Everyone loves KOTOR right? (Well everyone but John). This was the game that really put Bioware in the big time with console gaming and garnered critical acclaim from all directions and went on to pick up several awards including Game of the Year 2003. It was a great game for sure with an epic plot, complex character development and lots of Lightsabers. It wasn’t without its flaws and was laden with glitches and other issues but the strengths of the game gleamed through and Bioware hit the big time. After KOTOR everyone expected Bioware to move on to the rumoured sequel KOTOR2 but the big shock was that another developer was to handle that game whilst Bioware were working on an original IP using the KOTOR engine. Jade Empire was born and received a great amount of attention from the gaming community.

Jade Empire is a Martial Arts movie wrapped in a gaming package. Every cliché you could possibly think of is included and the game oozes with visual references to films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Jet Li’s Legend. As with KOTOR the first thing needed in this game is to pick your character, what is different though is that you don’t get to design your character, but merely choose from a selection of 6 available (although they let you rename them as you please). Once this is done you start out your adventure finishing up your training in Master Li’s school in the quiet village of “Two Rivers”. You are Master Li’s protégée, by far the greatest student in the school and very well respected and liked. After speaking with some other students and sparring to get you used to the combat system, Master Li summons you to tell you of your true purpose in life and destiny for greatness.



The combat system in Jade Empire is the most radical change to KOTOR in that it is live action rather than command based. The combat is very simple to pick up and as you progress through the game you’ll receive lots of different “styles” to play with. Each style of combat can be assigned to one of the four directions on the D-Pad meaning that you can switch between them at the press of a button for enhanced combos. There are different types of style; Martial, Support, Transform and Weapon. The developers obviously intended the gamer to use these and learn them to a high degree creating nice combo’s etc but unfortunately you’ll most likely only need to use a couple of different styles throughout the whole game. There are basically two types of attack, normal and special, there is a block function and evade/jump. As your character is insanely powerful you’ll also get a special Chi attack which ups the power of all your attacks and focus which makes everything around you go in slow motion for a limited time.

In theory the combat system should be awesome and I will definitely say that it is fun. The problem is that you’ll never need to master it or even push yourself at any point. Pretty much every enemy in the game can be killed with the same tactic with little or no damage to your character and even if you do take damage, you can merely heal yourself using the Chi Heal function. I can honestly say that using both difficulty levels I didn’t see the game over screen once. Not one enemy in the game gave me any troubles and I spent the whole game wanting to be able to master harmonic combos and multiple enemy decapitations. The problem is that the game never presents the opportunity or exploits the combat system, which is a great shame because they are almost there.

As with KOTOR morality comes into play in Jade Empire and mirrors the system used in the two Star Wars games replacing the Light side and Dark side with “The Way of the Open Fist” and “The Way of the Closed Palm”. Bioware have claimed that the morality system is far more complex than in KOTOR but I just don’t see it. The mechanics for gaining good/bad points remains the same, you get several dialog choices in conversation and the choices you make give you different plot lines resulting in your character becoming more evil or heavenly. The more evil you are the more people you kill but you’ll lose trust with your group of followers, the more angelic you become you’ll gain trust and get more plotlines to follow but you won’t become as powerful. That’s all well and good but unlike KOTOR, the choices you are given are much more clean cut and to top it off, you’ll pretty much always be given 3 options the first being the good one, the second being neutral and the third being evil. This almost never changes so there is no thinking involved here. You don’t need to worry about what the actions of your choice will be because the order never varies. In short the system has been dramatically dumbed down and almost becomes a pointless inclusion to the game.

The developers did make a beautiful game however. Jade Empire simply glows with awe and the environments are simply gorgeous. It isn’t technically the best looking game out there but the artistic style of the game is just right. Unfortunately the game isn’t entirely consistent throughout, with the outdoor areas looking sublime and interiors just being plain boring. The characters again vary a great deal with some of them looking great but others being somewhat bland or badly textured. There are plenty of nice effects going on throughout the game and the presentation is mostly top notch however, the awful loading screens remain and are as frequent and lengthy as ever. Even with it’s niggles Jade Empire is a stunning game to sit and watch I just wish that Bioware would learn to polish the entire game to the same level. Some parts really do look as if they were done by a different team altogether. The voice acting is again a mixed bag. Most of it is totally superb and the cast of actors lending their talents is hugely varied including the likes of John Cleese and Armin Shimmerman. There are a whole sleuth of western Anime voice actors also and you’ll no doubt recognise more than a few voices. The performances are usually great with only one or two characters not seeming quite right. Thankfully these are mostly non plot characters so it is almost forgivable. John Cleese was particularly awesome as a raving British soldier who you have to beat in a game of cultures. It is a hilarious performance and fits the character amazingly well.



The biggest issue with the game however has to be the length of the game. The first half is totally awesome and feels really epic. You’ll be at the end of chapter 3 in roughly 12 hours which is pretty good, there appears to be a great depth to the game and you feel as though you are only a fraction of the way through the game, however from there on each chapter is only around an hour long and you’ll have finished the game in about 16-17 hours as the last few chapters don’t even have any extra plot points and are incredibly linear. The last few chapters just appear rushed and even reuse the same locations, which is a great shame. What initially starts out as a really promising game quickly turns into a huge disappointment with a poor plot and little to no character development. You don’t get enough time to learn all the combat styles or even make use of the followers you’ve picked up along the way which seems pretty pointless in my opinion and to top it off, you’ll most likely have only levelled up your character to around level 20 and the last battle will be easy as pie. Hell I finished the final boss in no more than 25 seconds and took no damage which I can assure you is a total anti-climax to what should have been an epic battle.

It’s not a bad game by any means, but you will feel burned by it. Jade Empire is essentially a dumbed down version of KOTOR which people new to RPGs will love but anyone looking for an epic 40 hour game will undoubtedly feel cheated. The first half of the game is awesome but the second half is so incredibly sloppy and rushed that it really feels as though the game was developed by two entirely separate teams. It’s not as good as KOTOR was, not even close and unfortunately not even as good as KOTOR2.




Article By: Phil Haymes