Save your money. Nov 10, 2009 (33 of 35 found this helpful)
The last Prima guide I purchased was for Fallout 3. THAT guide was excellent. Great maps, full, multi page guides for every quest, excellent pictures. It made it possible to find every quest and item in a huge world.
THIS guide is nothing of the sort. The maps are very small, (3 or 4" on a single page small) and monochromatic, with difficult to follow legends. The quest guides and walkthrough are short, bullet point summaries. They contain virtually no information you wouldn't otherwise know if you're doing the quest.
The sidequest guides are literally a paragraph long, and are basically summaries of the in game quest text. No map, maybe a single screenshot. They are useful only in finding quests you didn't know about. However, in exploring areas, you easily stumble upon all the sidequests. The guide is packed full of spoilers with no warnings. It's easy to flip through looking for something else, and spoil a story point for yourself as you glance over the text.
The "full equipment section" is utterly useless. It contains a full list of unique weapons and armor in the game, but absolutely no location information, so it gets you nowhere. You may see something you'd like to use, but with no location listed, you are left hoping you find it, or looking online for where to get it.
On the plus side, the character creation and class guides are useful, helping you identify the best abilities and where to put your ability and talent points as you start out. The companion guides are also handy, helping you figure out who likes what gifts, how to pursue a romance with a particular character, and how to build them. However, this information is largely available for free on the Dragon Age website and official forums.
In summary, the things you look for in a guide, such as the campaign walkthrough, maps, and item database, are severely lacking. The information that IS in this guide is mostly available for free on the Dragon Age website, forums, or other online FAQ and guide sites. The decent character creation and companion sections do not make up for this guides failure to, well, guide. Save your money for the sure to be upcoming Dragon Age DLC.
Lazy and Weak Nov 16, 2009 (10 of 11 found this helpful)
Absolutely pitiful excuse for a Prima guide. Lazy graphic design - every single page uses the exact same template / layout, often at the expense of the information. In fact, that's my biggest problem with this guide - information is extremely hard to find and parse. The second biggest problem is that the information provided (assuming you can find it) is extremely vague. For example, most of the information provided for side-quests are exactly what's in the quest log's description. No instructions how to complete them, no map locations, and worst of all - no information on the consequences of your actions. There are a lot "moral" choices in Dragon Age, and this guide gives you NO information on how your choices affect the game. You could make the arguement that this leaves the game more "fun", but there's very little point in buying a guide that gives you no information. VERY dissapointed, especially at a [...] price point.