Xbox

Jade Empire

Jade Empire will take about 20 hours to complete, and the experience is well worth it. Those who enjoyed KOTOR, and especially fans of wire-fu Chinese epics will feel quite at home with Jade Empire.

By combining stunning visuals, an entertaining (and challenging) combat system, and one of the best stories in recent memory, the folks at BioWare have somehow managed to create yet another brilliant game. Best of all, at roughly 20 to 25 hours, it's worth playing more than once, as you can have a drastically different experience the second time out. Some people might be able to argue that there have been better RPGs, but there's no question that this is the best to ever hit the Xbox.

I could write considerably more on what makes Jade Empire a great game. It is an early leader for RPG of the year, if not overall game of the year. And it ranks among the best Xbox games on the market. This isn't just a great RPG, it is also a brilliant action game that casual gamers can pick up and enjoy.

Until two years ago, BioWare was best-known for its Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights series, both outstanding role-playing games for a predominantly PC crowd. Then a funny thing happened: they smashed onto Xbox with none other than a Star Wars RPG (Knights of the Old Republic) and handily walked home with Game of the Year honors. Rather than work on the KOTOR sequel, BioWare chose to develop and entirely new property, Jade Empire, and after spending more hours with it than we’d care to admit, it’s all too apparent that BioWare has another game-of-the-year candidate on its hands.

At the end of the day, it is impossible to say too much about Jade Empire without ruining its sense of discovery, but it is also far more daunting to stop praising it. BioWare has done the impossible and toped itself once again and given us a story that is personal, satisfying and epic. It has given us a moral system far more intricate in its nuances than KOTOR and also a fighting engine that could stand its own in an action title. I have played many great RPGs in my life, visited many great worlds and encountered many friends. I still remember many conversations quite fondly and look forward to seeing these places and people again. Jade Empire is one of those RPGs.

BioWare has not only made a sweet combat system, but the game’s universe itself is a joy. From the trademark dialogue to memorable characters at every turn, the story is replete with humor, surprises, and sidequests. As for the latter, I don’t know which was my favorite: dressing up in drag as a thespian or putting Sir Reginald the Bastard in his place. Of course, Jade Empire also lets you influence the plot through your "good" or "bad" character development, but it’s not as black or white as that. In fact, once you understand the philosophies present and their true significance in the plot, you’ll see that it’s about more than choosing to kick peasants or not. Much like the choices put before you in Jade Empire, BioWare has made its own to further enrich and diversify the RPG genre. Embrace this power put before you and wield it as you might.

With Bioware’s history of genre-defining RPGs, Jade Empire has a hard legacy to live up to. There are still some rough patches, but overall Jade Empire is a fantastic RPG and is sure to be one of those games you keep coming back to numerous times.

While the characters who decide to join forces with you are far more memorable then the ones you'll only meet once, these one-hitter quitters can still leave some good memories fazed into your mind. Such as the man who asks you to find Fen, his beautiful flower. While you do find his wife in the swamp, it becomes apparent that he was not looking for her, but rather his ox. As you they thank you for the rescuing and begin walking away, the man gets throughly chewed out by his wife. Such is the result when you place livestock over your loved one. There are a quite a few of these laugh out loud moments to be found in Jade Empire.

Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins: Obwohl "Jade Empire" eine Top-Wertung abstaubt, werden sich an diesem Titel die Geister scheiden. Wie schon beim seligen "Shenmue" wenden sich manche Rollenspieler kopfschüttelnd von ellenlangen Dialogen und einfach gehaltener Benutzerführung ab und trainieren lieber ihre "Final Fantasy"-Truppe auf Level 99. Sollen sie doch. Ich will Geschichten erleben beim Spielen. Und "Jade Empire" erzählt so brillant, dass mir während meiner 30 Stunden Spielzeit kein einziges Mal langweilig wurde. Okay, die Ladezeiten - vor allem während der Arena-Episoden - sind ganz schön lang. Ihr braucht zudem im Grunde nur eine Hand voll Stile zum Durchspielen, die Verwandlungs-Zauber sind komplett sinnlos. Aber sie machen gewaltig viel Spaß. [...] Bioware wählt mit diesem Spiel den Pfad der Leichtigkeit und das Konzept geht voll auf!

As I've said before, Bioware is just trying something new. They're expanding, and they've done a very good job with this foray into new ideas. I really can't complain about any of it, as I really do enjoy this game, but I am going to make one little proviso in my recommendation for this game. Come into it with an open mind. If you're expecting Knights of the Old Republic, or Baldur's Gate, or Neverwinter Nights, but with ancient magical Chinese warriors, you've come to the wrong place. This is a very different game. But a very good one.

BioWare has struck again, following the success of their critically acclaimed Star Wars themed RPG, Knights of the Old Republic, the Canadian developer now has another masterpiece of a title to add to its belt. Jade Empire blends a mesmerizing plot and atmosphere set in a fictional and mystical Asian land that looks spectacular. The sheer amount of characters and the hours upon hours of voice work placed into the game help make Jade Empire possibly the best RPG yet on the Xbox.

When all is said and done, Jade Empire's faults are minor and accomplishments great. At its heart, Jade Empire is just an ancient Asian culture themed, dialogue heavy and story driven game that repeats and builds upon everything KotOR did right in a brand new setting. If you enter with the right expectations, Jade Empire is entirely satisfying and much better than Knights of the Old Republic.

With a running tweak, Chinese accents, and less loading, Jade Empire would rub up against a 10, but as it is, it’s unquestionably a very special game. The team’s dedication is evident every step of the way in the vegetation, architecture, lighting, panoramas, and boundless assortment of characters. The Jade Empire is even more glorious than I’d imagined, and with so many choices, so many characters, so many paths to choose and three completely different endings, it’s also close to bottomless containing upwards of 200 hours if you so desire. Whichever path you seek, seek this game out, and may the gods go with you.

Jade Empire has much appeal to a wide variety of gamers. The fighting-style-emphasized combat is very enjoyable and sure to satisfy the action-oriented gamers while the depth of the customization and entertaining story will be what RPG fans will dwell on. It’s a little too similar to its Star Wars predecessor but if you had to mimic a game Knights of the Old Republic is an excellent choice. And if you have yet to play Knights of the Old Republic the before mentioned issue has no effect on this great experience.

When all is said and done, Jade Empire's faults are minor and accomplishments great. At its heart, Jade Empire is just an ancient Asian culture themed, dialogue heavy and story driven game that repeats and builds upon everything KotOR did right in a brand new setting. If you enter with the right expectations, Jade Empire is entirely satisfying and much better than Knights of the Old Republic.

Bioware has bestowed another classic story for all Xbox gamers. Balancing elements of role playing, adventure and combat. You will be in vigilantly enthralled until the very end of the epic quest. Jade Empire is a great experience that ever gamer should explore.

Frankly it’s really rather hard to fault this game. It has an engaging story and some entertaining fast paced combat. It has some superbly atmospheric art and sound direction along with excellent level design. It brings together everything good about the RPG genre whilst disposing of almost everything people found alienating, and the result is probably the greatest RPG to grace the Xbox.

Die Rollenspiele von Bioware sind bei den Fans weithin bekannt und bürgen auch für Qualität. Nach den Sternenkriegern in "Star Wars: KOTOR II" wechseln die Entwickler vom Weltraum in eine asiatische Fantasy-Welt. Damit nicht genug, werden die rundenbasierten Kämpfe auch noch durch Echtzeit-Fights ersetzt. Rollenspielerherz was willst du mehr, Jade Empire ist geboren!

Jade Empire est, comme je le disais dans mon accroche, l'un des seuls jeux oniriques existant sur la grande console noire estampillée Microsoft. Véritable voyage transcendant, le titre de Bioware démontre encore une fois que l'originalité est plus que payante lorsqu'elle est magnifiquement orchestrée. En face de nombreuses suites, certes de grande qualité mais appuyant leurs acquis, Jade Empire prend des risques et propose une inventivité éclairante. Restent simplement quelques défauts mineurs qui l'empêche de se hisser dans les plus hautes sphères.

Hardcore RPG fans may complain about the relatively short story, or the lack of detailed resource management – but for the everyday gamer like myself, Jade Empire fits the bill just fine. By taking all of the great character-building aspects of the RPG genre – and ridding itself of the boring (and frankly quite condescending) weapons and armor micromanagement, wizards and warriors themes, and most importantly the turn-based combat – Jade Empire is a very rewarding game that is accessible to almost every gamer and serves for a nice introduction into the RPG genre, and a great addition to any gamer’s collection.

You'll probably enjoy Jade Empire a great deal if you approach it with reasonable expectations. Namely, you shouldn't expect a game that's hands-down superior to what you may have experienced from BioWare in the past. Instead, you can look forward to a game whose strengths ultimately outweigh its weaknesses by a long shot. In short, if the setting of Jade Empire appeals to you, along with the promise of a good storyline and some open-ended role playing, then you'll be more than satisfied with BioWare's latest game.

Jade Empire is a very good game that could have been great if it had come before Knights of the Old Republic, not after. It would still face serious comparisons to Final Fantasy, but the game would weather those better than it does a head-to-head evaluation with its direct predecessor. Even though it's a more polished experience with a world that is as interesting as the Star Wars universe, its lack of depth becomes immediately apparent after finishing the game. There's just no desire to go back and try things a different way, or to do some optional quests. This is mostly because the "different way" is either very petty or senselessly evil, and the optional quests are very rare. Combat is actually an improvement over sitting back and watching fights resolve automatically, but it could be done with more depth. There's little reason why it couldn't be a little closer to Soul Calibur than Bad Dudes.

It happens to the best of us, once in a while. You have to write something for school or, in my case, for a great games site and your inspiration has left the frickin’ building. You know what you want to write but the words that you type aren’t forming any harmony. There is absolutely no connection what so ever between your sentences. You just write boring facts while your task is to amuse the reader. Life of a reviewer can get a bit frustrating now and then. Especially when you’re in an inspiration less moment and a big game is waiting to be reviewed. Therefore this review was written in a moment of despair. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go out and buy this game because I recommend it to all rpg fans out there.

All ethnic issues aside, Jade Empire manages to put forth an tight, excellently paced story and wrap it into a game that doesn't tarnish the story's glory too much. However, if you're waiting for the Xbox to get a true RPG, well, you need to keep waiting. This is about as action oriented as it gets.

Passé ce petit défaut, Jade Empire reste un grand jeu. On voyage de ville en ville, découvrant à chaque fois des environnements vivants et colorés. On peut regretter un certain manque de stratégie dans les combats, assez compliqués et bourrins. Le jeu manque aussi un peu d’identité, puisqu’on retrouve finalement KotOR dans un autre décor, et avec des bugs en moins, heureusement. Jade Empire aurait donc pu être un très grand jeu si les développeurs avaient un peu plus soigner les combats. Dommage.

So when it came to cruch time, I was really torn over what score to give Jade Empire. It looks beautiful, it sounds (mostly) beautiful, and it is certainly a lot of fun to play. But in the end, my tilt was toward the lower of the two possible scores. This is another fine effort from Bioware, and one that is probably accessible to more players than any RPG to date. But I'll take my RPGs on the PC please, with generous helpings of depth and complexity!

Even with my list of misgivings, JE is still a great game. It’s for sure one of the best games for the XBOX and in the running for best RPG (oddly enough KOTOR is really it’s only competition). The story is engrossing and will suck you in for late nights and early mornings. And the fighting engine is tons of fun and should give players a decent thrill. Well worth your $50, especially with its three endings enhancing it’s replay ability. Jade Empire will be talked about for some time to come.

Jade Empire has a chance to reach out to a larger base then Knights of the Old Republic. The combat is far easier to get into and understand without a lengthy tutorial and it's a completely new world to explore. The process of making your character is obviously borrowed from their previous efforts and that's okay. This isn't a classic, just an easier extension of their previous efforts.