In 2003, Canadian developer BioWare released “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” for the Xbox and PC. It proved to be one of the greatest role-playing games on Xbox, garnering praise from Star Wars fans and critics who had waited years for a decent digital Star Wars adventure. The game earned BioWare over 50 Game of the Year Awards, and pushed the developer into the gaming limelight.
Instead of taking on the sequel to “Knights of the Old Republic” BioWare decided to make a role-playing game (RPG) based on its own universe. The result is “Jade Empire,” a martial arts RPG that borrows heavily from the developer’s past games, while introducing some new elements.
“Jade Empire” takes place in a highly stylized, mythical version of China where demons and ghosts roam the world. Players take control of a promising martial artist who is being trained by Master Li, an enigmatic teacher. A feud with another student, Gao the Lesser, kicks off a series of events that thrusts the player into a search for Master Li and for answers to the mysteries surrounding our protagonist’s origins. Along the way, players find themselves meeting colorful characters and fighting ghosts, demons, pirates and other villains.
“Jade Empire’s” character creation system is wonderfully simplistic. Players choose from six preset characters, each with their own specialties. Instead of the standard alphabet soup of character statistics (INT, DEX, STAM, etc.) the game breaks base stats down to mind, body and spirit. There is little inventory in the game after all martial artists have little use for armor or magic wands instead players are given an amulet that can hold gems. Gems are found throughout the game and each gem alters players’ statistics in different ways. The simple character creation process and lack of an inventory allows players to focus on the story of the game, instead of nitpicking over statistics.
Combat in “Jade Empire” is some of the most diverse found in a RPG. “Jade Empire” has dozens of fighting styles available; some are based on real martial arts styles and others on pure fantasy. Each of the styles is superbly animated and has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Instead of going the traditional turn-based combat route found in many RPGs, BioWare opted for a real-time combat system. Initially the combat feels clunky and awkward, and players will find themselves dying in combat early in the game. As players work with the system, they will find that it is much more than button-mashing. There is subtle strategy to “Jade Empire’s” combat that forces players to determine which of the fighting styles to use in a particular situation. Players are able to change styles quickly in order to best suit the situation.
“Jade Empire’s” graphics are great; characters look smooth and detailed. The environments in the game look otherworldly. Fights often have a cinematic quality to them which adds to the epic feel of the game. The graphics are clearly based on “Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic,” but BioWare has tweaked the graphics to prevent “Jade Empire” from looking stale.
BioWare has a history of great stories, and “Jade Empire” is no exception. However, players may wonder why the developer didn’t do more to distance itself from its past projects. Dialogue in the game feels familiar, and the game’s morality
system is only marginally different from the one in “Knights of the
Old Republic.”
Although “Jade Empire” is occasionally mired by BioWare clichés, it is definitely worth renting; but I would hold off on buying the game.