Jade Empire

THE GOOD:
Excellent graphics. Very deep and interesting storyline. Nice variety of playable characters. High replay value.

THE BAD:
Subpar voice acting. Extremely long load times. Slightly quirky controls. Surprisingly short.

SUMMARY:
The latest Xbox epic developed by Bioware Corp., Jade Empire is an RPG set in it's fictional namesake, sometime in the Ancient Far East. You choose one of up to 7 characters and set out to explore a series of events involving your supposed "master" and the assassins who have taken him captive, ultimately revealing a larger plot in the process and making decisions that will shape your destiny.

The graphics are extremely well-done. A lot of attention to detail is evident in environments and characters, and cutscenes are well-animated. The loading screens feature excellent art, good because you'll see them a lot. Sounds are only so-so overall, the music and sound FX are very good, but the voice acting doesn't...

THE GOOD:
The dialogue engine is brilliantly implemented.

The levels are well designed.

The storyline is great, everything is explained and makes sense without re-reading like in some RPGs.

THE BAD:
No character creation screen. After even the basic customisation of Star Wars:KOTOR I was really let down that you could only pick set characters.

The game in general is far to short.

SUMMARY:
The world of Jade empire is based heavily on Ancient Chinese lore. The levels fit well with the mood of the game, either colourful and interesting or bleak and hardened.

The "Open Palm - Closed Fist" system is interesting, it is similar to most RPGs that give you the choice to be a goody or a baddy. To be of the open palm you must be respectful of the natural order in the gameing enviroment and help those in need. Those that attempt to advance and believe survival is the only way for the strongest will follow the way of the Closed...

THE GOOD:
The battle system is a joy to partake in, the story has a completly unseen humongous twist, quite frankly this game blew me away.

THE BAD:
There isn't very much to complain about, the camera can get awkward rarely and it could have been a bit longer but since this game has such an awesome replay value being a little short really isnt a big deal

SUMMARY:
To those of you who didnt know these are the same people who did 2003's game of the year Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, now personally I didnt like that game but this game completely blew me away. The engrossing story, the fluidness of battle, I loved it. Like KOTOR this game has the same concept of choosing to be good or evil like in KOTOR but this time they call it "The way of the Open Palm (good) and the Way of the Closed Fist (bad)." Now when you see them you immediately think that all people who follow the way of the closed fist are evil, but that's not always the case....

THE GOOD:
- Tons of weapons
- great combat system
- your chooses effect the story
- beautiful enviorments
- tons of fighting styles
- awsome graphics

THE BAD:
- not enough coustomization
- to textt heavy

SUMMARY:
This is the best rpg on the xbox hands down! This does have it's down falllls (only the fact that your players aren't completely coustomizable). The best parst of the entier game is the tons of fighting and the path that you choose(evil or good) effects gameplay. another
thing that is great about this game is the the fighting system is great and the enviorments are beautiful. Another thing that is bad about this is that it's to text heavy. The fighting styles are magic, martial arts, and weapons. This is one of the few rpgs that is better than Fable. Okay Jade Empire isn't perfect but it's close!

THE GOOD:
-Lovely crisp graphics
-Involving storyline
-Good choice of combat styles
-Weapons ranging from dual-wieled sabers to staves
-Excellent voice acting
-Good Musical Score
-Involving subquests

THE BAD:
-Combat somewhat lacking
-Focus mode means you ignore the nice environments
-No inventory system pretty much rules out merchants
-Framerate a little stiff sometimes
-No proper character creation

SUMMARY:
I really liked Jade Empire. I dont think its OMG Amazing!!!!1 But i think it is a really good game. The graphics are lovely, the sound is good and the voice acting is very pleasing. Its just a shame that the game focuses so much on combat, and the combat system is lacking somewhat. However it is really good fun even if it is usually the same routine.

4.7/5

THE GOOD:
Many fun side quests and a great cast of characters.The game didnt drag on or finish too quickly like some other RPGs,also there was a great choice of weaponry and a well done storyline.

THE BAD:
I thought some of the quests took a little too long,and some were just boring.Mostly the side quests were the only annoyance in this game,so thhere isn't really much to complain about .

SUMMARY:
I was skeptical when I bought this game,it being a new Next Genereation RPG,but I was suprised.

I found myself actually liking the characters and wanting to play the game again.I would reccommend this game to any RPG fan,or even just someone who has heared anything about this game,because I guarantee that they will be pleasantly suprised with the result.



Pick up this game!

THE GOOD:
There are a lot of quests and the character development aspect of the game keeps your interest.

THE BAD:
Too much dialog and too much reading. The inability to regenerate health or chi over time makes it hard to get through fight scenes.

SUMMARY:
This game is packed with quests and you also have party members that can adventure with you.
The game really reminds me of Fable because of the Open Palm and Closed Fist states. You can even get a halo for your head!
I did find myself dozing off a lot because of the long winded conversations that goes on.
Aiming is pretty odd too. Seems like I hit more air than I do enemies.
The Map system is very useful and the "character console" reminds me of Sudeki. There are many different types of people you can be when you start off. Either fast, strong, balanced or magic. This helps with re-playability I believe.

I would recommend renting before you buy it.

THE GOOD:
Story
Combat
Characters
Dialogue
Graphics

THE BAD:
Sometimes combat isn't the greatest thing but all the other stuff overshadows that easily.

SUMMARY:
Its been awhile. BioWare first released their mega-hit KOTOR and it swept us off our feet. Now they are back and from the ground up comes Jade Empire. So how did they do? KOTOR swept me off my feet. Jade Empire felt like I got tackeled from behind by a linebacker from the Patriots and thrown into a table and then the whole team decided to dog pile me! Oh yes....its that damn good. But I guess one of the reasons I was so blown away by this game was that I didn't know a lot on it. I knew some stuff but I never looked into it 100% like I did with KOTOR or Halo 2. Guess that was the surprise to it, eh?

From Jade Empire, you can smell the oder of KOTOR. The way the game is run is basically the same thing. Choices. You have Open Palm and Closed Fist (Good and Bad)...

THE GOOD:
Compelling story
intuitive, controls
fun combat system
open ended rpg

THE BAD:
Limited combo system
in combat walking is slow
rare camera issues

SUMMARY:
Jade Empire is everything i have come to expect from Bioware. An open ended RPG with an epic story line and high replay value. This game is even better than the acclaimed KOTOR but still does not have the special something of BG:SOA. From the moment i picked up the control i was and still am engrossed. From the time i first started to where i stopped to make dinner i never once looked at a clock, which was about five hours.
What keeps this game from being gaming nirvana is the combo system is small but, in fairness works well and combat may seem simple but can get complex. Also while barely worth mentioning our the occasional odd camera angles in combat and when combat starts your character loves to walk as though nothing is going on. To the point where...