Jade Empire has been in development for two years and is developed by Bioware, who are most famous for being the brains behind Knights of the Old Republic. We should point out from the outset that Jade Empire is a completely different game to KOTOR though. Jade Empire is set in an ancient, mysterious world inspired by mythical China, a far cry from the Star Wars universe.
Jade Empire is best described as an action RPG, where the player takes on the role of a great master of the martial arts. It is up to the player to decide if they want to restore the land to it's former glory, or to completely crush it. One of the best features of Jade Empire is that there is no set storyline. It is up to the player to decide if they are good or bad or anything in between. The freedom of choice is just powerful and never makes the game feel linear. Whichever way you choose though, the storyline is incredible and very epic.
Jade Empire features real-time combat with twenty fighting styles for the player to choose. These fighting styles are a blend of martial arts, weapons and magic. As the story progresses more fighting styles become available. From the main title screen players are able to create their own character or choose one that the game has available. Each character has a unique appearance, voice and a different combination of fighting styles.
Now that's ugly!
Players start in the village and this is where they recieve their first weapon, which can either be a sword or a staff. The village is being attacked with thieves, and as an introduction to the game the objective is to defeat these thieves. After this, the story is basically all player controlled. Generally I find a lot of RPG's to be pretty tedious affairs for the first hour, as they attempt to teach the controls of the game, but the first hour of Jade Empire is a much more interesting experience.
The combat is just brilliant and flows really well. Players can block, attack and power attack. A focus mode is also available which slows time down to give your champion an advantage. Jade Empire also utilises "Chi." "Chi" can be used to heal the player or even to deal a chi attack, and how you use your chi is very important. Jade Empire also uses the rock, paper, scissors method that has become so popular in recent RPG's. Power attacks break blocks, blocks stop attacks and attacks interrupt power attacks. The beauty of Jade Empire is that the combat system is very simple to get into, but it is one of the deepest we've ever experienced. Adding to this are certain creatures which are immune to certain style types. There are many more "rules" in Jade Empire but you should see those for yourself. These help to create a very balanced combat system that is heavy on strategy.
Players level up by gaining XP points. By levelling up skills can be increased, however increasing your skills too much could be detrimental as too much power can be bad. Jade Empire encourages the idea of balance, and this is something that must be kept in the back of the player's mind during the entire game. To explain all the types of attacks, items and magic styles would be spoiling the game as half of the fun is discovering the vast variety of the game.
Mini games are featured in the game and serve as a novel distraction. After these have been unlocked they can be replayed at any stage from the main menu. While they aren't exactly game changing experiences, they are a novel inclusion that can be quite fun for a quick fix.
The game play of Jade Empire is quite simply its greatest asset. Hours into the game we were discovering things that we didn't know existed, and that is what makes a great game. We cannot stress enough how great the combat systemcis, it never feels unfair and is extremely intuitive - it's the best combat system we've ever seen on an RPG.
One of the main characters.
The graphics are absolutely breathtaking. Look at the screenshots we've provided it is clear how detailed this game is. Bioware have really done a great job making the game look like ancient China - the environment is so beautifully detailed that we were awe-struck more times than once. Players will travel across mythical China, ranging from harsh mountains to Imperial City, and it all looks brilliant. The character modelling is very high-detailed and at times looks life-life.
With all this detail we expected the loading times would be quite significant, however, generally they remain under five seconds - which is nice.
The sound is very well suited to the game and is very immersive. It very rarely takes over, but is always in the background, helping to create a great atmosphere. There is no support for custom soundtracks. Fair enough, as we doubt that most people want to be AC/DC while they are immersed in Ancient China (Pfft, speak for yourself. - Ed.). However, we're a firm believer that it is always good to give the player a choice, and Jade Empire fails to do so with the music selection, which is forgivable considering the player has many choices throughout the actual game.
Playing through Jade Empire will take at least twenty hours of devotion, however, because their are multiple story paths the game can be played through twice or even three times, with a different ending each go. However, if players get bored there are always the mini-games to emerge yourself in. There is no Xbox Live support, we would have liked to have seen some downloadable costumes, characters or fighting styles released in the future, but unfortunately that won't be happening.
Yes, the game really does look this good.
Jade Empire really is an amazing action RPG. After a few disappointments with recent RPG's we're glad that Jade Empire has not only lived up to the hype, but surpassed it. Do yourself a favour, buy this game and become involved with the incredible storyline and the sensational combat system, there will be no regrets.
A standard edition and a limited edition of Jade Empire will be available when it is released on May 18th, 2005. The limited edition version will feature a second disc containing a behind the scenes ‘making of’ feature, a ‘RPG Elements in Jade Empire’ video feature, a bonus character and a bonus fighting style. In addition, Microsoft has also decided to add in two playable demos for Forza Motorsport and Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf.
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