The Skyrim Hardcover is the first strategy guide I’ve purchased since this one, Age of Empires, in 1997. That was the first RTS I really tried to sink my teeth in to, and I wanted a better grasp of what I was doing wrong. I had played other RTS games before that (predominately Warcraft II), but I never really tried to hone my skills till AoE.
I’m not exactly sure what to expect from this book because I’ve always had the mindset that A) Much of the content (hard numbers anyway) is obsolete by the time the game releases, or at least by its first patch, and B) Whatever I want to know can be dredged up on the internet.
In this case I was enamored by how cool the hardcover looks, so I jumped on it. I don’t know exactly what will be inside, besides a bunch of walk-throughs (I’ll probably try to avoid as much as possible on my first run through) for quests. But, what I’d like to see (assuming this stuff is in game), is a list of potions, recipes, ingredients and the source of these ingredients. I’m all about discovery, but when it comes to trade skills I don’t always have much patience, and I want it all spelled out for me. I’m more than happy to go questing for that super rare ingredient that only comes from the horn of a Pegasus or something, but I don’t want to spend four hours blindly scouring the countryside for some flowers that only grow in one particular type of cave on the other side of the world.
I also love maps. Like most folks I’ll be holding off from relying too heavily on the book on my first play-through, but once that’s out of the way, and I feel I’ve sufficiently explored everything to my satisfaction, I look forward to cracking this baby open and comparing what I’ve found on my own with the details and maps in the book, then running off and exploring what I’ve missed.
Armor and weapon stats are nice, but not mandatory for me. Magic spells, stats and descriptions are important though. I never feel as though some big secret has been spoiled if I have access to this stuff up front, I just think of them like Civ skill trees or something – so I’ll probably be reading up on whatever the book has to say about these right from the get go.
In addition to all this I find it easier to read hefty amounts of lore and back story in book form rather than on my monitor. So, while I never spent much time reading books in Oblivion, I’ll be more than happy to peruse this same text if it just happens to be included, or at least summarized in the guide.
Finally, artwork. I hope there’s some cool concept art and the like.
I’m eager to find out.
