Borrowing a page from the Knights of the Old Republic games, Jade Empire
monitors the choices that you make when interacting with NPCs to track your
alignment. The two extremes of philosophy in the game are “The Way of the Open
Palm” and “The Way of the Close Fist”, and while not strictly translatable
directly into “Good” and “Evil” they can be thought of as such if you’d like.
Some of the choices you are given in conversation obviously map directly to one
of the two philosophies, but are other times it’s not so easy to see the effect
of your choice. Your alignment in the game will determine which
alignment-specific quests and fighting styles will be available to you and will
determine the game’s ending, so there is motivation to play through the game
again following a different path.
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| The locations are detailed and beautiful. |
You will not be alone in your travels as you’ll meet NPCs along the way who will
join you in your cause. These NPCs will fight alongside you in your battles, and
while you can’t control them directly you will be able to customize their battle
strategy. Don’t expect to go into battle at the front of a legion of warriors
though, the game will only allow you to have a single active companion at a
time. The customizable AI works pretty well and I found that the companions
could be relied on to do their fair share of the work when it came time to
battle it out.
Besides the combat, another break Jade Empire makes from traditional RPGs is in
the area of inventory. Namely, there’s no inventory to speak of in the game.
Other than gems which can boost your or your weapon’s attributes, there are no
weapon, armor, or other pick-ups to speak of. Enemies will drop spheres that can
be collected to restore health or magic power, but character improvement is
strictly accomplished through leveling and obtaining new fighting styles.
Jade Empire does a great job of crafting its world and one of the tools that it
uses is its gorgeous graphics. A lot of work went into filling each of the
game’s areas with details to bring each one to life. The levels draw heavily on
Oriental architecture and art, which is natural given the game’s setting, but at
the same time they manage to evoke an otherworldly, almost dream-like quality.
You’ll feel as if you’re in a world where magic exists side by side with poetic
martial combat.
Jade Empire’s unusual setting and deep, rich story should make it appealing to
RPG fans. Other gamers will appreciate the more action-focused combat and
shorter game length – about half that of typical RPGs. All gamers will enjoy the
quality of the game, its attention to detail, and the unique story it weaves.
Jade Empire will be one of the top RPGs of the year and all Xbox gamers owe it
to themselves to at least give the game a try.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
94%. Jade Empire will conquer the hearts of Xbox RPG fans.
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