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Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides) |  | Author: Mike Searle
Publisher: Prima Games
Category: Book
Buy New: $51.00
as of 3/11/2010 15:55 CST details
New (15) Used (1) from $51.00
Seller: Nate's Games & Such
Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 192079
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Collector's ed
Pages: 408
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 11.1 x 8.2 x 1
ISBN: 076156246X
Dewey Decimal Number: 794
EAN: 9780761562467
ASIN: 076156246X
Publication Date: November 3, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Lore: Learn the story leading up to this epic struggle that can't be found anywhere else.
Interviews: Step behind the scenes with revealing interviews with the development team.
Art: Our stunning art section showcases the best artwork Dragon Age has to offer.
Hard Cover: Rugged Hardcover edition for extra durability.
Guide: Includes the complete Dragon Age: Origins strategy guide.
Signed Cover: Signatures from the entire Dragon Age development team appear on the inside front and back cover to add to the custom Collector's look and feel.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
 Incredibly Useful February 27, 2010
Steven Byrd
I received this as a gift and I found this to be very useful for those who do not wish to go through trial and error for the dialogue. It covers literally every aspect of the game and how the mechanics play out. At the end, there's a section covering all the various bits of lore the player can uncover through the storyline.
The book itself is impressive even just for sitting on a shelf as well.
Pretty, but flawed February 12, 2010
Brett (Michigan United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First I will say that the book itself looks really nice. It's hardcover and the pages inside are designed to look like an ancient arcane text. That said, that is not why I buy one of these books and all that fluff does nothing but make the book more expensive. In fact, I actually find the old stained parchment type look, they give the pages, annoying. It just makes it harder to read, especially when you are trying to quickly find information.
As a game guide, it is not bad. More often than not, the information you want is in there, and I did refer to it a lot, but it does have some major problems. First note that it's an official game guide, not a strategy guide. This means that they have to tow the company line and not point out the negative things about the game. You will not hear any negative comments about classes or hear that a certain spell or ability is useless. Basically you just get a company defined definition of the class or ability in question with no detail on well they actually work in-game. There is also no class specialization (sub class) specific strategies. They have some general class strategies, but they are scattered between ramblings of what it means to be a warrior, or mage as if you have no idea what the difference might be. Having to wade through all the pages of drivel, to weed out little tidbits of something remotely of use, was simply painful. There was no strategy for using the different specializations, say playing as a Templer vs playing a Reaver, for example. Even worse, what little information there was about the different specializations was scattered all around making you have to keep flipping around trying to find various information on them. This also leads to a bigger problem with the walk through portion of the book.
One big problem I have with the game itself is that you can't just pick your specialization right from the beginning. You start as the basic class (Warrior, mage, rogue) and then you have to learn your specializations later in the game. You can't just reach a level and pick your specialization. In some cases some one can train you, in other cases you can only get a specialization after completing a specific quest line. In some cases, you have to do a certain thing. You have no idea what it is or that the thing you are doing has anything to do with a specialization choice. It's a one time thing and if you do it wrong, your chance is gone...and you don't even know. It can be as simple as a dialogue choice that has nothing at all to do with the specialization itself. The problem is, the guide doesn't cover this. There is a chart that mentions where you can get the specializations, but the "how" is usually buried somewhere in the walkthrough. Even worse is that the specializations are all over and their walkthrough does not even take this into consideration. You could be 40 or more hours into the game before getting to the spot where you can get your specialization. And, unless you are following the walkthrough word for word, it's quite possible that you could miss your one and only opportunity to get that specialization. You shouldn't have to do that. They should have separate sections for the different specializations showing the details of the specializations, which specializations complement each other, and how you should modify your walkthrough to get those specializations. They don't, and I had to get much of the information I wanted online. There is also very little on spending skill points. The way the skill tree is set up, it is easy to gimp your character, but they don't cover this. It's like they were working with very little information and instead filled up the pages with useless fluff.
Another big problem i had with the book was the overall organization. Information was scattered all around, so you couldn't just go to one spot to get the information that you wanted, and there are no page references to where the additional information can be found. you just have to keep searching around until you stumble on it, or give up and look online. For some reason they put the many pages of item/merchant charts and bestiary right in the middle of the main strategy section at the front of the book, making even more pages that you have to flip back and forth through when trying to find information. The charts are typically at the back of the book so that people know exactly where to look for them when they want them, and not be in the way when they don't. I never use the item charts, and their positioning in this book is just annoying, and is poorly located even for those that do. Not only was the bestiary part annoyingly placed, but the information that it offered was basic and useless.
The walkthrough itself was OK on the surface, but it also suffered from poor organization. This is an open game so there is no one way to go through the game, so a walkthrough will never be perfect, but it could have been so much better. First, as I mentioned, there was no consideration given for what specialization (sub class) you want your character to be. They could have spent a couple of pages saying stuff like "If you want your character to become a Champion, do this section first instead", but no. Also, the completely separated the main part of the walkthrough from the sub-quests. They have done something similar before, but at least put the sub-quests for a certain area immediately after the main plot portion for the same area. In this book, the sub-quests are at the back of the book located after the complete main plot line walkthrough of the whole game. Several times I would run into something in an area that I clearly should have been doing something with, but the walkthrough didn't even mention it. Then you have to flip to the back of the book and start scanning through the sub-quest section. You have to spend way too much time flipping through huge sections of the book to find simple answers. More often than not it was faster and easier to find what I needed to know, online. The Balder's Gate books were gems compared to this mess.
In addition to this, there were times where the book was missing information or had wrong information. There were also many times where major spoilers would pop up suddenly, without warning, in what was otherwise generic information. There is no excuse for that. Also, while it does contain small maps of areas with locations listed they are not always accurate or helpful. Now there was definitely some good information in the book, hence the 3 stars, but the negative aspects were just so frustrating. Much of the walkthrough itself is well written out. Unfortunately the poor organization and lack of any detailed strategy information really hurt the book. It's hefty price tag didn't help either.
Great read January 8, 2010
Joe Phythian (Sequim, WA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read several complaints about this book not giving step by step instructions on how to do all of the quests. I agree. This guide does not give step by step explanation on how to do all of the quests. In fact, I don't think it provides a "step by step" on any quest. If you stop and think about how big Dragon Age: Origins is as a game (all the side quests, the different dialogue options that lead to different outcomes and the staggering amount of choices you have to make through the game) then it should be easy to see why this book could not do "step by step". It would take several volumes of books to do that. What this book does have though is easy to read maps and guides. It doesn't hold your hand, but it provides you with all the needed information to find all the quests and get all of the possible outcomes. If you don't want to play this game multiple times then I suggest saving often and making different choices or choosing different dialogue options as they come. To me though, it just seems to zap the fun out of the game. Sorry, got sidetracked a bit. Back to the guide. It is one of the easiest guides to read. The layout could not be better. The information that is provided is all any gamer would need. And the best part for me is the history section in the back of the book which provides back story for the game world.
Will get you through the game, but... January 3, 2010
H. Sevor (USA)
First off, this guide is presented quite nicely. It's organized in a practical way, and the lore section in the back (exclusive to the Collector's Edition) is a very interesting read. It also includes information on completing the DLC for Dragon Age: Origins. Like other reviewers have said, this guide does have the information you need to make it through the game; however, I've found that much of this information (and even some information not included in this guide) can be found for free online or already within the game. Also, spoilers are littered throughout the guide. If this is your first time playing Dragon Age: Origins, I suggest only using the guide when you absolutely need help in order to avoid spoiling some story elements for yourself.
As mentioned by other reviewers, the sections detailing the side quests are especially disappointing. Never does the guide mention exactly what reward you will receive for your efforts, which makes it hard to determine if completing the side quest will be worth your time. Will you receive a rare weapon or armor set, or will you just get a few pieces of gold? This guide won't tell you. The guide does offer you a complete list of all the side quests though, which is helpful if you want to find and complete all of them.
Another issue I had with this guide has to do with some optional bosses. These bosses are quite a challenge on any difficulty level, but the guide offers this piece of advice for one of them: "Have fun!" That's it? No strategy? No tips on which armor to wear? No suggestions on which party members to bring? "Have fun?" Needless to say, I wasn't pleased with this advice.
If you're a fan of this game, and you're interested in the lore and artwork included in the guide, I would recommend buying it. However, keep in mind that there are many spoilers within. If you're only interested in playing and beating the game, you would be better off using online walkthroughs, many of which offer more comprehensive and useful information (for free!).
Great Addition to the Game December 30, 2009
Jay M. Beebed
Colorful hardcover, with a cool look and feel. And on Amazon I got it for the same price as the paperback elsewhere. Lots of good information especially about the gifts you give to the NPC's.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
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