Jade Empire – XB – Review

When it was
announced last year that BioWare was not going to be developing the sequel to
their game of the year smash hit Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, more
than a few gamers took some worried notice. Fortunately, KOTOR II turned out to
be a great game that more than did justice to its predecessor. When it was
revealed that BioWare was instead going to work on an ancient China themed
action-RPG, many more gamers began to worry whether or not the game would be up
to snuff and expectations were running quite high. However, Jade Empire is
finally here and the results are nothing short of astounding. The game takes a
simple to learn yet difficult to master combat system and couples it with an
incredible sense of atmosphere and a gripping storyline thrown into a deep and
complex universe. Jade Empire is a fantastic game that not only improves upon
the high bar that BioWare set with the first Knights of the Old Republic, but
also sets a new standard for which all other console RPGs will be judged for
years to come.

Jade Empire
starts you out by having you choose your character from a group of different
archetypes. You can select between quick and nimble characters or the slow and
powerful ones, with a few different options in between, like characters with a
primary focus on magic and so on. Another great touch is the random name
generator. Similar to the one used in KOTOR (which randomly created Star Wars
themed names for your character), Jade Empire’s name generator gives your
character a personalized name with an Eastern flair to it. After selecting your
character’s type and name, you can customize your character’s initial fighting
styles. You select two to begin with, though you can gain more as you progress
through the game. In an effort to add an extra level of realism, the folks at
BioWare have used actual existing fighting styles from China and imported them
into the action.

Similar to
Knights of the Old Republic, your character’s actions and interactions with
people will affect their ethics rating. If you are mean to people and refuse to
help them, then this will reflect in the type of person that you are and people
will react to you in kind and visa versa.

The combat
system is fully real-time, which will no doubt appeal to gamers who didn’t care
for the turn-based combat in Knights of the Old Republic. Each of your fighting
styles has a light and fast attack and a slower more powerful attack that is
capable of breaking an enemy’s block. You can also block and dodge your
opponent’s attacks, getting the drop on him and gaining the upper hand. Aside
from your two initial combat styles, you can also use a magic attack which
involves elemental attacks like flinging fireballs across the screen, or you can
use a weapon, like a sword, to dispatch your enemies. You also have access to
the Focus ability, which slows down your enemies during combat at the cost of
some of your Focus bar.

Aside from
standard one on one fighting, you can take out a group of surrounding enemies by
using the area attack and stunning them so you can refocus your plan of attack.
You can also perform a “harmonic combo”, which is an awesome looking combo that
can completely obliterate almost any enemy in one hit of exploding limbs and
torsos.

Aside from the
game’s combat and RPG elements, there are also quite a few mini-games that you
can play on the side. Some of them have bearings to the game’s storyline, like
the top-down arcade shooter mini-game where you try to save your village from
bomber planes. Once you unlock these games in the main quest, you can access
them from the game’s start up menu and play them whenever you want.

The graphics in
Jade Empire are fantastic. The character models are extremely realistic, with
tons of great details and facial expressions bringing them to life. The entire
world of Jade Empire looks incredible and fully realized, with the attention to
detail evident in everything. The whole world has an unreal feeling to it; while
it does feature some realistic elements and classic Chinese architecture, there
are also fantastical things like planes and mythical beasts giving the game a
sense of mystery and myth. The magical and lighting effects also look excellent,
as the game makes the best of the Xbox hardware in this aspect. The only
possible gripe with the game’s graphical presentation is the camera, which get a
little cumbersome at points.

The sound in
Jade Empire is also great. The musical score accents the game’s mood very
nicely, sticking with the ancient Chinese theme very nicely. The game also has a
ton of recorded dialogue, which is extremely well acted. The sound effects are
also quite clear and don’t sound compressed at all.

Jade Empire is
a fantastic RPG game that not only lives up to its hype, but also far surpasses
it by featuring some incredible gameplay, an engrossing storyline, and a huge
amount of polish. Jade Empire will stand as the best Xbox RPG, and quite
possibly the best RPG to hit this generation of consoles. Play it now.

Review Scoring Details for Jade Empire

Gameplay: 9.8
Jade Empire
offers up an engaging mix of action-packed combat and the polished brand of
compelling RPG elements that we’ve come to expect from the team at BioWare.  The
combat system is extremely deep and layered, but is very easy to learn from the
beginning of the game. Plus, the great story and fun mini-games will keep gamers
playing this game over and over again even after they’ve mastered it.

Graphics: 9.5
Between the highly detailed character models, gorgeous special effects and fully
realized environments, Jade Empire has a lot going for it in the graphics
department. The only small qualm to be had is with the occasionally goofy
camera.

Sound: 9.8
Jade Empire has
some truly captivating sound elements, from the great mood-setting soundtrack to
the excellent voice acting and tons of recorded dialogue.

Difficulty:  Medium

Concept: 9.9
Jade Empire has a
deep and engaging story that twists and turns depending on how you play the
game, giving it tons of replay value.  Plus, the mini-games are great and add a
whole new element.

Overall: 9.8
Jade
Empire is a real treat, combining ancient Chinese mythology with excellent
gameplay and a compelling story.  This game will stand the test of time as one
of the premier RPG games for many years. Even if you don’t own an Xbox, you owe
it to yourself to play this game.