Jade Empire (Limited Edition)

This is my second favorite game ( the first being KOTOR, also by BioWare). The storyline is rich, as as the characters. Sky is one of my all-time favorite characters (along with Carth from KOTOR). The scenery on this is breaktaking. I enjoyed the "good vs. evil" decision in this game, as it is really innovative. It goes so much further than just good vs. evil. It has 2 leaning, the Way of the Open Palm, which is not that different from general 'I've got to help everyone who comes along' good, and the Way of the Closed Fist. The Closed Fist is one of my main reasons for liking this game so much. Basically it states that only the strong survive and florish, while the weak fade away. There was this one point in the game, as someone asked you to describe your surroundings, and there was one option that just blew me away; it talked about how everything fades over time, even the earth. Just the way it was written was beautiful. Another example is giving a young girl a knife and giving her the oportunity to kill the man that had put her into slavery (of course she can't do it anyway) instead of you just killing him. Get this game, especially the Limited Edition, as there is an extra character. BioWare, make a sequel!

I came late to the Jade Empire party, not even knowing the game existed until a couple months after I picked up an X360, but I am hooked! This game is fantastic! I've played "Knights of the Old Republic," also by developer Bioware, and I thought that was one of the best RPG games I'd ever played. Then I picked up "Jade Empire."

The storyline is deep, the characters are fully drawn, the side quests are actually fun and interesting (instead of the usual go-there/pick-that-up/come-back sorts of tripe), the graphics are beautiful (especially for last-gen), and the combat system is truly unique and full of variety. Still being in college, I don't actually have a lot of time to play games, even though I LOVE videogames, but this one easily hooks me for a couple hours every time I sit down with it. (Which means I don't even turn my X360 on when I have a paper due!)

If you want a truly unique and engaging RPG, this is the one. I've read some of the other reviews, and they have some good points: the load times are REALLY long, there is a lot of dialog, and it is a slower paced game. The load times become irrelevant, though, once you start playing the levels, and the dialog is interesting and well written (as opposed to KOTOR 2 -- THAT was boring dialog). As to the pacing, if you're used to beat-em-ups like Final Fight or button-mashers like Ninety-Nine Nights, then this game is certainly not for you. If you want a unique RPG set in a fully-drawn and incredible universe, then this is the game you want.

I am a very patient gamer, preferring RPGs and tactical games with thought and storyline, but the load times for this game were troublesome enough to completely disrupt the flow of the game completely for me. Though the load times are "short", less than 30 seconds each, they are so frequent (near many combat starts) that within the first hour and a half of the game, I was bent over in frustration. It got a bit better as I went along, but I had to call it quits after 2 hours since I felt like I was wasting mytime. In comparison, a game such as Half Life 2 on Xbox which also has regular loading times of 10-20secs each are well-placed so that they do not interfere with the flow of the game significantly.

I'm surprised more people have not commented on the poor loading times of this game - despite the high reviews of this game, it went to discount unusually quickly which makes me suspect a general problem in the loading times.

On the brighter side, the graphics, storyline, and gameplay did seem to be 1st rate (when I wasn't just waiting for the loading..) and does live up to the high expectations.
If you have to try it, I would recommend a rental first to see if you can stomach the pace of the load times.

Okay, let me say that when I first heard previews of this game, I thought it would be more action-centric. Its set in a westernized vision of asia, straight out of martial arts movies and folklore. I was dismayed, since the best part of Bioware/ Black Isle/ Obsidian Entertainment games are their engrossing stories and branching dialogue; they're almost like adventure games which had to change format due to the genre's death.
Anyway, thankfully to me, combat in the game is not a focus. It's lame as hell, with four different attacks assigne to the d-pad, and various easily dodgable martial and magic attacks to deal with. I played it on grand master the whole way through and didn't die once, mostly because you can just roll around and stun-lock enemies with storm dragon or the blind fist technique. Or just max out the jade golem, or spam the area attacks to do those insta-kill combos, etc. While this will put off most people who were looking for an action RPG, for the hardcore like myself, who worship the gospels of Fallout Baldur's Gate Planescape Torment and KOTOR 1 and 2, they won't be disappointed.
Finally, after two KOTOR games, Bioware is moving towards an "alignment" system which reflects an actual moral philosophy, instead of melodramatic "good" or "evil" categories. This time, the closed fist (dark side) has a thin philosophy of self-affirming social darwinism behind it, and the open palm (good) involves finding balance in all things in addition to not murdering peasants. Although there is no real "neutral" yet, there are often three solutions to problems (the game has three endings based upon this), one which is very evil, one which is good, and one which is highly debatable. The characters are rich and well-written (REMEMBER to talk to everyone to get their backstories like in Kotor), the ending is relatively complete and satisfying with character bios (Unlike Kotor's lame five second cut scene), and the quest is engrossing with a few genuinely unpredictable twists (though not even close to Kotor's). All in all, for an RPGer who wants the best in Western dialogue-based RPGs, this is where its at. The game is actually rather linear, with a few exceptions, and there is no world map from which you can travel. Though this is more constricted than KOTOR, it adds a more narrative focus to the game which I like (non-linearity is overrated).

This game has some beatiful scenery, and...well, that's about it. This game commits the cardinal sin of video games: it's very boring. And I'm a huge fan of KOTOR, so I'm not averse to talky talkiness, but the generic story, tedious combat, and uninteresting stat/ability system caused me to sell this game quicker than any game I've ever had. Just beware.