1. C.J.

   9

   A fantastic game. After playing Mass Effect, I went out and bought every BioWare game I could find, including Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, simply because I couldn't afford to have missed these brilliant games at the prices they are being sold for now. Having a strong interest in Chinese history, Jade Empire appealed to me immediately. As with Mass Effect, Jack Wall has produced another hit-and-miss soundtrack, with slow, drab tracks followed by thunderous, spectacular masterpieces. The yu pipes and taiko drums prove to be the saving grace here, and the Ancient China-based theme of Jade Empire certainly benefits from their presence. The graphics, whilst not brilliant, are more than adequate. I did, however, play the "Special Edition" PC version, which has been obviously heavily modified as opposed to its Xbox counterpart, so my perspective may be somewhat skewed. I found the characters enjoyable, with vibrant colours and intricate clothing designs making them all the more appealing. I was surprised to read that my personal choice of character, Monk Zeng, was not even in the original release of the game! Good thing then that BioWare had the presence of mind to return him to the cast for the Special Edition release. Voice acting is above average, which is always a plus with a dialogue-heavy RPG, and there are familiar voices involved. I believe I even heard Nathan Fillion in there, whom I had no idea did voice acting for games. There were also no bugs, crashes or sudden errors of any kind here, which plagued my experience when playing through both of the KotOR titles. On the negative, I found Jade Empire's one and only major flaw to be the combat system, which was far too basic. The AI was not particularly brilliant and the combat move sets for each style were very limited. This alone strikes one point from my final score. Nevertheless, if you enjoy BioWare's other renowned high standard RPGs like KotOR, you should certainly not miss this game. For $10 (Australian), there's really no excuse.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
2. GeorgeA

   8

   Probably the most underrated of Bioware games. Excellent story, great universe inspired by Chinese mythology, interesting characters (though some of them are clearly KOTOR rip-offs, like Sky), good script and voice acting, believable antagonists with motivations beyond "destroy the world" cliché, intriguing and sadly underdeveloped idea with Open Palm and Closed Fist philosophies, engaging and sometimes very original quests and some real choices to make along the way. The combat isn't terribly deep, but won't annoy you and is pretty dynamic and fun. That is, if you are looking for an RPG with lots of numbers, hard tactical combat, inventory management, huge selection of weapons, items and skills, You'll be disappointed- Jade Empire doesn't offer any of that. What it DOES offer is an unique experience, you''ll rarely see in a video game. A very solid action/rpg title. Just don't think about it as a simplified fantasy version of KOTOR( Dragon Age:Origins gets that honor).… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
3. jim109109

   7

   Has a rock paper scissors fighting system, which works well despite some unbalanced spells. The story is fun and unfolds as you want it to. The last time I've had so much fun making choices was in Fallout 3. Time and again Jade Empire permits you to chose how you act...sometimes leading to disastrous consequences. I've walked the "evil" path and haven't regretted it. The story is hit and miss, having so much dialogue in the game is a double edged sword. The entertaining parts of the game are great but toward the end things get especially tedious. I had some great moments in Jade Empire, those priceless 10/10 moments where you just want to make love to your USB ports, however I can't say the entire experience was great.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
4. Mogul

   3

   For me, the combat system in this game made it nearly unplayable. I just didn't enjoy it at all, and actually didn't finish this game (a huge rarity for me, as I play to the end of just about every game that I buy). The story also was uninteresting to me. BioWare has made a lot of great RPGs, but I don't consider this to be one of them.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 4 users said Yes.

See all 29 User Reviews