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Jade Empire on Xbox (2005)

Jade Empire cover art

Average rating: 73%
25122013
3.5
from 243 members
 
Certificate: 15
User collections: Gaming for the Thinking Man
Developers: BIOWARE
Genres: Xbox
Number of players: 1
Released: 22/04/2005

Brief synopsis of Jade Empire

Its no secret that games often imitate the trends and pre-occupations of the better established film industry. Just as Hollywood grows obsessed - and bored just as quickly - of one setting or another, the games industry has its own fads, and these often take their cue from the silver screen. Far more intriguing than an endless parade of WWII and Vietnam shooters, however, is a game that seeks to emulate the magic and grace of recent blockbusters from China like Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Jade Empire is this game. Developed by Bioware, the well-respected software house behind action RPG titles like Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire is set in a huge imaginary country inspired by Chinese myth and legend. You take the role of a young martial arts master, at a time when restless spirits indicate that the empire is in danger of collapsing.

Naturally, much of the gameplay is driven by martial arts action. As a proficient master, you have the ability to learn and choose various styles of combat. Switching between different hard, soft, fast and slow styles will give you the edge in duels. Set in an imaginary world, the game takes greater license than even the mystical films that inspired it. Your character can charge up their magical powers to unleash pretty but devastating attacks. Skills you learn from those whom you defeat allow you to transform into a supernatural being as well. You also have access to a range of weapons which you can master, if you practice hard enough.

A visually impressive game, Jade Empire drops the player into various different settings, from snowy and forbidding mountains at one end of the country to imperial gardens and palaces at the other. And as well as the human characters youll meet on your journey, there are spirits and magical beasts aplenty. The first serious attempt at creating a visual extravaganza inspired by the Orient.

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Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 2 starsYawn Empire

Hilary Keane from York, England , 08/06/2006

This game had the potential to be great. The fighting system was excellent as was the ability to choose which moral path to adopt

However, the start of the game is so plot heavy that I was completely bored before I fully got into it. There's only so much running aroung and talking to people you can do

So if you've got the patience of a saint you might manage with this game but I personally lost the will to live

  4 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsVery good

Pak Choi from northern ireland , 10/08/2006

I liked this game alot. It's a bit like knights of the old republic set in the genre of crouching tiger hidden dragon. The plot is pretty good, and the fighting system fun (far better than KOTOR). Definitely worth adding to your list.

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Rated - 3 starsIt left me undecided!

MrG MrG from Hadley, Telford , 10/08/2006

Well i played the game for an evening, as this rental service is a good way to try a game out before grabbing it of ebay, but although this looked very appealing, having thought it would be martial arts version of fable, in that rpg kind of way. However i'd have to say that the story at the beginning was so long winded that, i was getting a bit tired of it. I liked the graphics, but also found the energy system a bit hard to maintain. It didn't fancy putting it on easy, so went with the game default. I'm now not sure whether to invest in this game.... Hmmm Puzzling!

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Rated - 2 starsDisappointed

A customer from Marlborough , 08/07/2008

This is an older Xbox game so for Xbox 360 owners this means 1) you should set the HDTV settings to 480p to prevent the black bars on the sides and 2) there are no achievements AFAIK. Having said that, I tried to like this game having read interesting things about it, but I found it dropped you in it too quickly with little idea of what is going on. As I rented it, there was no manual and I suppose I didn't take the time to find an online guide to the game; after a couple of brief skirmishes at the beginning of the game there was suddenly a lengthy battle that took place where I died 3 times (you can't save mid-battle) before turning down the difficulty to 'student' - I then made it through to the end only for the game to hang. Tried again, died once again then it crashed again at the same point. I tried once more and got an error at the end to say there was something wrong with the disk. The disk looked OK so I presume there's a bug somewhere. At this point I gave up.

I couldn't work out what the Chi Attack did, I didn't understand why/when to use Power Attack or what the effect of the special attacks did; at one point I had to choose between getting a staff or a sword with no idea what the difference was (stuff like 'it was forged in the sands of time' or something are no help at all!!), when I selected them as an attack I didn't see my character use them; I didn't know how to regenerate health/chi etc, I presume its to do with the balls left when you kill someone, but I couldn't get to them before a cutscene happened to introduce the next load of baddies; there are no auto-saves I can see, so you have to regularly save.

This game is not nearly as polished as e.g. Mass Effect, which I recently completed, I suppose it is a few years older but I wouldn't recommend JE after playing ME!!

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 2 starsDisappointed

A customer from Marlborough , 08/07/2008

This is an older Xbox game so for Xbox 360 owners this means 1) you should set the HDTV settings to 480p to prevent the black bars on the sides and 2) there are no achievements AFAIK. Having said that, I tried to like this game having read interesting things about it, but I found it dropped you in it too quickly with little idea of what is going on. As I rented it, there was no manual and I suppose I didn't take the time to find an online guide to the game; after a couple of brief skirmishes at the beginning of the game there was suddenly a lengthy battle that took place where I died 3 times (you can't save mid-battle) before turning down the difficulty to 'student' - I then made it through to the end only for the game to hang. Tried again, died once again then it crashed again at the same point. I tried once more and got an error at the end to say there was something wrong with the disk. The disk looked OK so I presume there's a bug somewhere. At this point I gave up.

I couldn't work out what the Chi Attack did, I didn't understand why/when to use Power Attack or what the effect of the special attacks did; at one point I had to choose between getting a staff or a sword with no idea what the difference was (stuff like 'it was forged in the sands of time' or something are no help at all!!), when I selected them as an attack I didn't see my character use them; I didn't know how to regenerate health/chi etc, I presume its to do with the balls left when you kill someone, but I couldn't get to them before a cutscene happened to introduce the next load of baddies; there are no auto-saves I can see, so you have to regularly save.

This game is not nearly as polished as e.g. Mass Effect, which I recently completed, I suppose it is a few years older but I wouldn't recommend JE after playing ME!!

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Rated - 3 starsIt left me undecided!

MrG MrG from Hadley, Telford , 10/08/2006

Well i played the game for an evening, as this rental service is a good way to try a game out before grabbing it of ebay, but although this looked very appealing, having thought it would be martial arts version of fable, in that rpg kind of way. However i'd have to say that the story at the beginning was so long winded that, i was getting a bit tired of it. I liked the graphics, but also found the energy system a bit hard to maintain. It didn't fancy putting it on easy, so went with the game default. I'm now not sure whether to invest in this game.... Hmmm Puzzling!

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