Tell me the names of five Bioware games. I’ll dare you that you will not write the name of this game on the list. Why? It’s the forgotten one. A product of a forgotten era.
Jade Empire it’s the black sheep son of the beginning of the second western rpg golden age. The son in the middle, born after and before masterpieces. Less inspired, with a relative niche target.
It’s an action rpg, with a frenetic combat system. Can appear difficult in the beginning but it’s just tricky, a little unwieldy, simple after some hours of play.
The plot embraces a wide variety of themes and types from Chinese mythology. Like almost all the Bioware games you’ll start as a young hero with a foggy past. After some trouble, you’ll be thrown into a hero's journey involving palace intrigue and supernatural mysteries.
Intrigued?
PROS
Zitat:
- Gameplay style, it’s pure action-based, you have to switch between a huge list of different fighting styles, spells and weapons. You can dodge jumping like a frog on the combat arenas, you can parry the enemies attacks, you can activate a bullet-time (slowing the gameplay time) to punch the foes faster. It’s frenetic. It’s amazing.
- Story is well written and follows some of the most famous Asian legends and tales. The plot follows a screenplay that looks taken from a mix of fantasy, steampunk and kung fu movie. Like a light burden, all the dialogue brings a heavy legacy of eastern philosophy.
- Talking about graphic the models were the vanguard for the era. Overall the game and the world-building is colourful, incredibly fluid and strongly inspired by the context.
- Like all the Bioware games all the dialogues are dubbed by professionals. I had serious problems to recognise the same voice actor dubbing the different npc during my play. Like always they choose people with a great experience.
- Speaking of the soundtrack and the overall sound quality both are great giving us a piece of special zen music and atmosphere.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2202677722
CONS
Zitat:
- The story so far feels like a tale that has been told to death. It’s really slow to start and it became engaging only around the middle of it. All the world-building and the plot is filled with the most common stereotypes about Chinese culture and kung fu movies. It’s nice at the beginning, in annoying at the end. Overall the story starts boring, then it takes hours and hours to get interesting and in the end, the tedious plot becomes obvious. The world-building isn’t always inspired, some areas are beautiful but most of them are ugly and empty of content, filled with trees, small buildings, statues, grass and flowers out of space, just to fill empty spaces.
- Very linear and focused story. Zero narrative freedom, you are taken from an area to another with very little opportunity for side trips or a shuffling of destinations. You have to do all the side quests between a chapter and another. The good/bad side of character development goes around rhetorical answer in dialogue and fake moral choices. Overall the plot gives you fake turning point and crossroads, the difference between good and bad is minimal and important only in the end. You can play all the game being good and make the most horrible choices in the end, the side doesn’t matter, you just have some different combat styles.
- Companions are kind of useless and uninspired, your character is a war machine and the party is useful only in “support mode”. In “attack mode” they are punching bags and the damage they do is zero. Storywise you have more than ten companions, only three have an interesting subplot and personality. It’s a huge lack of immersion and engaging side for the title.
- All the npc, companions and boss as well, have a dumb AI, the gameplay is to easy if you learn how to defeat each enemy with the different styles. Overall the worldbuilding is poor around the npc, you have an army of cloned model inside and outside the cities. All with the same faces, some of them with the same clothing on.
- Three things I really hated are the plane minigame, it kills the immersion, it’s useless on in the story and not engaging, the cut scene made with the graphic engine but with the 800x600 resolution, totally useless, the fake Chinese/Asian language that the npc speaks sometimes. I know it’s a budget side choice but it’s terrible to listen and to interact.
- From the bug side, in my walkthrough I discovered only an annoying one. A lot of times the camera get crazy and gets outside the view of the player. You can’t see where you are or where are you going. If you save by mistake the bug carries on the save, if you load it happens again. The only way to “fix it” is to get out of the area and load it again.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2202676428
JUDGEMENT
Zitat:
Despite all the cons sides and the flaws, we have to remember that this is a 2005 game. I can’t lie, my hopes were never that high. Jade Empire is a remarkable RPG but probably the worst Bioware made in the 2000s. Has some high, a lot of lows, a plot that doesn’t catch, some forgettable characters, an enjoyable combat system, an inspired world-building and a huge legacy. Take it as it is, an old goldie that each rpg fan needs to play ones in his/her life. Today with a total remake and rewriting Jade Empire could become the masterpiece Bioware needs to take back the throne of western rpg. For now, it’s just an old bittersweet memory.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2202673208
System Specifications
Zitat:
The game was played on a PC with the following components:
Intel Core i7-4790K
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
16GB DDR4 RAM
If you enjoyed my review, please leave a comment. With each tip and correction, you will help me improve my English skill level. Thank you for your time!
