't going to blindly stumble through the game on their own. You're helping them do it, so you might as well help them do it right.

The guide goes through a lot of trouble to give you information you don't need, but neglects to give you the information you want, or at the very least index it in a way that is convenient to find and use. For example, the main reason anyone would want a strategy guide for an xbox 360 game is to acquire all the achievements. This guide gives you the achievements on a fold-out poster in the back, which you have to take out if you don't want to accidentally rip it. This means you have separate sheet four pages long that you have to find and fiddle with every time you want to check an achievement, while you also keep the strategy guide close because the technical designer thought it would be a great idea to make you flip through one hundred pages of of the Albion Atlas to discover how to find every silver key or gargoyle instead of simply making an index for these quests/achievements.

With the exception of the many many misprints the Albion Atlas was the most useful part of this guide, even though it would have been much easier if I just had a section for the gargoyle and silver keys to themselves.

The artbook is very nice and worth the price on Amazon. It is the minimum size that I expect from a video games artbook that is sold rather than used as a giveaway. It is smaller than it could be, considering the volume of sketches and c.g. that must have gone into the creation of this game, but it does give an interesting insight into the process. The only disappointing element of the artwork is the fact that all of the effort and talent put into the artwork for Fable II is wasted on the terrible story and game play.

In short, buy this guide for the artbook and sell the guide after you trade in the game. Because there really isn't a reason to keep Fable II around after you beat the game and get all the achievements you want. It's an amusing game that seems really grand at first and quickly turns into a miserable glitch-filled experience. So, if you're not going to keep the game, there's no real reason to keep the guide.

Unless you are a diehard fan that has to buy limited edition everything, and it's alright if you are but if you are like me, just the average joe, don't buy this product. It is not worth the extra money. Buy the standard Signiture Guide instead. The Standard Guide covers all of the needed information and that is really the only thing a gamer needs.

In short, this guide does not provide enough information beyond what is already made available in-game. It really only collects all of that information and makes it available in one source. There are no suggested strategies or further explanations on the in-game information, essentially making this anything but a strategy guide.

As mentioned, the art book is nice. Except, it's assembly with the guide is oddly constructed that you'll want to separate the two to use the guide, but this will leave you with a flimsy, crushable exterior shell (with art book) and a guide that has a front and back cover with pictures and no identifiable text to the game.

The guide was in good shape when I got it all sealed and wasn't damaged. I also got it right around the time the seller told me I would receive it.

There are many great pictures, and alot of info which was relevant. But the game is based off of open play and if you just play the game you can find most of what in the book. There was little real use, I got out of the book. But If you are looking for great pictures and a little help in the hard parts, this this the book to go for.

This is a beautifully art worked, highly useful book. Each quest is explained with both the good and evil methods explored. Side quests are easily found and the maps are extremly handy for finding gargoyles and keys.

There is no extra content for the guide in either format, there is only the ARt book and different coveer but, their the same either one in bad content, really it is badly organized, the items, were to find them etc, the way its distributed makes it inpractical.

The guidebook is clear, easy to understand and to modify in stradigy, and the artwork book is great to look through.

This guide is incredible. Sure, you can get minor guides online for free, but this one comes with artwork and full strategy guides... it tells you before hand exactly what your choices will do, and how to find certain quests.
I bought both game and guide for my boyfriend, but I have adopted the guide for my own.
After all, he took 4 Gypsy girls to bed at the same time... don't I deserve an advantage?
:D