Note: This review is for the Special Edition of the game released for PC and Xbox 360.
Jade Empire is the type of game you can start playing on a Sunday morning and continue to play till it gets over, no matter the time it takes to complete. It took me 40 hours to complete the game (that's how big it is).
Anyways the games starts with a character selection (as do all the RPGs). You can choose the character gender, character class, but you cannot customize the character in detail.
To summarize the story: You are the last of the Spirit Monks, an order dedicated to the Water Dragon, a spirit who guides the dead to the heaven or hell. The Emperor killed the Water Dragon and used its spirit to become powerful and end the drought that affected the Empire 20 years ago. Your Master, who is revealed to be the Emperor's brother, saved you as an infant, fled away and trained you. He gets kidnapped and you have to rescue him. The dead don't go back to being dead and instead become ghosts going mad. Your objective is to rescue your Master, help the spirit of Water Dragon and end the destruction caused by the ghosts.
Since it is an RPG, you can choose to be the good or the bad guy. Similar to KOTOR, you have the Open Palm (similar to the Light Side of the Force) and the Closed Fist (the Dark Side) morality system, which is pretty black and white with very few gray shades. Be good and honorable and you get Open Palm points; be a jerk and you get Closed fist points.
The story is good and the cast of supporting characters are interesting as well as annoying, but not boring (Kang, Zu, Black Whirlwind are my favorite supporting characters). However the story after Act 5 becomes too cliché, melodramatic and the twist in the tale (your master is the bad guy and most of your supporting characters are related to each other in some way) felt unnecessary. Also the romance system feels unnecessary and I avoided that. However the side missions is where the game shines. There is much variety to them and greatly expand the universe of the game.
The fighting game play is pretty varied. You can choose from various martial arts styles, weapons and magic styles and even transform into an animal demon or ghost. Your three attributes are Health, Chi and Focus which can be leveled up. Health is self explanatory, while Chi is used for magic spells, healing yourself and dealing more damage with weapons and martial styles; Focus is for using weapons and entering slow motion where you can deal more damage and become faster. Your followers have various skills (you can only choose one follower at a time) and you can command them to fight alongside you or enter support mode, where they won't fight but your attributes will be recharged over time or you will deal more damage with various styles.
The game boasts of a real time fighting system, but that is simply not the case. It is simply an evolution of the turn based combat from KOTOR. During the fights, your character doesn't do what you want him/her to do or does it seconds later, after your previous moves have been completed. The fighting is pretty good though and you will love it. The abundance of various styles is overwhelming at first, but soon you will pick your favorites and master them. The enemies are varied, ranging from bandits, assassins, royal guards, animal demons, goblins, spirits, ghosts, cannibals and even stone men.
If I really had to nitpick, there are no cheat codes for the game and that this is not a complete open world game - There are only two areas to explore - a small town and a big city (which is actually pretty small). You cannot visit certain areas you have finished and the last part of the game blocks you from exploring. Compared to KOTOR, this is a disappointment...
I highly recommend installing the Jade Empire in Style mod when playing a new game. In addition to adding various new styles and armor sets, it also fixes the fighting and the style points system and makes game play more fun. I wouldn't go back to the "vanilla" version of the game after playing this mod.
So to summarize the game:
The Good-
Soundtrack, graphics, fighting game play (especially after the Jade Empire in Style mod), characters and side missions.
The Bad-
The cut-scenes (badly rendered and you cannot skip them). The Boss fights (the Emperor, your Master and Death's Hand are easily defeated, whereas the Lotus assassins and animal demons and spirits are much tougher. The only boss fight I enjoyed was Raging Ox and Kai the Serpent). Black and white morality system. Story goes for a toss in the last few hours.
Jade Empire is the type of game you can start playing on a Sunday morning and continue to play till it gets over, no matter the time it takes to complete. It took me 40 hours to complete the game (that's how big it is).
Anyways the games starts with a character selection (as do all the RPGs). You can choose the character gender, character class, but you cannot customize the character in detail.
To summarize the story: You are the last of the Spirit Monks, an order dedicated to the Water Dragon, a spirit who guides the dead to the heaven or hell. The Emperor killed the Water Dragon and used its spirit to become powerful and end the drought that affected the Empire 20 years ago. Your Master, who is revealed to be the Emperor's brother, saved you as an infant, fled away and trained you. He gets kidnapped and you have to rescue him. The dead don't go back to being dead and instead become ghosts going mad. Your objective is to rescue your Master, help the spirit of Water Dragon and end the destruction caused by the ghosts.
Since it is an RPG, you can choose to be the good or the bad guy. Similar to KOTOR, you have the Open Palm (similar to the Light Side of the Force) and the Closed Fist (the Dark Side) morality system, which is pretty black and white with very few gray shades. Be good and honorable and you get Open Palm points; be a jerk and you get Closed fist points.
The story is good and the cast of supporting characters are interesting as well as annoying, but not boring (Kang, Zu, Black Whirlwind are my favorite supporting characters). However the story after Act 5 becomes too cliché, melodramatic and the twist in the tale (your master is the bad guy and most of your supporting characters are related to each other in some way) felt unnecessary. Also the romance system feels unnecessary and I avoided that. However the side missions is where the game shines. There is much variety to them and greatly expand the universe of the game.
The fighting game play is pretty varied. You can choose from various martial arts styles, weapons and magic styles and even transform into an animal demon or ghost. Your three attributes are Health, Chi and Focus which can be leveled up. Health is self explanatory, while Chi is used for magic spells, healing yourself and dealing more damage with weapons and martial styles; Focus is for using weapons and entering slow motion where you can deal more damage and become faster. Your followers have various skills (you can only choose one follower at a time) and you can command them to fight alongside you or enter support mode, where they won't fight but your attributes will be recharged over time or you will deal more damage with various styles.
The game boasts of a real time fighting system, but that is simply not the case. It is simply an evolution of the turn based combat from KOTOR. During the fights, your character doesn't do what you want him/her to do or does it seconds later, after your previous moves have been completed. The fighting is pretty good though and you will love it. The abundance of various styles is overwhelming at first, but soon you will pick your favorites and master them. The enemies are varied, ranging from bandits, assassins, royal guards, animal demons, goblins, spirits, ghosts, cannibals and even stone men.
If I really had to nitpick, there are no cheat codes for the game and that this is not a complete open world game - There are only two areas to explore - a small town and a big city (which is actually pretty small). You cannot visit certain areas you have finished and the last part of the game blocks you from exploring. Compared to KOTOR, this is a disappointment...
I highly recommend installing the Jade Empire in Style mod when playing a new game. In addition to adding various new styles and armor sets, it also fixes the fighting and the style points system and makes game play more fun. I wouldn't go back to the "vanilla" version of the game after playing this mod.
So to summarize the game:
The Good-
Soundtrack, graphics, fighting game play (especially after the Jade Empire in Style mod), characters and side missions.
The Bad-
The cut-scenes (badly rendered and you cannot skip them). The Boss fights (the Emperor, your Master and Death's Hand are easily defeated, whereas the Lotus assassins and animal demons and spirits are much tougher. The only boss fight I enjoyed was Raging Ox and Kai the Serpent). Black and white morality system. Story goes for a toss in the last few hours.