Jade Empire reviews

This is a very decent game. If it had come out before KotOR it would probably have been much better received. As it is, it feels a bit more-of-the-same-ish in many respects.

The similarities to KotOR are extensive: it has a similar look – environments are much lusher, but characters look very KotOR-ish; dialogue works very much like KotOR; and it's linear in similar ways to KotOR is (though a bit less versatile: you can't do quests in any order to the same extent as in KotOR). It's even similar in having a Big Plot Twist, though it works somewhat differently.

The differences from KotOR lie mainly in combat. It's an action game – no rolling d20s here – and feels decidedly Prince-of-Persia-Sands-of-Time-ish: you leap over your opponents, side-roll to dodge attacks or area-effect-attacks, time your attacks to interrupt theirs, and so on. It's not too difficult once you get used to it, and the different “styles” – hand-to-hand, weapon styles, magic, and changing into demon forms – makes combat lively.

It's definitely a very good-looking game, better looking than KotOR, even if not quite up to 2007 standards. However, it doesn't sustain interest as well as it might: there's no exploration for the sake of exploration; by the time you get to the Imperial City, you can really feel the railroads hemming you in on either side.

Finally, in the Australia/NZ edition the bonus fighting style in the Special Edition doesn't work: installation is impossible because of a Securom error. See http://jade.bioware.com/…ewtopic.html?… for details.

This may be an “RPG” by Bioware but don't compare it to KOTOR. It is an Xbox game after all so it's what you would expect… simplistic. Based on my impressions of a few hours of playing, it's not much of an RPG at all, really. It's a very linear, 3rd person action game with some RPG elements. You do get experience points and level up, but aside from that it's lacking in many of the elements that I would expect to see in an RPG. There are very little options to customise your character, and none at all to customise their appearance, like wearing armour. There is none. There are stores but all they sell (so far) are gems that boost your abilities, exercises that boost your abilities, and plot items. If you enjoy browsing a merchant's wares for weapons and armour and magic items and whatnot you can forget it. You can't even view your inventory because all you carry are plot items.

Weapons are very limited too. Early on you're given the option of a longsword or a staff and that's it for, I presume, much of the game.

There are many conversations and you have dialog options but where that's normally a good thing it's a bit of a bore in this game.

The combat's done quite well but I found it got very repetitive. Voice acting is good, and the graphics are nice. Plus it played sweet which is always nice in this day of system hogs. But I can't see why this game earned such high praise in all the reviews I read, polished though it is.

A great classic

So, Jade Empire is a pretty rad game. I won't tell you the story, if you wanted that you could go to Wikipedia. What I will tell you is that it plays nicely on most computers because it's a little bit old. But, it still polishes up pretty nicely with all the graphics settings set to max. The story is fairly good and while the gameplay can become a little button-mashy, if you want to become a more strategic player, change the difficulty and you will have to stop with the button-mashing and get to proper work. Although it has some generic RPG elements such as Good vs. Evil choices, it presents them in a slightly different way. E.g. Good vs. Evil becomes “The way of the Open Palm” vs. “The way of the Closed Fist.” This makes it more interesting as the game has a little more moral ambiguity. Also, as far as addictive RPGs go, this is up there. I didn't want to stop. If you are concerned about replayability, don't be. There a few different characters to choose from and of course both paths(good or evil.) There is also a “Jade Master” mode unlocked at the end of your first run-through which allows you to play through the game again, but with your original stats intact. Overall, Jade Empire is a very well done port from XBOX and will have you playing for roughly 20–30 hours. And if you don't want that giant back tattoo by the end, your money back!