Product Description

The Collectors Guide to this huge game.

Hard Cover: Rugged Hardcover edition for extra durability.

Essentials: Nearly 400 pages packed with every quest, NPC, monster, and item across the world of Ferelden!

*Classes: Complete ascension guides with level-by-level tips on how to maximize a warrior, mage, or rogue class!

*Walkthrough: Detailed walkthroughs to master all quests, puzzles, and pivotal story choices!

*Equipment: Full equipment lists to gear out your PCs!

*Bestiary: Comprehensive bestiary with everything from arcane horrors to werewolves!

*Combat: Expert tactics to conquer the intricacies of combat!

* Bonus Material: A special 100+ page section gives an in-depth look into the workings of Bioware Studios,
developer of Dragon Age. This behind-the-scenes look features a studio biography, concept artwork, interviews
with key members from each team, and much more!

* Maps: Labeled maps pinpoint the locations of each quest item, chest, trap, and secret for every town and
dungeon.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93145 in Books
• Published on: 2009-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 408 pages

Customer Reviews

Almost Perfect
This review is for the hardback 400 page Collectors version of the Dragon Age Origins Guide.

I don't have the paperback version so cant tell you the exact differences between the two, but the paperback has about 70 pages less and doesn't have the Traveller's Guide (50 pages of back history), Interview with Bioware (5 pages: The designers favourite items and class combos being the most interesting parts in there for me) and finally the Origins Artwork (16 pages: full colour artwork of locations, characters and creatures from the game).

There is a two page contents page at the start which helps with finding things in this large book.

Main Sections in this book are:

How to use this guide
Basics
Character Generation
The Classes
The Party
Companions
Supporting Cast
Equipment
The Bestiary
Walkthrough
Side Quests
Random Encounters
Achievements and Trophies
+ The Collectors content which I mentioned earlier

At the time of this review (a week after the game's release) there is very little online help if you get stuck in the game, so I found the guide very useful in certain situations, I will list a few:

I was stuck on a quest trying to open a box with a key (it was the correct key, but didnt work). Tried to solve this myself for a while, but eventually went to the guide for help and found that I had to do something else before the key would work. By that point I was getting frustrated so definitely helped.

I was ambushed by a large group of a type of creature I hadn't encountered before. I looked up the creature in the guide and it told me they were vulnerable to magic. This helped me to decide how I would fight them.

Info on game mechanics is extremely useful: Some areas you can not return to after completing certain other parts of the game. This enables the player not to neglect an area and find that its "too late" and they cant go back without loading an earlier game.


PROS:
Language used, illustrations and maps are quite clear.
I haven't found any language or content mistakes yet, which is surprising.
Helps you when you get stuck on quests.
Helps you with relationships with companions (very hit/miss without the guide to help)
Helps to know how to deal with creatures (what weapons or magic to use)
Helps you to know when to sell and when to keep items (some items which seem like "vendor trash" can be useful later in the game).
The guide also points out those "key" items in an area that you should make an effort to get before moving on (e.g. the backpack available in Ostagar).
You get a lot of content for your money (400 pages full colour hard back for less than £13).


CONS:
Its not a "complete" guide. Near the start of the game I noticed they missed out listing quite a few items you can find hidden as you enter Ostagar for the first time.

Some quests play out differently depending on what kind of character you created at the start. As a result some quest descriptions don't quite pan out as described.
e.g. starting as a Noble human you can do the Mabari Hound quest in Ostagar, but it doesn't start in the same place and the eventual outcome isn't the same.

The guide splits the main and side quests in to different sections which can be a bit annoying. The main quests guide gives detailed map, guide and quest guide on an area. But, then you have to go off and search for the side quests in another section of the book.

e.g. The Mabari Hound is listed as a side quest in Ostagar, but its guide is found 133 pages forward in the book under the section "Origin Stories".

I guess their thinking is that some people want to skip the sidequests, but I find this a bit strange and think they should have put them all in once place or at least listed where to find them and not just listed the names and left it up to the reader to trawl through the book searching for them.


CONCLUSION:
Overall a very useful book for anyone intending to play the game "seriously" (i.e all the way through - perhaps several times). Time will tell how good the online guides get, but there's so much content in here that its going to take a while for someone to produce all this in an online form that's as easy to refer to.

This hard back version will stay open on its own, so perhaps reason enough to buy over the paper back which I assume will need something heavy put on it to keep it open on your desk.

4 Stars

a quality book, but it could ruin the game
This book is a great companion to the Dragon Age game but owning it might ruin your game experience. It would be better bought after you had completed the game once to help you find stuff you missed. If you have it on your first run through the game it is just too tempting not to look at it, in your bid to make your character as hard as possible. Whilst it will happily allow you to achieve this end it will take away the joy of exploration that comes with any new game. So in short, it is a great product, but don't buy it straight away unless you have loads of will power (which I don't).

It does what it says on the tin
The book does what a book walk through can be expected to do. It provides all the spreadsheets and guides to build a great character in any of the classes, it makes sure that you know what to do in any quest without giving away any of the drama of the dialogue. This isn't written in a way that makes you feel that the book wants you to explore and see not the ramblings of someone who has already completed the game.

Remember though it is still a book, it suffers from some issue like no indepth index and some issues where side quests and main quests are not near each other or a user friendly item/armour list for someone who isn't a constant RPG player.

If you are looking for help and a way to experience every ounce of story this game has to offer (and a lot of it) then I would recommend this book, the collector edition adds that little bit more of the universe to give it a little more of a kick in its well created escapism.