Baldur's Gate Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames Strategy Guides) (Paperback)

~ William H. Keith Jr. (Author), Nina Barton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If there remained any doubt in gamers' minds, let it now be officially put to rest: the role-playing game (RPG) drought is over. And though we've seen a number of solid RPGs in recent years, none has been quite so impressive as Interplay's Baldur's Gate. This epic title, based on the Forgotten Realms universe from TSR's Dungeons & Dragons, is simply one of the largest, most ambitious, and most enjoyable RPGs ever. But let's be realistic: even the most seasoned fantasy adventurer needs a hint or two from time to time. BradyGames' guide to Baldur's Gate has all the info you need to survive your journey through Faerun. It starts out with a guide to the guide, which explains how the book is set up and which sections reveal lots of information and which ones offer basic advice only. Using this as a reference, you can then rely on the book to pick out just the information you need without spoiling any of the key plot elements in the game. Some of the topics covered include character creation (always one of the best parts of any RPG), spells and spellcasting, basic movement and control in Faerun, and, of course, a complete walkthrough. Unlike other strategy guides, however, this walkthrough is just an example. Since Baldur's Gate is different every time it's played, the experiences of Diana Nightflame (the authors' character) will not be identical to your own. The book closes with a description of each important location in the game, along with a list of things you must do at each (as well as some things you probably should do). Basically, this is the perfect companion guide for anyone journeying through the land of Faerun. --Michael Ryan

Product Description

BradyGames Baldur's Gate Official Strategy Guide includes: WALKTHROUGH--A complete walkthrough of the game as told through the journal of the fighter-mage Diana Nightflame, SECRETS--Discover the solutions to all the complicated riddles, and uncover the hidden secrets in the game, SUB PLOTS--Delve into the mini-quests and non-player characters that you will encounter during this grand quest.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Brady Games (December 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566867886
• ISBN-13: 978-1566867887
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #416,164 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book that shows you what to do but doesn't hold your hand., March 27, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Jersey) - See all my reviews

I don't know what people are moaning about. A strategy guide should and does show you what to do. This does just that. Just because it doesn't hold your hand and point you through everthing, doesn't mean its a bad guide. There is a long walkthrough at the beginning that is not that helpful, because it's in a story format. After that it tells you a path to follow and a brief description of most of the sub plots. A list and description of mage spells, and a section for secrets. There is a list of how to create a perect character for each class, and at the very end a list of monsters and their hit points and thier level. What more do you want, it is a guide that relys on the fact that the person playing the game might be able to make thier on decisions.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide, Wish it told all the info for the quests, December 30, 1999

By	Shalom Cooper (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This is a truly excelent strategy guide. Many of the features it has should be included in all strategy guides. Whether your a newbie to Baldurs Gate or an experienced player this book has something to offer. One feature that I truly thought was great was how they went through a walkthrough of the game (this does not have all the quests, so reading it wont ruin the game for you) with a sample character Diana Nightflame. Instead of the standard strategy guide that just has a dull section that tells you every secret, quest, and cheat it actually went through the game with a chracter giving you not only the info for hardcore experienced players but also a feel of the game for newbies. Another good feature is the ideal stat for class section in the back. What this does is give you a basic idea of what stats and skills you want for each class (fighter,mage,thief...). Although it is a truly great guide it does have one large drawback. Although it does go through all the quests I personnaly don't think it goes through in enough detail. The reason being I assume is so that you actually have some of the mystery to solve yourself. The problem is though if you are already looking in this section chances are you want to know exactly how to do each quest not just a small paragraph to just guide you along the right path. If what you want is just to be guided along go back to the sample character walkthrough and read that. Other than this minor drawback though this strategy guide is excellent and a must have for any Bgate player. Hope this helped:)

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is okay... If you lost your game manual., July 27, 2002

By A Customer

This book is incredibly bad. Its mostly just the manual reprinted. Under the character section I didn't find how to make a good character, I found the exact same descriptions used in the game. People say this book is good because it doesn't hold your hand. This book just pretends your inept. The "walkthrough" was mostly the exaact same stuff that your journal gives you, with the other being the decisions that the person who played the game made.
It just tells you some of what you need to know to beat teh game, and the rest it jsut hints at. The guide just names the side-quests, it doens't help with any of them, also everything is piled around so that you don't have a cohesive, chapter by game chapter guide, rather parts of the chapter all over the book. For crying out-loud, they made two seperate walkthroughs, neither of which is very helpful.

Save your money, because this book is just an expensive manual.