LARUTO
05-16-2005, 03:05 PM
Jade Empire
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Platform: XBOX
http://img170.echo.cx/img170/9429/wu8md.jpg
Remember when we first got a taste of this developers console muscle in KOTOR a couple years ago? Well this game gives you that familiar feeling with a mix of some, n64 age, Zelda-styled combat, all in a totally original world inspired by Ancient China.
From the start of the game you find yourself once again selecting a character to represent you in the game, there a few different options, balanced characters, strong characters, fast characters and magic users. The character you pick will no doubt have a direct effect on how you use your party members later in the game. The different characters all have different attributes of Body, Spirit and Mind, the level of these attribute will have a direct effect on your character’s health, chi and focus. It should be obvious what health does so we’ll forego that explanation, your chi is used when using different magic styles, whether it be projectile transformation based, you can’t get much done without chi. (ps. you can use chi to either power your melee attacks or heal yourself during combat.). Your focus level is used when you are using a weapon style it slowly drains when you have a weapon drawn in combat. About the combat, it is actually quite reminiscent of the battles found in games like Orcarina of Time (no doubt because it is in real time and you lock onto individual enemies), you find yourself with the ability to call upon your standard martial style (fist and feet used to beat down enemies), a support style (fist and feet used to drain certain attributes of enemies such as their chi/focus), a weapon style (sword, staff or even musket) and of course magic styles (you have 2 of these, one projectile based and the other transformation based, earlier in the game you can transform into a giant toad demon, uber cool), some attacks do not work on all enemies though. This is where you party members come in, most of them come with 2 combat options, attack which speaks for itself, and support, when in support mode they will not attack enemies but in fact they will instead lend you their assistance by meditating, some of them will regenerate your health/chi etc in battle while others power up some of your regular attacks (one of them even supports you by tossing alcohol into the fray, allowing you to momentarily use drunken master technique). In the event that you selected a balanced character, then more than likely you will need to use the support option, however if your character is one who uses a lot of chi in magic attacks you may want to consider having someone like Dawn-Star as your follower since she can regenerate your chi. Always think carefully about this since you can only use one follower at a time.
Visually the game is superbly appealing, everything from the character models to the design of buildings in the Imperial City screams researched art. The water effects are also quite improved from Bioware’s last game KOTOR, however I must point out a couple of glitches visually. The game has some simple hit detection/clipping problems, but really considering how far we have come in gaming you would think that clipping would now be a thing of the past, this happens only when your character walks towards some NPCs, it appears as if you just walk right through them instead of forcing you around. This aside, the game is actually pretty visually.
Audio in the effects are all well researched, from the sounds of fireworks to the screams of a martial artist in combat it all sounds dramatically realistic. The dialogue is also particularly well written making a seemingly boring discussion about politics feel quite engaging. One problem I had with the audio is, the lack of voice actors too many NPCs share voices, this problem is prevalent in most games in the genre but I still think they should be past that now.
Well I might have touched on game play already when I mentioned the combat options and so on, but the actual roaming of the different cities and so on is straight out of KOTOR, but I’m not complaining. The game play, if anything, seems to be trying to bring RPGs to people who may not necessary be fans of the genre into the fold. I say this because a lot of the options , both in combat and in the menu screens, can be simpler than other RPGs.
Story wise, hmm, well here’s the thing to me the story doesn’t feel terribly compelling. I say this because a lot of the main plot deals with politics of this new world that was created by Bioware and this can make some people say that the game has too much reading. (I by passed this problem by disabling sub-titles, it made the game more cinematic and less booky). I guess that since they mainly wanted to introduce characters into this new world the developers felt in necessary to push a lot of information about the game and culture of the people onto the gamers, if anything it does give you enough to make the sequel more engaging plot-wise as I doubt they will need to spend so much time explaining the ins and outs of the society again.
Overall the game is very good and should standout as one of the better games this year, both on the xbox and overall. For the sake of my Trinidadian brethren, I hope this game sees a PC release later this year.
I will give this game a score of 8 out of 10, it loses points for 1 main reason, the story lends too much political reference, I understand why all this is done, but I could do without it, let’s hope the next-generation sequel does a better job as I think it will.
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Platform: XBOX
http://img170.echo.cx/img170/9429/wu8md.jpg
Remember when we first got a taste of this developers console muscle in KOTOR a couple years ago? Well this game gives you that familiar feeling with a mix of some, n64 age, Zelda-styled combat, all in a totally original world inspired by Ancient China.
From the start of the game you find yourself once again selecting a character to represent you in the game, there a few different options, balanced characters, strong characters, fast characters and magic users. The character you pick will no doubt have a direct effect on how you use your party members later in the game. The different characters all have different attributes of Body, Spirit and Mind, the level of these attribute will have a direct effect on your character’s health, chi and focus. It should be obvious what health does so we’ll forego that explanation, your chi is used when using different magic styles, whether it be projectile transformation based, you can’t get much done without chi. (ps. you can use chi to either power your melee attacks or heal yourself during combat.). Your focus level is used when you are using a weapon style it slowly drains when you have a weapon drawn in combat. About the combat, it is actually quite reminiscent of the battles found in games like Orcarina of Time (no doubt because it is in real time and you lock onto individual enemies), you find yourself with the ability to call upon your standard martial style (fist and feet used to beat down enemies), a support style (fist and feet used to drain certain attributes of enemies such as their chi/focus), a weapon style (sword, staff or even musket) and of course magic styles (you have 2 of these, one projectile based and the other transformation based, earlier in the game you can transform into a giant toad demon, uber cool), some attacks do not work on all enemies though. This is where you party members come in, most of them come with 2 combat options, attack which speaks for itself, and support, when in support mode they will not attack enemies but in fact they will instead lend you their assistance by meditating, some of them will regenerate your health/chi etc in battle while others power up some of your regular attacks (one of them even supports you by tossing alcohol into the fray, allowing you to momentarily use drunken master technique). In the event that you selected a balanced character, then more than likely you will need to use the support option, however if your character is one who uses a lot of chi in magic attacks you may want to consider having someone like Dawn-Star as your follower since she can regenerate your chi. Always think carefully about this since you can only use one follower at a time.
Visually the game is superbly appealing, everything from the character models to the design of buildings in the Imperial City screams researched art. The water effects are also quite improved from Bioware’s last game KOTOR, however I must point out a couple of glitches visually. The game has some simple hit detection/clipping problems, but really considering how far we have come in gaming you would think that clipping would now be a thing of the past, this happens only when your character walks towards some NPCs, it appears as if you just walk right through them instead of forcing you around. This aside, the game is actually pretty visually.
Audio in the effects are all well researched, from the sounds of fireworks to the screams of a martial artist in combat it all sounds dramatically realistic. The dialogue is also particularly well written making a seemingly boring discussion about politics feel quite engaging. One problem I had with the audio is, the lack of voice actors too many NPCs share voices, this problem is prevalent in most games in the genre but I still think they should be past that now.
Well I might have touched on game play already when I mentioned the combat options and so on, but the actual roaming of the different cities and so on is straight out of KOTOR, but I’m not complaining. The game play, if anything, seems to be trying to bring RPGs to people who may not necessary be fans of the genre into the fold. I say this because a lot of the options , both in combat and in the menu screens, can be simpler than other RPGs.
Story wise, hmm, well here’s the thing to me the story doesn’t feel terribly compelling. I say this because a lot of the main plot deals with politics of this new world that was created by Bioware and this can make some people say that the game has too much reading. (I by passed this problem by disabling sub-titles, it made the game more cinematic and less booky). I guess that since they mainly wanted to introduce characters into this new world the developers felt in necessary to push a lot of information about the game and culture of the people onto the gamers, if anything it does give you enough to make the sequel more engaging plot-wise as I doubt they will need to spend so much time explaining the ins and outs of the society again.
Overall the game is very good and should standout as one of the better games this year, both on the xbox and overall. For the sake of my Trinidadian brethren, I hope this game sees a PC release later this year.
I will give this game a score of 8 out of 10, it loses points for 1 main reason, the story lends too much political reference, I understand why all this is done, but I could do without it, let’s hope the next-generation sequel does a better job as I think it will.