Why is it so difficult to buy an official strategy/walkthrough guide that can be purchased? every source requires you to create an account! Why can't I just pay with a debit card and be done with it? I got the GOG pc version of the game.

My rely is not a direct answer to your question, which sounds more like a complaint than a question. However, if your goal is seriously enjoy this game (rather than just talking about it), you may find my rely more helpful to you than a direct answer.


There are realistically 100s of different ways to play the game, every one of which works just fine. Nobody genuinely needs a printed guide for playing this game; from this point of view, any official strategy is a waste of time. Compared to using a guide prior to playing the game, you'd be better off not using any guide - official or not.

Of course, the official guide/manual/strategy is not useless. It provides certain background information (namely, lore) unobtainable in the game or otherwise. However, from the point of view of gameplay, none of such information matters. Also, pretty much all such information has been made freely available online for everyone to read anytime anywhere.

For an open-world game with lots of intertwined quests, in my opinion, the most satisfying gameplay experience can only be obtained by exploring the game in your own personal, unique way. It would be most unwise to read or follow other people' strategy before having completed the entire game at least once or twice. Think about this: would you like to be told of the final culprit prior to reading a detective story?

Happy gaming!

Amen fellow gamer. Finally a sensible answer instead of the frequent wise donkey reply!

also remember since the internet, strategy guides in physical form really have been replaced by game websites and forums, which will give you much better and updated info on the game than any strategy guide will. I remember the old days where strategy guides by big companies were all over the place and popular, before the internet, and often very wrong on much info. They really were the only place to get such info so people bought them. These days, the internet search and such are free so you can look over much more detailed and better info on games.