As mentioned above, Jade Empire will be set in mythical, fictitious China, a place that may have existed if all the myths and legends were true. As you can expect this world is filled with evil spirits, floating castles, powerful magic and other conjured fantasy substance you would find in your everyday mystical world. During your journey in Jade Empire, you will be sent across this ancient world from the harsh mountains of the Land of Howling Spirits, to the lush gardens of the Imperial City. In your adventures you will encounter powerful human and supernatural forces, learn exotic martial arts and magic and prove yourself as the greatest martial arts master in the land.
Nice big areas to explore.
In Jade Empire, you will assume the role of an in-training martial artist, someone who has great potential in the arts of war. You can choose a pre-generated character to jump straight into the action, with or like most role-playing games you can customize a character as you see fit. You will be able to customize your character’s visual appearance, primary/secondary attributes and fighting styles. This feature allows the player to focus on strength, speed or magic or a mixture of all three. As your character progresses, players will be able to focus on a particular fighting style and become masters in that martial domain. Similar to the upcoming role-playing game Fable, players in Jade Empire, can choose to act for good or evil and their decisions have consequences that precede them throughout the land.
Combat in Jade Empire is fast paced martial arts action characterized by famous fighting styles such as the “Mantis” and “Centipede.” There is a huge selection of fighting styles available which match the tempo and fury found in your average Honk Kong martial arts movie. Both armed and unarmed combat will be included and contain both strengths and weaknesses. The gameplay really does change depending on what martial art discipline you are using. For example the “Twin Sabre” discipline is a fast weapon style with good reach which makes it an ideal choice when fighting lots of enemies, while “Leaping Tiger” is a fast acrobatic fighting style with lots of kicks and jumps that’s suited for taking on a larger foe. If close combat isn’t your style, forms of magic are also incorporated into the game which are powered by the essence of chi. Fire is just one such magical element included in Jade Empire, and allows you to launch long ranged fireballs which can set your enemies alight. Another interesting feature in Jade Empire is the ability to transform into supernatural monsters. By defeating certain enemies, you will receive the gift to transform into them, and create some havoc.
Dialogue in the game is entirely voiced over and the characters in the game have realistic facial expressions to make the interactions more immersive. The character dialogue is done by a branching system, similar to the one found in Star Wars: KO.T.O.R. This allows the freedom of the player to choose an appropriate response when being spoken too.
Jade Empire’s environment looks both realistic and stunning. BioWare have done a great job so far in creating a believable world filled with myths and legends. Character models incorporate impressive detail and remarkable work on both lighting and shadow detail can be seen in Jade Empire’s landscape. It was surprising to see there wasn’t a significant drop in framerate in Jade Empire’s hectic combat sequences, even when involving several enemies.
It looks just like China Town.
As with any role-playing game, Jade Empire is filled with interactive, fascinating characters. Another intriguing idea featured, is the ability for some of these characters to join the player’s side. They will act as loyal agents and can be sent on special mission across the game world to act on the behalf of the hero.
BioWare might be able to expand their renown as the developing masters of role-playing games with Jade Empire. With its wonderfully filled fantasy world, real-time engaging combat and impressive scope of character customisation, Jade Empire is going to be one title to definitely keep an eye on.
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