Jade Empire (Xbox) 24/4/2025 (Part 3)

Bioware try their hand at making an oriental action RPG in their patented fashion. Contrary to my built in sarcastic english nature I like to think that inside I'm a bit of an optimist, I never try to doom and gloom games or companies no matter how bad things get unless they deserve it of course but even with that attitude its incredibly difficult to claim that recent Bioware has been any where near the level they were during the 2000s. KOTOR, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins and not forgetting Sonic Chronicles, just absolute banger after banger was being pumped out by them with little to no dip in quality, they were THE RPG makers. They all channelled that Bioware magic but tweaked each time to keep the freshness, in the midst of the KOTOR and Mass Effect sci-fi hype Bioware pushed out a game that was as different as it could get, Jade Empire (JE). Gone were the blasters and lightsabers, replaced by kung-fu and staffs, quite a drastic change of pace but if any one could pull it off then it was peak Bioware. At the time it was praised as yet another feather in their cap was there ever any doubt, another RPG masterpiece smashed out of the ballpark, playing it again now I still found it very enjoyable but there is an issue or two... or three... or four that stops it from being one of the best.

Unlike the faux action that KOTOR had JE has full on action oriented gameplay, so you have to actually get hands on with inputs in fights in regards to moving and attacking. I don't think there is any way of getting around it so I'll just say it now, the combat system is about as stable as a rickety rope bridge, enemies either hardly attack or move like Bruce Lee, dodges have the work ethic of a scouser and don't even get me started on how utterly useless your companions are in battle, its a national holiday worthy event if they can get one kill in a fight, despite of all this when you get going in a fight it is still fun to have all the various martial arts at your disposal. For the time the combat system is acceptable its just when you play with it now you really start to see the cracks appear, speaking of... on top of the martial arts styles you also get weapons to use now if you thought the normal moves were strong then these are like atlas if he was from krypton. I used the musket my fellow englishman John Cleese gave me but honestly you could have any weapon in your hands and you'd demolish everything just the same, they are just in-sane-ly broken but balance was never the reason we loved Bioware. It is funny to have everyone constantly praising your martial arts skills when all I did was stand there and shoot bullets at anything that moved and another if they kept moving, I'd fire a third but they usually stopped moving before that.

People in JE do like talking with their fists often but there are also people who like to converse the old fashioned way with the lip flapping. The quests, both main and side, are very KOTOR like in their design even with the same dialogue list to choose from and good/bad karma system which may as well have kept the lightside/darkside labels, there are plenty of people having problems and luckily you're there to resolve them for them for better or for worse depending on which side of the karmatic bed you decided your character woke up on. There are all sorts of moral quandaries to be tackled in gentle or devious ways, we loved solving them in KOTOR and we love solving them here, from finding an ex-bandit a husband to acting out lines in a play they are all great to persuade or coerce your way through even if a few feel a bit familiar from KOTOR.

While I could understand preferring the combat here over KOTOR there is one department where JE is severely undermanned in and that's the companions. Going from Canderous and HK-47 to these guys is a hell of a step down they're all just so boring. No one had any real interesting back stories or tales to tell they are just plain forgettable or cartoonishly ott and not in the endearing way, maybe I missed some of the juicier stuff regarding them but I tried to be as thorough as possible, the only stand out one is my boy Kang.

You start off living an idyllic life, training under your master in a peaceful, remote school, this is an RPG though so naturally this lasts roughly 30 minutes until trouble starts. There aren't too many surprises in regards to the story and again its hard to not see the KOTOR ghost floating over its shoulder but its told well with references a plenty to martial art flicks and tales so does a decent job of forging its own, all be it, generic path.

JE is not going to be on Bioware's Mount Rushmore but its still a well crafted game with a unique oriental flair. An inferior KOTOR in most regards but that's still high praise, if you like any of Bioware's other offerings then you won't be disappointed trying out JE.