While it has some flaws to its action, Jade Empire features a completely engaging story that deserves to be played.
The story of Jade Empire is probably the main attraction in this game. It is one of those games that you just want to know more about the story. It really picks up in Chapter Three in this seven chapter game (chapters vary in sizes), where I went through chapter three through seven in two sittings, each about four or five hours long. Now, I normally have trouble playing games for more than two hours at a time, but this is just one of those games that is so engaging that it screams to be played.
What makes the story so engrossing is the excellent writing done along with great performance done by all of the different voice actors. I cannot think of one character that didn’t have a great part in this epic story. The voice acting just breathes life into all of the different characters, and there are a lot of memorable characters in Jade Empire, from the cautious Sagacious Zu to the feisty Black Whirlwind.
The game’s interface is really sharp and intuitive for anyone. You press the start button and go through the different blades by hitting the left or right triggers. This is where you see where your good and evil bar is at, (to be discussed later) how much more experience points you need before you level up, among many other things. Unlike many RPG’s you don’t have to worry about picking up new swords or armor, the only thing you need to worry about are gems, which allow you to upgrade, among other things, body (health), spirit (Chi, which allows you to do extra damage on your strikes or allows you to heal your health by hitting the white button.) and focus (which allows you to wield and use your weapons.)
The gameplay in Jade Empire is unspectacular, but it works and it is solid. There are so many different martial styles to use, some more useful than others. One big problem with the fighting is that when you play it on the “Master” level of difficulty, which is the default difficulty, most of the combat is way too easy. You can jump over a foe and mess them up for a three or four hit combo, depending on the style and the upgrades you do to your speed, jump over and do it all over again. If they have a block shield up, power attack and then rush to jump them. There are a few challenges, but for the most part, if you think of yourself as pretty talented player, you might want to try the Grand Master difficulty for a more trying experience. It’s definitely something I’m looking to do at some point.
People who do not consider themselves fans of RPG’s could actually really get into the action-adventure style that BioWare was going for with this game, as there isn’t much in the way of having to worry about a bunch of different items and different types of skills to level up. The game is pretty straight-forward with all that.
Graphically, this game really shows off the power of the Xbox console. The environments are varied from caves, dark forests, lush, beautiful forests, cities and palaces. The character models look really detailed, and the facial animations while the character talks are admirably done.
One bad thing, which ties somewhat to the gameplay, is that the death animations are really underwhelming. After you’re done filleting your foe, they generally just flop over. There is one exception though. There are many times when you kill any variant of a Lotus, you totally behead those dirt bags and blood goes spewing out. (The blood was over the top and cheesy, but it was still pretty cool.) The first time I saw the head come off and go flying in the air, blood spewing from where their head use to be, I just said “OH!”...However...It seems like the Lotus are the only people capable of this unique ability, and after you have seen it once, the coolness of it wears off after you have just beheaded your 100th Assassin. Adding more death animations and adding some blood on each sword strike would have added to the excitement, along with the believability.
Another bad thing that might turn some people off is that Jade Empire features some pretty long loading times and kind of takes you out of the experience of this beautiful world. It did not bother me too badly; however, if you’re an impatient guy or girl, you might get a bit perturbed by the frequent and long loading times.
At this point, Jade Empire is a great value. Even if you are buying this new, for your $19.99 you will be getting a game featuring a great story, along with 15-20 hours of gameplay, depending on your skill and what level of difficulty you choose to play this game at. Along with the main quest, there are a multitude of side quests and love interests that you can play into that are interesting on their own that can add to the story and give you some extra gameplay, along with give you extra experience points to give you a higher health/chi/focus bar.
The game also features three different endings for you to play; the “open palm” ending (good), the “closed fist” (bad) and then a neutral ending. Having only played the open palm ending so far, playing at least the closed fist version would be worthwhile to see the ending. The game also features airplane mini-games where you shoot down other airplanes. Nothing much too see there.
In the end, some people might complain at the relatively short length of Jade Empire. But having finished the game, the ending was completely satisfying, the epic story was engrossing and the game was an utter joy to play, despite its somewhat average fighting. If you are an Xbox owner that has not played Jade Empire yet, the game deserves at the very least, a rental, but at the price you can currently find it at, there is certainly enough here to warrant a buy and multiple play-throughs to experience different heroes and different endings.