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> Results: Jade Empire: Special Edition
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The ESRB Says
Blood and Gore: GamerDad saw a few very gory scenes, and plenty of blood to go around. Intense Violence: The game is full of direct person-to-person combat. Mild Language: Occasional minor expressions, but no 'four letter words' are used. Suggestive Themes: There are romantic plots available between characters, but it is all light romance. Bioware has produced many of the best role-playing games of the modern era - from the Baldur's Gate series to Neverwinter Nights to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to Jade Empire. Increasingly, their games have been targeted at the XBOX consoles and later released on the PC. In the case of Knights of the Old Republic the delay was a matter of months, but in the case of Jade Empire it took nearly two years! What do PC gamers get for their patience? Aside from a great game, precious little. But that doesn't make the game a disappointment - far from it, this is an excellent game that fans of role-playing games shouldn't miss. The GamerDad review of the XBOX version pointed out that this game travels a path well worn by previous Bioware games - I would go a bit further and say the game could have been subtitled 'Martial Artists of the Old Chinese Empire'. But I don't see that as a bad thing - Jade Empire clearly establishes its own identity while showing its heritage plainly. Keeping the dialog-choice driven story but adding an action-based combat system, the game is rock solid in every way. For the PC the already-excellent graphics have been improved, and the combat system has been refined and given new options. These changes provide more depth, variety and challenge to the experience, and the excellent graphics make the game feel very fresh. The game is very stable and polished, the performance is excellent, and the load times have been reduced to trivial levels. Jade Empire is a solid and exciting game that tells a wonderful story that is rife with opportunities for replay, and role-playing fans owe it to themselves to give it a try. Be forewarned - if you are already suffering 'Bioware Fatigue', you might want to give this one a pass.  
I hadn't really paid enough attention to Jade Empire to know if it was rated T or M, but it didn't take very long to figure it out once the game started. But what really hit home was a cutscene in the Imperial City that reminded me of a section from the famous 'snuff' videotape from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. At that point I thought - regardless of rating, this game is not for kids. There are other things in the game that solidify that opinion - much more blood and gore, a well fleshed out courtesan society in support of the leaders of Imperial City, and the ability to be really cruel to little dead children. But the majority of content - light romance between adults, occasional minor language, and fight-based combat - is all at a level appropriate to an E-10+ game. There are also a couple of drunken characters the player encounters, but ultimately the blood and gore are the defining factors. They are seen at their worst in cutscenes (only minor blood is shown in-game), and the appearance is not very realistic - but the scenes are definitely gory. If this was a movie it would be rated PG-13, with one or two scenes that some people would argue are a bit strong for PG-13. Because of this, I'm sticking with the 14+ Age Seal from the original XBOX review with the noted caveat regarding blood and gore.
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