The combat is the chicest chop-socky you’re ever likely to see outside of a Hong Kong cinema, with plenty of variety and verve. Jade Empire blends Magical and Martial combat styles with Weapons styles (for example, dual sabers or long sword) plus the somewhat more esoteric Support styles, which do not deal damage, but instead alter the states of enemies to make them easier to strike with the other damage dealing styles, or in the case of the unique Spirit Thief style, steal Chi (used to cast magic and heal) from attackers. The Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon influence is very much self-evident, not just in the aesthetic look, but also in the combat. The transition to genuine real-time combat and the fabulously authentic mythical Chinese graphical styling bring to life a truly unique game world. Make no mistake, though, the overall atmosphere of the game is very different. There aren’t just passing similarities in the storytelling method, but also with the interface design and the character alignment system. In many ways, Jade Empire is the true spiritual successor to Knights of The Old Republic, so it should be made clear at this point that if you didn’t especially get on with KotOR, the odds are that you probably won’t like Jade Empire, either.
There’s still a pleasing amount of character customisation available, however, providing a significant level of replay value, plus the incentive to play as both male and female protagonists, thanks to the inclusion of NPC romances into the plot. Whilst this approach is bound to disappoint the d20 worshippers, it will no doubt please the people who break out into a cold sweat whenever they’re confronted with a character sheet full of statistics. Jade Empire isn’t based on an existing pen and paper RPG game, so Bioware have built the whole game from the ground up, with not only their trademark attention to detail, but also with the intention of streamlining the traditional RPG numbers game to the absolute minimum. Jade Empire comes from the Bioware stable, developers of the universally acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights, and definitely falls into the latter of these two categories. RPGs come in many shapes and forms, from number-crunching stat-fests to more intricate story-led epics. Little did I know that all my hopes had been realised so spectacularly. After the relative disappointment of Knights of the Old Republic 2, I had approached Jade Empire with an air of almost desperate expectation.
This is the feeling Jade Empire gives me every time I play it. Typically, it’s around 2am in the morning when you have work the next day, and the penny drops that you really have to stop and get some sleep. There are times when you play a game and know that you’re playing something just that little bit special.
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