Jade Empire: Special Edition Exclusive Hands-On - Gameplay, Setting, and Combat

BioWare's strong tradition of developing PC role-playing games made it a bit disappointing that the company's 2005 action RPG Jade Empire debuted only on the Xbox. However, that changes later this month when Jade Empire: Special Edition ships for the PC. As its name suggests, this is a bigger version of the Xbox game, and it is enhanced for the PC in a number of ways.

Jade Empire takes place in an unusual setting for those used to Tolkien-inspired fantasy worlds that are full of elves and orcs. Rather than rely on those conventions, BioWare looked to the Far East, and as a result, Jade Empire takes place in a world inspired by Chinese mythology. Jade Empire will also surprise you in another way if you're familiar with BioWare's previous PC RPGs, such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or Neverwinter Nights. That's because Jade Empire is as much as an action game as a role-playing game, and the game features an emphasis on real-time martial arts battles.

The first thing that you'll do in the game is create a character. Character creation isn't as wide open as it is in most RPGs. You select a premade character, and you can't create your own custom character. There are seven premade characters to choose from, including Lu the Prodigy, the Radiant Jen Zi, and the Scholar Ling. You can rename your character or randomly generate a new name. Of the seven, four are male and three are female, but gender mainly determines the romance options in the game. More importantly, each character has a specialty and fighting styles. For example, Lu the Prodigy is a balanced fighter. He's not the fastest or the strongest, but he's a good blend of the two, making him versatile in most situations. Meanwhile, his fighting styles are Legendary Strike and Heavenly Wave. Fighting styles are important, but we'll get into those a bit later.

Like in many BioWare RPGs, your character starts off as something of an enigma, but that just means there's some major history to unearth during the course of the story. Your character is raised as an orphan by the wise and benevolent Master Li, and it's not long before trouble in the form of bandits comes to the remote village and fighting school that is your character's home. Fighting these bandits off constitutes the first challenge in the game and leaves many unanswered questions that are at the heart of the game's story.

The PC version of Jade Empire supports both gamepads and the mouse and keyboard, though most PC gamers are going to use the mouse-and-keyboard approach. Thankfully, the keyboard control scheme corresponds to the traditional third-person action controls seen in most games. The W, A, S, and D keys control movements, while attacks are handled with the left and right mouse buttons. One touch that takes getting used to is that when in a fight, your character always faces your opponent automatically, which can make it a bit tricky to navigate, especially with the rotating nature of the camera.

The combat system in Jade Empire is very deep and involves much more than just getting close to the enemy and unleashing a flurry of punches and kicks. You can have four different martial arts styles for each character; Thousand Cuts is good for inflicting damage quickly, and Heavenly Wave can temporarily slow down an opponent. Switching between styles is as simple as pressing the number key associated with that style, and between fights, you can swap in and out different fighting styles. While each style has its own specialty, they become even more powerful when you learn how to create harmonic combos. By combining different styles in certain sequences, you can create moves that can kill an enemy, or even multiple enemies, instantly. Meanwhile, there are three stats that you need to manage in battles. Health is the health of your character, and if this drains to zero, you'll die and have to go back to the previous save point. Focus is used with weapon-fighting styles, so to use a melee weapon, such as a long sword, you'll need to have focus energy. Then there's chi, which is your character's spirit energy, and this can be used to deliver powerful chi strikes or for spells.

The enemies that you'll battle include both mortal and the paranormal world. Your character is basically a spirit monk, capable of interacting with both the mortal and the spirit world. For example, after defeating the bandits, you'll be sent on a spirit quest of sorts by your mentor, which involves battling hostile spirits that use magic against you.

While combat is a big part of the game, there's also a lot of story and exposition in the form of cutscenes and conversations. You will meet a wide array of colorful characters along your journey, and eventually, you can create a pool of eight companions to choose from that can join your party. Creating distinctive characters is something that BioWare has always excelled at, and Jade Empire is no different. There's the mysterious Dawn Star, one of your earliest companions; then you'll meet other memorable characters, such as the wonderfully named Sagacious Zu. You should also be prepared for lots of voice-over dialogue as you go through the game.

The PC version features enhanced graphics compared to the Xbox version of the game, which isn't surprising when you consider the PC's advantages in terms of hardware. Naturally, the PC version runs at higher and sharper resolutions, and it features some new visual effects. That certainly helps because Jade Empire still looks good when you consider that it's basically a two-year-old game at this point. The PC version also features some new content in the form of new monsters and enemies, new fighting styles, and improved artificial intelligence. So if you loved Jade Empire on the Xbox, you may want to give the PC version a go. If you haven't played the Xbox game, then Jade Empire is certainly worth looking at because of BioWare's excellent track record and the critical acclaim surrounding the Xbox version of the game. Jade Empire has an intriguing story, a unique setting, and promising gameplay. The PC version ships later this month.