Jade Empire

"A new age for the RPG?"

Jade Empire
Xbox

Bioware, by most veteran RPG fans, one of the best developers of Role Playing Games in the world, right up there with Square soft, Bethesda, Obsidian etc. Indeed, they won the illustrious Game of the Year award in 2003 for Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR). Bioware so confident in their next launch, Jade Empire, that they were willing to allow Lucasarts (boo!) to give competitive developer Obsidian the rights to make the game. So a finical blunder on behalf of the Bioware team, or a competitive masterstroke?

Another Empire
Fight from the get-go you will see how Jade Empire takes heavy inspiration from KOTOR. From the third person trailing camera to the alignment of the conversation selection, in fact, by looking at the 'Free Quest' game play alone you would be close on by thinking this is just KOTOR with Star Wars removed, well.. if it ain't broke; don't fix it.

What has noticeably changed from the KOTOR though is the level of detail. This is far away from the constantly recycled textures and now everything from characters faces to the ground you run on has a very real feel. It is nice to see characters that actually have fingers and not a pixalated block with darkened lines much akin to what you'd expect to find on the PSX then Xbox.

However, the Empire although quite expansive is hardly seen, there are many fascinating places remarked upon, but we are limited to just a few certain areas, of two small towns and one city, which by the end of the game is a little disappointing as a few more locations also could have done much to the below average playtime the game has to offer from start to end.

Kick, punch it's all in the mind
The level of graphical quality doesn't do a dive on the fighting scenes either. An integral part of Jade Empires gameplay will consist of beating random baddies to a bloody pulp. All of the fighting is in real time and moves fluidly. However, the controls are very simple and not in a good way. The A button handles your regular attack which can be used three times in a row, X governs your power attack which takes a second to charge, but doing more damage, and the area attack, well I'll let you guess what that does. The battle system is split into separate styles, consisting of your basic hand to hand styles, weapon styles (either a sword or staff), magic styles varying in elements such as fire, wind and stone, and transformation styles - allowing you to assume the form of several enemies you've battled and defeated. The combat system is however, very repetitive and often comes down to just pressing A until an enemy falls. This lets the game down slightly as a Prince of Persia style combo system would have opened up a lot of possibilities to approach combat.

Quest for the best
Also taking a hand from KOTOR is Jade Empires quests, these help slow down the story and give you time to look around your surroundings, but all seem to end up going head to point a, then point b, decide whether you will do it the good or evil way then head back to point a again. While this repetitively is somewhat annoying, there are not too many non-storyline quests in anyway.

In the main and side quests you will get the opportunity of doing things either the morale way (the way of the open palm) or the aggressive way (the way of the closed fist) however, the game does a good job not characterising the Closed Fist as a way of 'evil' but justifies it as a way of help people help themselves, a viewpoint that you may end up agreeing with. Sadly it doesn't keep this up and around a third of the way through the game the Closed Fist becomes the either evil or more occasionally the just plain stupid choice in the game. As the game heads to a close your alignment determines events and eventually which ending you get.

People, all those People!!
The folks that inhabit the Jade Empire are a diverse lot, both in looks and personality. These are critical aspects for a Role Playing Game as all to often we see recycled faces and voices to the point where it just gets annoying. All the PCs companions are unique and memorable and each having an interesting back-story. The other characters are also well handled and add a very immersive side to the playability.

Overall, Jade Empire is certainly a much for RPG fans, especially those who enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic, however like any RPG, it is not for everyone.

+ Detailed environments
+ Well acted characters
+ Engaging storyline with multiple interesting endings

- Too little civilised locations
- Combat system is poor and repetitive
- Lack of engaging side-quests

Overall 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/05/06