The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game Strategy Guide

For an RPG (role playing game) a strategy guide is bound to be rather hefty. All of the items, weapons, characters and quests that needs to be covered are in large supply, and this game guide handles it well. It's easy to navigate, and works with how the player would play the game. The book starts with how to create a good starting character. and explains what everything means, such as the abilities of each race included in the game and the special skills you may wish to focus on (this information to a first time player is pretty invaluable; when I first played the game I didn't have a clue what I was doing and just selected the options that sounded the best/strongest). The leveling system in the game itself isn't that brilliant, but this guide explains it thoroughly and well enough that I now know how to best go about creating a specific type of character i.e. stealthy assassin/thief, skilled archer, intelligent mage etc. This information is not only useful first time round, however, as I still refer to it occasionally when I wish to create a new character.

The quests of the game are presented in this guide by a neat, categorical method; first the main quest, then each guild and then the various side quests. The guides are potential spoilers if you have not completed it, so make sure to use the nifty content/index to make sure you don't accidentally flick to a page containing something you wanted kept secret until you found out through game play! However, the walkthroughs for each quest are easy to understand and also fun to read. I sometimes flick through the book merely to remember a certain quest I did a while back.

Also covered in this book is each and every item available to you; weapons, alchemical ingredients, spells etc. This guide is very handy to just see what is available in the game world and the effects/damage output etc. of each item. This is interesting as well as informative to read. Also, the pictures inside are colour, which is very nice to see. The book itself is a nice design which feels almost like it has come from the fantasy game world itself.

Although there is a lot of information, like any game guide you could merely play the game through and enjoy it without reading about it, and the guide is a little pricey; I had to pay about £17 for mine, which was almost as much as the game itself (£20). It's worth buying only if you like reading up on every aspect of the game, and enjoy a compliment to the game.