Customer Reviews

Playboy: The Mansion(TM) Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames Take Your Games Further)

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I'm going to be very blunt here. This book simply doesn't make the cut. Granted that Playboy: The Mansion is an easy game which is at the same time, rather repetitive, the level of details in this guide is not what I'd expect paying $15 for. In fact, I could get stronger fan-written walkthroughs from various game sites on the internet. Yes, it's that bad.

Apart from being skeletal, I also noticed a few errors in this guide. Firstly, if you've played the game, you should know that completing objectives and missions gives you bonus points or other rewards. Some of these rewards are wrongly listed in the guide.

Secondly, the screenshots. The images are obviously taken from the PC version of the game, which is not an issue. However, for the three bonus missions exclusive only to PS2 players, the screenshots are merely generic images from previous missions. These give a really cheap feel to the book. Surely, if you're writing a guide to sell for money, you should at least provide some real screenshots? What happened to integrity?

Thirdly, redundancy. Journalists, photgraphers and some celebrities are randomly included in each game. In fact, the names are also randomiized. For example, a certain "Desiree Carver" could be a journalist in one game, and a Playmate in another. Why then, would the book waste pages "recommending" randonmized characters? And, on the subject of listing characters, some of the non-randomized characters have wrong pictures beside them.

The only good thing about this book is that it provides a rather extensive list of items you can build and purchase. At least, it scores some points for details to compensate for the weak walkthrough. Still, I'm not entirely bothered with the effects that furniture and doors have on the game. To be honest, you will only be buying a few items, and the effects of these items are listed prominently in the game itself. But I'm trying to be nice.

Still, in conclusion, steer clear of this.

The Playboy Mansion hint book was not very helpful to me. Here is why. Much of the book is on story mode. While I found it helpful in explaining how the game works, the free style section was tiny when compared to the chapters on how the missions work. But I don't play story mode. So, while parts were helpful, the book didn't help me improve my games. Much of it was easy to figure out just by diving into the game.

Also, I have heard many of the missions of the story mode are impossible to play - which means, if correct, story mode only goes so far before becoming a dead end.

If you have the game this book is very helpful.

I have learned a few things about the game that I missed or didn't do when I first played