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Beginning with Baldur's Gate for the PC, Bioware became successful by offering a lot of the character development that was missing from the genre at the time. Since then, they've expanded that formula outside of the Dungeons and Dragons universe and into Star Wars with the critically acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic on Xbox. Jade Empire is their first attempt since their mechanized action game Shattered Steel (PC) to create their own brand new universe for players to adventure within. It also features action-based combat for the first time since that title, but the new fighting is contained within a wrapper that long-time Bioware fans will find very familiar.
In fact, that wrapper might be just a little too familiar. Taking an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." approach to character interaction, Jade Empire plays like just about every Bioware game before it when you're not fighting. Your character is defined by your textual responses to various dialogues within the game. Embrace the Way of the Open Palm by being a goody two-shoes. Take your character to the "dark side" and the Way of the Closed Fist by responding in a callous fashion to anyone you meet. Both paths and even a neutral middle path lead to different endings giving you plenty of replay value if you choose to go through the game's approximately twenty-five to thirty hours more than once. Unfortunately the time-tested "choose your own dialogue" approach becomes pretty tired and clichéd by the end of the game.  The dialogue is done entirely in spoken English language despite the game's pseudo-Chinese setting. It just doesn't sound right when you're watching the game's Asian characters speak. Many of the voice actors are familiar from other games, film and television and that completely breaks immersion into this mythological Asian world. Everyone is also extremely long-winded forcing you to read ahead and end their chatter before they're done talking. Thankfully, the game has a pretty entertaining story, even if its twists are a little too obvious early on. The characters you meet aren't quite up to the level of prior Bioware efforts, but they're a lot better fleshed out than most RPGs. Bioware's trademark attention to character detail is very welcome when it comes to your followers. As a young martial arts apprentice, you are just reaching the end of your training and preparing to go it alone when your school is attacked in the early game. This early game is chock full of interminable load times and lots of pointless running around and talking to people as they explain how you play the game. For those familiar with Bioware RPGs, you're almost certainly going to get bored in the first two or three hours. It's just not at all compelling unless you're fighting someone with the new combat system. That's when the followers come into play. Your followers contribute by either beating on opponents you're not fighting or giving you statistics boosts while you fight. Each of them has different abilities and it's enjoyable to enter fights with different ones at your side. Outside of combat, since you can only have one follower in tow at any given time, you will get different dialogue depending on who's with you at the time. The combat itself is all done in real-time with movement and button pushing essential to success. You can really game the system, since the AI often isn't very aggressive, by using hit and run techniques that keep your foes from ever doing major damage to you. Character development also affects your ability to succeed in combat. Pump points into it and you'll almost always have available Chi to translate into Health at the touch of a button. There are numerous martial arts styles that are available in the game. Some will syphon things energies from your opponent while others are used for direct attacks like kicks and punches. There are still more that allow you to transform into large demonic beasts. These often make battles a formality of rapid button pushes with little regard for your health or positioning. All the styles are very cool to watch as you execute them and it's entertaining to use them together to create powerful chain attacks. The problem is reliance on a very small subset of all those available allows you to pound your way through the game. As a first attempt at action-based combat though, it all feels pretty good even if you can exploit it. With a little more time spent making more of the styles useful and essential, it could really shine.  Where Jade Empire makes up for its reliance on a tired dialogue system and competent but not stellar combat is in its presentation. The world of Jade Empire is gorgeous. One scene that stands out is a trip to "Heaven" found about midway through the game. Beautiful vistas and minute details are found everywhere in the world and you always appreciate the time spent creating all this as the game unfolds. There's some problems with the framerate in combat and the overworld, but the tradeoff for some pretty graphics is satisfactory. The music is fantastic and begs for the release of a soundtrack CD. That's the gist of Jade Empire. It's a bunch of parts put together that don't generate an entirely fulfilling whole. The game often moves in fits and starts with load times so long that you almost forget what it is you're doing by the time you finally get back in the game world. The pace of the story helps contribute to this stop/go/stop feeling that manifests throughout play. There are all these little subquests in two early chapters and suddenly you're racing to the endgame with no sideways motion at about the twenty hour mark. By that time, you're also absolutely ready to just get the game moving. The good thing is if you you're willing to invest that first couple to four hours, the game is compelling enough that you probably want to see where it all ends up. 
Jade Empire can safely be played by teens in the fourteen and up age range. If you don't want them to see the gore, you can turn that off. Most of the interpersonal relationships in the game are very tame, even compared to other Bioware games. There are heroes and villains and yes, you can decide to become a villain of sorts if you want to. That will lead to some nastier outcomes but nothing that jumps out and says 17+!
All dialogue except your responses is spoken so there's not a whole lot of reading and kids at a teen level will be able to handle the vocabulary. There is no use of four-letter words that I can recall and probably the main reason this game got an M is due to some drunken bad guys in the early game as well as some of the more adult situations you encounter in the game. Still, movies are rated PG-13 for much more bad stuff than I found in Jade Empire so I think it's pretty safe to let this one slide a little below the ESRB rating. It's also shorter than most Bioware RPGs. A player with a shorter attention span will probably be able to make it to the end without too much trouble. In addition, replay value is high given all the combat styles you're likely to never even touch the first time through. There's also the ability to be a good or bad guy that can change many of the scenes within the game. Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Jade Empire |
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