- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Brady Games; 1 edition (8 Dec 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0744002982
- ISBN-13: 978-0744002980
- Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 18.7 x 2.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,755,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #24 in Books > Computers & Internet > PC & Video Games > Strategy Guides > By Platform > PC Games > Role-playing
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Product Description
Product Description
Horizons: Empires of Istaria is a next-generation online gaming adventure. In this MMORPG, players can meet thousands of people and explore the boundless world of Istaria with beautiful vistas, incredible geology and diverse environments. Gamers can take on many different traditional fantasy roles--Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Fiends, Dragons and more. There are vast opportunities for exploration, growth, friendships and creation. As players explore new lands and settle property, they can develop the property in cooperation with other players to contain homes, gardens, stores, and many other improvements. The game also features cinematic combat and magic displaying excellent visual indicators of the blows, dodges, blocks, and spells players take. The game's intuitive and customizable interface with hundreds of options allows for a unique game experience. In addition, the varying events and creatures all change the appearance and function of the world in real-time. Not Final Cover.
About the Author
New York-based Atari, Inc. develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining games such as DriverTM, Enter the MatrixTM, Neverwinter NightsTM, StuntmanTM, Test Drive(r), Unreal(r) Tournament 2003, and Unreal(r) Championship; and mass-market and children's games such as Backyard SportsTM, Nickelodeon's Blue's CluesTM and Dora the ExplorerTM, Civilization(r), Dragon Ball Z(r) and RollerCoaster Tycoon(r). Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is what the game manual should have been, nothing more.
You have descriptions of races, skills and craft charts, town maps (without npc names), a poor general map and history of Istaria.
Also you have some tips regarding crafting and adventuring, but this are very rare and somewhat lacking my expectations.
This was supposed to be a strategy guide like the title says, not a manual replacement of the terrible manual included in the game.
If you want info on the game and better maps, tips and guides, go to the web and save yourself the money.
Not worth it at all, a huge disappointment.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Decent information, but not well organized
31 Dec 2003
Format:Paperback
It took me a couple days to get into this game. When I settled in, I ended up with several questions. My machine with 512MB of ram and a 64MB video card is not good enough to play well in windowed mode, so I depend on the guide for all my information (as opposed to the web).
The overall impression I got from the guide was that it was hastily thrown together. It has a little bit of information on most topics, but it is not very accessible, well written, or well organized. There is a great deal of information in the book, but there isn't much on HOW to go about starting. More than half of the pages in the book are taken up by massive tables that detail formulas, equipment, and skills. Basic questions like the following are NOT answered in a useful way:
* How do you go about getting new formulas? Where are formulas sold?
* What multi class combinations are effective?
* What, if any, are the downsides to multi classing a lot?
* Can base classes such as outfitters make everything that a more specialized class like an armorer can?
* When should players venture out into the real world beyond the n00b islands?
I found answers to these on the web and from other people of course, but the guide wasn't particularly helpful in these areas.
I would have found a quick one page description of this game compared to other similar games useful. All MMORPG's have massive similarities.
The maps are terrible compared to Dark Age of Camelot or Star Wars: Galaxies. They are hand drawn, and don't have coordinates. Finding stuff is tough. I will be looking for maps on the web, and printing them out if I find any good ones.
The class information is decent. There are short blurbs on all the classes, but there is no chart that shows the progression from base classes to elite ones. The base classes are mixed in with the elite class descriptions.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Weak guide
19 Jan 2004
Format:Paperback
Very little useful information in this guide. Much of the book is page after page of what stat effect something has on an item even though each tier is always the same. They could have put Tier I adds +2, Tier II +5, Tier III +10 to all mining, reaping, etc. It would have taken a paragraph to provide the same information they choose to pack the book with.
Looking at each class such as a mage they provide the name of the spell they receive at each level but no explanation of what effect it has.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Avoid this at all costs
17 Mar 2004
Format:Paperback
If I could give this a negative rating I would, but I need to give it at least one star and it does not deserve that at all. Much of the information in this book is outdated. Now I understand it came out prior to the release of the game but only a very short time before. When I got the game and the book within the first two weeks of release the information in the book was already outdated. That's not the worst part of the book though. The worst part is the lack of "strategy guide" feel to it. I do not want a book to tell me how to play a game, but I would at least like some basic newbie information to help me get started. This book does nothing more than list spell, weapon, formula, and other crafting information but does so very poorly. There is no information to guide you through how to craft effectively. Take a scholar/spell-crafter for example: it would be nice to know what formulas to look for and when to get them for the lower levels to maximize the effectiveness of leveling the craft. Instead I was left to figure all this out on my own and spent more coin than I should have for formulas that did not help me gain experience. This goes for adventuring as well. This game can be complicated with all the choices for classes/multi-classes and the book does nothing to explain any of the nuances that go with obtaining the desired outcome.
Per the book description:
"BradyGames' Horizons: Empires of Istaria Official Strategy Guide provides expert strategies for the game." - Expert? Has the writer even played the game? Strategies? They do not exist, plain and simple.
"Fundamental information for the nine playable races is included in an easy-to-understand format." - Easy-to-understand? Easy for the writer maybe; but not for the reader if you expect to gain anything out of this book.
"Complete coverage of the open-ended school-based skill system is also provided." - Whoever wrote the description obviously did not read the book. The most basic questions a new player has are not even vaguely addressed.
"Advanced community building tools, and more!" - No, that's pretty much it. Unless you can get something out of reading uninformative lists.
In short, if you want to learn about the game and how to play it effectively, check out www.tazoon.com or visit the official message boards on www.ign.com . Save yourself the $14 bucks and you will also save your disappointment. Brady Games should be ashamed of releasing such a poor quality book.
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