Jade Empire
So as the new Pope would say, eine Hand wascht die andere. Yesterday, our pal Mikey lent me the new RPG for the Xbox, Jade Empire. Although it is brand new and when he brought it over it was unopened, Mike knows his own limitations. Rather than have the constant temptation to begin a new hundred-hour gaming experience, he brought the game to me to hang onto until he's got a reasonable handle on his writing (he'll get it back perhaps in June).
In any event, since he is intrepidly plugging away at his dissertation, and neither playing on his Xbox nor updating his blog daily, I thought I would lend a hand and provide my review of the new game in his stead.
Okay, less articulate than Mikey's normal entry, but seriously, it freakin' rawks for real.
Jade Empire is the new role playing game from Bioware, the geniuses who developed Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR to the cognoscenti) - the Star Wars prequel RPG (although I'm not writing here to review that game, rest assured it was better than both Episodes I & II combined and deep fried). This time around, they went with a fantasy story environment set in the fictional equivalent of medieval China.
Pros:
The immersive game play is exactly as cool as KOTOR, but with a more original feel and much lusher environments than George Lucas' sterile future/past setting could provide. The voice acting is on par with the previous game, but is far better than most video game voice acting one will hear. (Apparently, John Cleese lends his voice to a character - or characters - in the game, but I haven't run across him/her/it yet.)
What really makes this game the new crack is the fighting system. Bioware replaced the traditional turn-based1 combat with a real-time fighting system. In Jade Empire I layeth the smackdown without the flow of gameplay being broken by random number generation and waiting turn. Nice. I die a lot, but I will not decrease the difficulty of the game! I will not submit!
Cons:
The problem with the real time fighting is that, unlike a game like Mortal Kombat, say, the fighting combos in the game are unsophisticated. It's kind of a button masher. It's not a real minus, given the huge improvement overall, but gives room for Bioware to make Jade Empire II even better. Oh yeah!
What really messed me up was a moment of cognitive dissonance followed by an experience I'll label as retro-disappointing.
The cognitive dissonance: I have been completely enveloped by the world of this game, and suspended disbelief entirely. It's fantasy, as I mentioned, so there are improbable fighting moves, spells, monsters and demons, and magic items/weapons all over the place. No problem. But when I got to the bamboo airplane that flies as the result of the combination of magic and fireworks I lost my ability to just accept. "That's just not realistic!" I thought. Then I remembered I'm playing a twenty-year old monk who can cast spells, slow time, and defeat giant toad demons with his fists. Maybe I should just get in the plane and forget about it. It's my problem, not the game's.
The Retro-disappointing: I got in the plane. I was then whisked away to a top-down slow scrolling shooter (like Galaga from back in the day). I was watching from far above my bamboo MIG as it shot little white pellets at the other bamboo planes flying in an aerial ballet formation, vaporizing them. Eh. It was the most beautiful top-down slow scrolling shooter I have ever seen, however. That's just not my bag, baby.
Did it kill the game? No. Was it too long? No. Why bring it up? So I don't launch into some hyperbole like, Jade Empire is the best game in the history of anything what ever was!!
I love this game. I love Mike for lending it to me. Hear me Mike? IIIIIII loooooooveeeeee yoooooooouuuuuu!
And I'm out. I've got to go mack some more on Dawn Star. Before the end of the game she will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine.
1 I am assuming that if you're reading Mikey's blog you are familiar with gaming lingo. If not, check this glossary.
In any event, since he is intrepidly plugging away at his dissertation, and neither playing on his Xbox nor updating his blog daily, I thought I would lend a hand and provide my review of the new game in his stead.
Okay, less articulate than Mikey's normal entry, but seriously, it freakin' rawks for real.
Jade Empire is the new role playing game from Bioware, the geniuses who developed Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR to the cognoscenti) - the Star Wars prequel RPG (although I'm not writing here to review that game, rest assured it was better than both Episodes I & II combined and deep fried). This time around, they went with a fantasy story environment set in the fictional equivalent of medieval China.
Pros:
The immersive game play is exactly as cool as KOTOR, but with a more original feel and much lusher environments than George Lucas' sterile future/past setting could provide. The voice acting is on par with the previous game, but is far better than most video game voice acting one will hear. (Apparently, John Cleese lends his voice to a character - or characters - in the game, but I haven't run across him/her/it yet.)
What really makes this game the new crack is the fighting system. Bioware replaced the traditional turn-based1 combat with a real-time fighting system. In Jade Empire I layeth the smackdown without the flow of gameplay being broken by random number generation and waiting turn. Nice. I die a lot, but I will not decrease the difficulty of the game! I will not submit!
Cons:
The problem with the real time fighting is that, unlike a game like Mortal Kombat, say, the fighting combos in the game are unsophisticated. It's kind of a button masher. It's not a real minus, given the huge improvement overall, but gives room for Bioware to make Jade Empire II even better. Oh yeah!
What really messed me up was a moment of cognitive dissonance followed by an experience I'll label as retro-disappointing.
The cognitive dissonance: I have been completely enveloped by the world of this game, and suspended disbelief entirely. It's fantasy, as I mentioned, so there are improbable fighting moves, spells, monsters and demons, and magic items/weapons all over the place. No problem. But when I got to the bamboo airplane that flies as the result of the combination of magic and fireworks I lost my ability to just accept. "That's just not realistic!" I thought. Then I remembered I'm playing a twenty-year old monk who can cast spells, slow time, and defeat giant toad demons with his fists. Maybe I should just get in the plane and forget about it. It's my problem, not the game's.
The Retro-disappointing: I got in the plane. I was then whisked away to a top-down slow scrolling shooter (like Galaga from back in the day). I was watching from far above my bamboo MIG as it shot little white pellets at the other bamboo planes flying in an aerial ballet formation, vaporizing them. Eh. It was the most beautiful top-down slow scrolling shooter I have ever seen, however. That's just not my bag, baby.
Did it kill the game? No. Was it too long? No. Why bring it up? So I don't launch into some hyperbole like, Jade Empire is the best game in the history of anything what ever was!!
I love this game. I love Mike for lending it to me. Hear me Mike? IIIIIII loooooooveeeeee yoooooooouuuuuu!
And I'm out. I've got to go mack some more on Dawn Star. Before the end of the game she will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine.
1 I am assuming that if you're reading Mikey's blog you are familiar with gaming lingo. If not, check this glossary.
posted by An Adversary at 2:24 PM
4 Comments:
Why can't it suck really bad so that I don't have to figure out how to afford yet another game that I don't have time to play? Why???
Dave,
If Kinjo finishes Jade Empire before I can get to it, I'll mail it to you (on loan, of course). Or you can borrow it indefinitely after June when I start my surgery clerkship - I certainly won't be anywhere near the XBox then.
Oh, and Kinjo
I like the blinky green text. It adds a certain...classy...je ne sais quois to the page.
And I wuv you too :)
Mike: you invited me in here. Love me, love my flashing green html. I like to think of it exhibiting a certain radioactive joie de vivre.
Dave: Oh, sorry. Um... it sucks. Bigtime. Like, uh, a really really suck thing not worth fifty bucks.
ANYONE: STOP ME BEFORE I COMMENT AGAIN!
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