I'm sorry I've taken so long between posts. I hope everyone is doing very well! I would like to share with you, the fans, my review of a new game I have played a lot lately. I read a lot about it before I decided to try it for myself. Some sources said that it was extremely awesome, one website gave it a 99 out of 100, another a 5 out of 5. But others said it was only good, not great, giving it a score only in the 80s, out of 100. So who was right? I wanted to judge for myself. So a couple weeks ago I began playing the game, Jade Empire, which was made by Bioware, the makers of the 2003 Game of the Year Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Let me begin by saying that this is indeed a very unique gaming experience. The conversations in the game, between your character and others, are very similar in format to those in KOTOR, in that you very often have multiple choices of things to say, and that can effect the game powerfully in one way or another. This is a tremendous amount of fun, and its a very good thing they kept that. The rest of the game, particularly the combat, is completely different. It is action-based, not turn-based, and it again is just a tremendous amount of fun. For starters, there are a very wide range of styles to choose from, and you can switch during a fight. There are faster and slower styles, and as you might imagine the slower ones are the most powerful. There are close range and long range styles, there are styles that cause status effects instead of damage, etc. There are also quite a lot of fun and interesting 'side-quests' that you can do, which are optional quests you can do if you want to, but dont have to in order to finish the game, and like some other Role Playing Games, the toughest opponent in the game is actually the Arena Champion, which is a totally optiona opponent. But defeating him is very much worth your time and effort, as you obtain his fighting style, which is the best in the game. The Graphics are outstanding, the music is very understated but quite solid, the voice acting is superb. You can, just like in KOTOR, play as a 'good' or 'evil' character, or anywhere in-between, giving the game that extra replayability. All in all, I feel Jade Empire is indeed a great game, and a must have for anyone who owns an XBox.
