Customer Reviews

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Prima's Official Strategy Guide)

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

 

 

From reading all of the criticism of this guide, I almost didn't buy it. I did, though, and am glad I did.

I'm not sure what other people expect from strategy guides but this one satisfied my criteria of (1) enhancing the overall game experience and (2) helping me through a few rough spots. You are given fair warning of spoilers and solid advice on developing your character.

Maybe my expectations are modest but I got my money's worth and so will you - especially now that the price has dropped.

BOTTOM LINE - I enjoyed the game more for owning this guide.

This guide is subpar. I used it to play KoTOR, but ended up printing online walkthroughs by the end of the game. The layout is wholly confusing, referencing from section to section, causing you to flip back and forth between pages. The maps are confusing, as well, and also very incomplete.

There is no legend next to the maps, so add that on top of the fact that the walkthrough itself is rather jumbled, you end up cross-referencing like a lost little old woman trying to make sense of the maps. They don't make it easy for you to find out what the waypoints correspond to.

They also make many mistakes in the walkthrough. For example, they indicate some actions will grant Light/Dark side points when they don't, they give suggest actions that get you killed with a boss, they don't tell you how to do things they suggest (they say to do it, but don't explain how), and in one boss fight, they suggested to focus your attacks on one character when it should have been the other (the mob they tell you to attack happens to be nearly invincible, imagine that!).

The maps are a sore point for me. The guide references to certain waypoints, but they aren't on the maps. This happens OFTEN, where they'll say get quest items from 9b and 9c, for example, but there is no 9b or 9c on the map. They also try to make the guide simpler by citing waypoints for the main quest in letters(A, B, C), subquests in numbers (1, 2, 3), and other quests in letters and numbers (1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, etc.). Unfortunately, this makes the maps a MESS to read, expecially with the wacky layouts, makes it even harder to understand which waypoints mean what.

Take what this guide tells you with a grain of salt. If you find yourself unable to beat bosses based on their advice, the problem probably isn't you. I actually started to make a list of discrepencies to suppliment this guide for my husband. I finally gave up and just printed an online walkthrough for him to use instead of this guide.

The abilities/feats/weapons/armor lists are a useful reference, but becomes obsolete as you go on, since you become familiar with all the feats, powers, and equipment available.

That is really the only way to describe this walkthrough. Honestly, i was very disappointed, given how well Prima usually does on their guides. First of all, they would tell you to do things, but not HOW to do them. That got really frustrating. Also they didn't give any real advice on good skill combinations for characters, so I was pretty much left in the dark unless I went online. The maps were really confusing too. They were accurate, but there were no arrows or other symbols linking the 9-10 maps per planet, so you had to waste time figuring out which map you were on and which map you were trying to get to. Also the waypoints on the maps in the guide seemed really random because there was no list next to the maps of what the various waypoints ment, so you had to go searching through the text to figure out what they were. Another thing was that they gave very little advice on how to beat different bosses, and when they did it was usually very poor.

The guide is ALMOST flawless in everyway. It get's you through the game in the most user-friendly way. They have maps (taken from the game though) and they have a nice detailed walkthrough that guides you through the game from start to finish.

The maps aren't that detailed but they help in getting you through the game. My gripe with these maps is that they aren't like other RPG guides where you could enter a door and know where you'd end up. Aside from that using the maps along with the quests guide and main quests guide they've provided is nice. You'll be sure to complete every area fully using these maps with this walkthrough.

I like how they also give you the "romance" and other main quests themes along the way. They tell you exactly how to do them with little trouble and quickly as well.

I like the characters section and such of this guide. Very good with their layout and telling you everything about each character with a nice bio and then they gave you all the info on weapons, armor etc. Also, they detail about most every enemy in the game (but sadly not all of them are listed here).

The appendices are nice and detailed giving you everything you need to know about items and weapons. Little errors are found throughout the guide as most of the information is accurate.

Now, I don't have much of a problem with this and all, but since A LOT of people do I'll mention this. The guide contains TONS of spoilers to this amazing storyline. Really though, it's hard not to spoil a few things in the game. But as I've said countless times, you get the guide to do just that, guide you. It's a reference book that you're expected to look to for help when you need it, not to have it hold your hand as so many expect of a guide. So, yeah, there are plot spoilers to this game.

Overall I'd say 4.5 stars. It's a great guide but I wish the maps could've been better detailed. Plus, the guide doesn't cover all the secrets like you'd expect. But I'd say this is a pretty good buy. Well worth the money.

I was very impressed with KOTOR, and also lost a bit, so I decided to grab this guide from the shelves of my local gaming store. While it has helped me for a few things that needed to be done, it isn't exactly easy to find this information. Text is mixed up and unorganized, and sometimes the information isn't detailed enough. Battle strategies for Bosses and other fights is almost non-existant, which can be frustrating if you need tips for a group or certain type of enemy. I also noticed that some puzzles aren't even mentioned in the guide.
And probably the biggest thing of note, this guide does have a HUGE amount of spoilers. Though it has warnings for a few of them, most may find this as a huge turnoff.
If your looking for some help, this guide does help in some cases, if you don't mind digging for the information and wading through spoilers. But more than likely, you'll probably just end up going to gamefaqs or another gaming site to get more clear information.

I generally purchase guides like this one for the maps. Don't like to miss anything. The maps in this guide are located in one area, with a few annotations in the form of letters. The key to these letters is buried in text several pages away from the maps! I can't believe that anyone at Prima actually tried to use this guide.

I recommend downloading the guide at gamespot.com. Although it does not have any maps, it is so well written and easy to use you won't miss them.

The maps were available to look at, but most of the events or special items that were denoted were impossible to discern from the text. As far as a walk through goes, I felt that the missing pieces of information were fairly aggravating. ooo, I found a box with a trap and a puzzle that appears to be based on information that is not available to me, what does the guide say about it? nothing. here's a list of bounties I can collect, how much are each worth? can I negotiate higher ones? what is the best way to persuade people? already I want to toss the dumb thing in the waste basket.

I am one of those completist gamers who likes to get everything available the first time through the game; therefore, a strategy guide is usually an absolute must for me. Unfortunately, there is a wide variation in quality, and this one leans pretty heavily towards the lower end of the spectrum. Don't get me wrong, it's still useful, but on the whole it feels sloppy and thrown-together, rather than comprehensive and helpful.

One of the things that really mars the presentation is how badly organized it is. The walkthroughs are relatively helpful, but oftentimes a crucial bit of information that was mentioned previously is left out, leaving you to flip back through trying to find it. Another problem is that the guide was apparently written for a beta version of the game - it talks about gameplay and story elements that aren't available in the game itself and leaves out others that are. Taken as a whole, it just feels like it was done in a hurry by someone who wasn't paying attention.

On the whole, the guide does work, but I wouldn't recommend purchasing it - you can find much better-organized and more thorough collections of the same information for free online. It's far from unusable, though, so it'll work if you need to have something nearby for reference and don't own a laptop computer.

Kotor's book is full of usefull info. Quests, sidequests, romances and even diagrams of the best path for swoop racing is included. Perfect for people trying to complete everything on any platform. Also includes the info for the downloadable content "Yavin station".

I have been a huge fan and promoter of Star Wars Kotor for almost a decade now and have put in literally hundreds of hours into the game in an attempt to play every different version of the story. When I was in need of some research material for something I'm writing I needed a quick reference item, Wiki has some items to guide, and the game, of course, is exceptional but both are very time consuming. This guide has almost everything I need. It clearly lays down everything found within the game. Here is a list of what the book covers.

1) General character story covering personality, abilities and history.
2) Best way to build each character based on their abilities.
3) Clear maps that point out objectives. Most maps don't contain that much detail though.
4) Locations of weapons, objectives, places to buy items and characters needed to progress storyline.
4) Weapon abilities and best way to build them.
5) Mission overviews.
6) Side mission guides.
7) Guides for inside games such as Pazaak.
8) Tips to achieve light/dark side powers.

Outside of the general game overview the book itself is a very well put together item. Its pages are glossy and well laid out. The pages art work convey the game perfectly with beautiful artwork surrounding the pages contents. The characters are portrayed well and the feel of the book is great. Coming in at 190 pages the book covers almost everything you'll need for the game.

All Feedback is Appreciated. Thanks and good gaming.