A fine RPG with an Oriental twist, memorable characters and cheesy, fun dialogue.

User Rating: 8.5 | Jade Empire: Special Edition (PC GAMER) PC
By KingLim | Review Date:
Jade Empire may not be a classic masterpiece like Neverwinter Nights or Dragon Age, but it's a still a solid piece of work from Bioware. The main story may not be totally original, but it offers some good plots and twists. The characters you meet and interact with are the joy of the game, like Black Whirlwind and Henpecked Hou, whom are sure to pack some laughs. For an RPG, this is a very wordy one, but if you're wondering how the ancient Chinese speaks in English, the dialogue can pack more laughs.

Most of the combat simulates martial arts styles, which sometimes boil down to button-mashing with a little skill-switching for micromanagement, but collecting the skills, recipes, mantras and leveling them up are fun. One of the appealing features that Jade Empire offers is the Good VS Evil path via Way of the Open Palm and Closed Fist, much like Jedi VS Darth in Star Wars. This is in terms of the decisions you make, which sometimes affect later plots and also what skills you can unlock to use, thus affecting gameplay on a grand scale.

There's a mini-game involving Raiden-style arcade shooter (beats me how it manages to fit in), though it's kinda out-of-place, the side quests revolved around it are quite rewarding. If you love the game in your first playthrough, you're bound to try the other path the 2nd time. Oh, do try both genders while you're at it!

KingLim

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