Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Flipside on March 31, 2007, 09:20:28 am
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Well got this a couple of days ago, since the last 360 conversion I bought wasn't that bad, I figured it would be worth trying another, and this looked interesting.
Jade Empire is not set in China, just somewhere that is very 'Chinese' ;) It follows the life of a young Apprentice who's master has been adbucted by the Emperor for reasons that become clear later in the story. Now, normally that would be a pretty cliched storyline, but I will say that, in fact, the story is a very engrossing and interesting one that develops in unusual ways, but I'm not going to give too much away.
From a gameplay point of view, this is a fun fighting game, there's lots of different styles and weapons, though a lot of the magic, such as the transformation magic, seems to me to be of very limited use, basically using paralysing palm, and then just whacking the guy with something like Iron Fist seems to be a lot more effective.
You pick up several partners on the way, each with their own skills and abilities, there are areas where which partner you choose will effect how you do, but not, in my experience, as much as the game implies. Many of these partners have sub-plots that you can also choose to follow, but many of those sub-plots are wrapped up in the main plot.
The graphics are very nice and effective, I'm pretty sure it's based on the Titan Quest engine, but from an above/behind perspective, the voice acting is well done and the music is, I must say, gorgeous.
That said, I found the game a bit short, which, I think, is always going to be a problem with conversions from consoles, and there are periods of running around in the city cemetary doing chores where it gets very boring and repetitive feeling for a while.
All in all, it's a good game and an interesting story, but I did find myself being more motivated to find out 'what happens next' in the story than for any real enjoyment of the combat, whilst theres lots of variation, and it's gorgeous animation-wise, it's button mashing at the end of the day, there's very little 'skill' involved.
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AFAIK JE uses upgraded KotOR engine.
I also bought the PC version of JE, as I never played the xbox version. It is a good game, but leaves the player craving for a lot more once it ends. There's a lot of variety in styles, too bad most of the styles are pretty useless. For martial styles, leaping tiger is hands down the best. For transformation, nothing beats the jade golem style. Etc.
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True, I started by pushing all of my skill points into Leaping Tiger for a few levels, and ended up taking down most enemy very quickly indeed. And, combined with Paralysing Palm, those two styles on their own can win you most fights against humans without even getting hit.
It's a pity the game is shorter than it could be, I can't help feeling like there's wasted potential, the story was very good and enjoyable, but it 'skips', as though there was a lot more to the story, but they simply didn't have the time/resources/memory to include it.
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I enjoyed this tremendously on the Xbox, I liked the fighting system alot, it was almost like a fighting game, which always makes me happy. It was very stylized, but at times it was also very KOTOR in China :)
It was definitely a fun way to pass a week or so of playing. Good to hear the PC port doesn't suck.
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Indeed, glad your having fun with it. :)
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Must admit, they're getting really good at facial expressions for in-game cutscenes, certainly one of the best 'Oh, you are so going to get your ass kicked for that.....' expressions so far.....
(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/JadeEmpire1.jpg)
I've got the whole video of that cutscene, but it wouldn't be fair to post it, since there are spoilers involved.
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When playing this the first thing that came to mind was:
"This should have been the combat system in Summoner..."
Let's face it, Summoner had a good plot (which parts of it are rather similar to Jade Empire) but a really... painful... combat and movement system that kept it from being a really great game.
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Oh, and for those of you who are wondering what all the fun is in the combat system, here's a quick snippet...
http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/JadeEmp.wmv
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I may have to fire this up again, that video reminded me how much fun it was...